OTTOWA COUNTY OHIO - BIO:  SCOTT J. MATTHEWS
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History of Ohio The American Historical Society, Inc., 1925 Volume IV,
page 383.

SCOTT J. MATTHEWS is founder and president of the Matthews Company at
Port Clinton, Ottawa County, manufacturers of motor boats and cruising
yachts and operating one of the largest plants of the kind. This
company also builds various types of pleasure boats, gas engines,
electric lighting plants and other mechanical equipment for marine
service.

Scott J. Matthews was born at Bascom, Seneca County, Ohio, March 8,
1869, son of Henry W. and Linney C. Matthews. His parents still live
at Bastom, his father, at eighty-two and his mother at eighty. His
father is a retired lumberman,and for many years operated saw mills in
Lauderdale County, Tennessee, and elsewhere, and had planing mills and
lumber yards at Bascom.He and his wife are members of the United
Brethren Church. Scott J. Matthews was the only child of his parents
and in his early manhood was actively associated with his father in
the lumber business.

In 1892, while he was manager of his father's lumber and timber
business, which included a plant for the manufacture of cabinets, Mr.
Matthews constructed his first boat, one for his own pleasure and use,
a launch propelled by a two-horse power motor, internal combustion
engine. Several years later he was commissioned by the superintendent
of the Lozier Manufacturing Company at Toledo, Ohio, to construct a
twenty-six foot cabin boat. After considerable difficulty a motor was
secured and installed in the boat, but Mr. Matthews and the owner
spent nearly an entire day before they could get the motor in action.

Out of this came an alliance between the great Lozier industry and Mr.
Matthews, the latter turning out the boats at his plant in Bascom,
while the Loziers built the motors. In 1906 Mr.Matthews moved his
plant to Port Clinton, and the Matthews Company now has an
establishment with about 50,000 square feet of floor space, covering
eight acres, and with 1,200 feet of dockage. The company is
capitalized at $820,000, Mr. Matthews being its president.

Mr.Matthews also invented and designed the high class type of the farm
lighting plants, and manufactured some of them before the World war.
The company still sells marine lighting plants. During the World war
the Matthews plant was greatly enlarged, and handled a number of
government contracts, including contracts for twenty submarine chasers
for the navy, about one hundred sea plane hulls and pontoons, and also
built some submarine chasers for the French Government, all the
contracts being filled with honor. After the war the Matthews plant
was shut down for three years, but in 1922 it was reopened and has
since been busy with yacht construction. The company has built some of
the finest cruising yachts in existence, including one for a Cleveland
man that is ninety-five feet long and designed for ocean travel. While
at Bascom Mr. Matthews built a seventy-foot motor yacht called Onward,
and made a notable cruise of a year, beginning at Peoria, on the
Illinois River, and down the Mississippi and across the Gulf and up
the Atlantic coast to New York. that was in 1905-06. The boat is still
in commission on the Atlantic coast.

Mr. Matthews married Martha J. Miller, of Bascom. They have two sons
and two daughters. The oLdest son, Carl F. Matthews, was a naval
designer with the navy department at Washington during the World war,
and is now chief engineer and designer for the Matthews Company. He is
the inventor of a tire rope for automobiles. The second son, Allen W.
Matthews, is assistant engineer at the plant. the two daughters are
Catherine and Helen. The family are members of the Episcopal Church.
Mr. Matthews is a member of the Kiwanis Club, Colonial Club and many
yacht and hunting clubs. He is a republican, and his sons are members
of the Masonic Order.