Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Mateer, Fred D 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/il/ilfiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Deb Haines http://www.rootsweb.com/~archreg/vols/00003.html#0000719 February 5, 2008, 11:26 pm

Author: Past and Present of Will County, IL; 1907

Fred D. Mateer, president of the Joliet Steel Construction Company, is in this 
connection known as one of the representative business men of the city, 
displaying those qualities which are essential to success and in fact 
constitute the basis of all development and prosperity in the commercial 
world. He is a son of Samuel A. and Mary A. (Butler) Mateer, the latter a 
daughter of John Butler, who is now eighty-four years of age. He was one of 
the early settlers of Will county and is a veteran of the Civil war. He 
removed to the middle west from Lockport, New York, and has since lived in 
this part of the state. Samuel Mateer and his wife were married in Will 
county, the family having come to Illinois from Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania. 
At Joliet he first engaged in the shoe business, devoting several years to 
that trade on Jefferson street. Later he was for several years with the Hobbs 
grocery house. He, too, is a veteran of the Civil war, having served with a 
Pennsylvania regiment and he is now a member of the Grand Army of the 
Republic. He is also connected with the Masonic fraternity and has reached the 
age of sixty-four years. Fred D. Mateer is one of a family of nine children, 
eight of whom are yet living. He and his brothers attended the Joliet schools 
and have educated themselves in their line of business. The Joliet Steel 
Construction Company was organized in January, 1904, by four of the brothers, 
and the present officers are: F. D. Mateer, president; Frank Mateer, vice 
president; Don L. Mateer, secretary; and Charles B. Mateer, engineer. Three of 
the brothers are practical engineers. Fred D. Mateer was for ten years with 
the Joliet Bridge & Iron Company, thus securing a broad and practical 
experience. The company is prepared to erect steel buildings, also steel 
bridges and all kinds of concrete work and is qualified to make designs for 
these. Notably among the local construction work which they have executed are 
steel auditoriums at Electric Park and at Delwood Park. They designed and have 
the twenty-one thousand dollar contract for the building of a bridge for the 
Joliet & South Fraction Company at River street. They also built the bridge at 
Channahon across the DuPage river, which includes two concrete spans each 
eighty feet long. They employ eight gangs of men and the brothers all give 
their personal attention to handling the affairs of the company. The main 
offices are located in the Braun-Kiep Building, in Joliet, and the business of 
the company is continually increasing in volume and importance until the firm 
is one of the most prominent in concrete and steel construction in this part 
of the state and carries on contracts in all parts of the United States. Fred 
D. Mateer was married in September, 1902, to Miss Blanche Ridenour, a native 
of Iowa, and they have two children, Marjorie and Dorothy. The father is a 
member of the Masonic fraternity, in which he has attained the Knight Templar 
degree. He and his brother, Don, have built flue homes on Whitney avenue, and 
the families are well known socially. The name of Mateer has become a synonym 
for business integrity and enterprise in Joliet, Will county, and other parts 
of the state, and the brothers have made themselves a creditable place in 
industrial circles through their mastery of a business with which they were 
unacquainted a few years ago, and by the straightforward methods which they 
have always followed in the execution of their contracts.

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/il/will/bios/mateer2486nbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.net/ilfiles/

File size: 4.3 Kb