Calaveras County CA Archives Biographies.....Matteson, T. J. July 27, 1826 - 
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Joy Fisher http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00001.html#0000031 December 2, 2018, 5:46 pm

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T. J. MATTESON, of Murphy's, California, is a pioneer of the pioneers, having
landed in San Francisco August 28, 1849.

  Mr. Matteson dates his birth in the Empire State, in Oneida county, July 27,
1826. His father, Jesse Matteson, was a prominent man, and an extensive lumber
dealer. In his youth the subject of our sketch learned civil engineering, taking
a special course at Norwich University. After this he was an engineer on the
Rome and Oswego plank road. In 1848 he built two plank roads out of the city of
Utica, Hew York.

   February 7, 1849, he took passage for California, around the Horn, landing in
San Francisco as above stated. If all the events of this wonderful voyage could
be recited, they would form in themselves a large and highly interesting volume.
Mr. Matteson can tell many interesting incidents of early times, and it is a
great treat to sit and listen to his narratives. He paid $25 for his passage
from San Francisco to Stockton, and it took seven days to make the trip. There
he contracted with an ox-driver to take him to Murphy's, and agreed to pay
twelve and a half cents a pound freight for the provisions he took. This trip
also consumed seven days. At Murphy's he prospected one day and the next day
went to Angel's, pitching his tent where Chinatown is now located. Ho one was
living there at that time. He spent two months there engaged in mining, and
averaged eighteen ounces a day. The company then broke up. He mined two years
with fair success.

   In 1852 Mr. Matteson began staging from Murphy's to Douglas Springs, with J.
C. Hughes. January 4, 1854, he bought the stables at Murphy's and has been in
the livery and stage business ever since. He had the first mail contract to
Carson Valley, Nevada; also ran a stage from Milton to Yosmite Valley and
Calaveras Big Trees, and from Milton to Bodie, Mono county. He has all this time
been interested in mining operations, and has been fairly successful.

   Of his private life, it may be said he was married in 1863 to Ada L. Cory, a
native of Illinois and a daughter of Parkis Cory, a pioneer to California in
1850. Their children are Ida May, wife of W. R. Senter; Ada Beatrice, who died
November 25, 1890, aged twenty-six years; and Willie H., Ernest T., and Jessie Y.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from
Memorial and Biographical History
Merced, Stanislaus, Calaveras, Tuolumne and Mariposa Counties California

Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Co. 1892


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