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Also see [Railway Officials in America 1906]
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Warren O. Matthews was born in Penfield Township, Monroe County, N. Y., May 7, 1822, and is the son of Jabez
and Elenor (Finley). His father died when he was but eight years of age, and his mother soon thereafter opened
a boarding house to obtain money with which to support her family of three children, to whom she was - devoted.
She, having married again in 1832, came to the State of Ohio, Huron County, Township of Milan, and Warren O. accompanied
her and his step-father to Michigan in 1837, and they settled in Porter Township, Van Buren County, and here it
was at sixteen years of age that he completed his education in a log schoolhouse. His education up to this time
had been confined to what he could learn during the winter months, for, owing to the straitened circumstances of
the family, he was obliged to work on a farm during the summer. Being of a naturally robust constitution, his early
labors eminently fitted him for his new home in ,the Western woods, where hard labor was necessary even to an existence.
The wages at this time were only 50 cents per day, and being ambitious and unusually skillful with an ax, he soon
commenced the laborious but more remunerative task of clearing land by the job, and was so successful that before
attaining his majority he purchased forty acres, which was in turn cleared and disposed of to advantage. Eighty
acres of wild land was next purchased and cleared up for a home, and no one knows better than Mr. Matthews the
labor incident to this undertaking. In 1855, he purchased 120 acres in Section 1, Marcellus Township, which he
still retains, although a resident of the village. Naturally very public spirited, when the project of the Peninsular,
now Grand Trunk, Railroad was proposed, its managers found in him a stanch supporter and hearty worker. He never
ceased his labors until the road was a de facto, and then was appointed the first Station Agent, and subsequently
the first Express Agent in this place,, and is now filling the responsible position of Postmaster. As a member
of the Masonic fraternity; he has beep Treasurer of Marcellus Lodge, No. 292, since its organization, and one of
the board since Marcellus been incorporated as a village. Plain and unpretentious in style and manner, Mr. Matthews
can be relied upon atall times, and has always filled with honor to himself and constituents the different positions
to which he has been elevated. July 4, 1844, he married Emily Wood, by whom he had four children - Lyman, William,
Selenda and Eliza. Her death occurred January 3, 1864, and November 1, 1864, he was united in marriage to Sarah
E. Tisdale, and two children have blessed their union- Wallace O. and Stella B.
From:
History of Cass Couny, Michigan
With Illistrations and Biographical Sketches
of some of it's Prominent Men and Pioneers.
Waterman, Watkins & Co., Chicago 1882.
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