Served as New Vienna Postmaster; Clinton County Treasurer, 1884-1888; and "was a Union Soldier in the Civil War, enlisting early and serving three years, then re-enlisting. Shortly after his second enlistment he had a leg shot off at Winchester, VA, and the wound never healed." He is buried in New Vienna IOOF cemetery. He was the son of John "Judge" Matthews and Sarah Woodmansee Matthews. He married Sylvia Shockley, who survived, in 1868 and was the father of three daughters.