Hubert Berton Mathews Biogrpahy


	This biography appears on pages 1613-1615 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	HUBERT BERTON MATHEWS, one of the able and popular members of the 
faculty of the State Agricultural College of South Dakota, at Brookings, 
was born at Eagle Corners, Richland county, Wisconsin, on the 10th of 
April, 1868. His father, Louis A. Mathews, was born in Ohio, a son of 
Hubert and Mary Mathews, who were born near the famed old city of 
Strassburg, Germany, which was at that time included in the province of 
Alsace-Loraine, France. Shortly after his marriage Hubert Mathews 
emigrated with his wife to America and settled in Ohio, where he was 
engaged in farming for a number of years, eventually removing thence to 
Eagle Corners, Wisconsin. He enlisted as a Union soldier in the war of 
the Rebellion, was wounded in action and taken captive by the enemy, 
being incarcerated in Andersonville prison and dying after exchange from 
the effects of captivity, his body being thrown into the gulf of Mexico 
while homeward bound. His widow is still living, having attained the 
venerable age of eighty-one years and residing in Muscoda, Wisconsin. 
Louis Mathews was reared to maturity in the state of Wisconsin, and 
there was solemnized his marriage to Miss Mary Newburn, a daughter of 
Jeremiah and Catherine Newburn, who were numbered among the early 
settlers of the Badger state, the former having been a native of 
Pennsylvania and the latter of Maine. After his marriage the father of 
our subject settled on a farm in Richland county, Wisconsin, whence he 
finally removed to the city of Detroit, Michigan, where he remained two 
years, at the expiration of which he returned to his farm. He there 
continued in agricultural pursuits until 1882, when he came to what is 
now South Dakota and secured a tract of land near Willow Lake, Clark 
county, where he continued to reside until 1889, when he removed to 
Seattle, Washington, where he has since been identified with mining 
enterprises, After locating on his homestead in South Dakota his humble 
sod house served not only as the family domicile, but also as a place of 
worship, a school house and a place of public meeting for the settlers 
of this section, the house having been erected two years previously to 
his bringing his family to the farm. Louis and Mary Mathews became the 
parents of eleven children, of whom nine are yet living, while of the 
number five were graduated in the State Agricultural College of South 
Dakota, while a sixth is now a student in the institution, being a 
member of the class of 1905. Of the children we enter a brief record, as 
follows: Hubert B. is the immediate subject of this review; Sarah died 
at the age of four years; Emma is the wife of Professor Howard H. Hoy, 
of the State Agricultural College; Alta is the wife of Perry Smith, of 
Bisbee, Arizona; Alice is a successful teacher in the public schools of 
Brookings county; Roscoe A. is a resident of Great Falls, Montana, where 
he is identified with mining enterprises; Harry is a student in the 
South Dakota Agricultural College and is a leader in its athletics, 
having been the winner of the pole-vaulting contest in the state in the 
season of 1903; Leroy is on a farm in Illinois; Arthur is a student in 
the high school at Brookings; Oscar graduates in the class of 1904 in 
the same school, and Minnie, who was the sixth in order of birth, died 
at Willow Lake, at the age of sixteen years. 

	Professor Mathews entered the district school at Willow Corners, 
Wisconsin, when but four years of age, and was there enrolled as a pupil 
until he had attained the age of thirteen, after which he attended the 
high school at Muscoda for two terms, coming then to South Dakota and 
continuing his studies for one term in the school at Willow Lake. In 
October, T885, he began teaching in Clark county, this state, devoting 
his attention to pedagogic work during the winter terms, while he was 
employed on the farm during the intervening summer. In 1889 he was 
matriculated in the State Agricultural College, where he continued his 
studies two terms, when he again began teaching during the winter terms 
at Willow Lake, in order to earn the funds with which to continue his 
college work during the summers. While in the college he also availed 
himself of every opportunity to add to his financial resources, never 
swerving from the course which he had defined and finally being able to 
realize his ambition, in the completion of the prescribed course, and he 
was graduated in the college as a member of the class of 1892, receiving 
the degree of Bachelor of Science. During his college days he was 
prominent in the athletic sports and in society work, having been a 
member of the college ball team and an enthusiastic devotee of all manly 
sports. He was also president of his class and editor of the college 
paper. During the summer which witnessed his graduation he also worked 
with a threshing-machine outfit, thus accumulating a reserve fund which 
enabled him to enter, in the autumn, the Nebraska State University, at 
Lincoln, and in that institution he continued his studies until the 
holiday vacation, when he accepted the principalship of the public 
schools at Clark City, South Dakota, retaining this incumbency until the 
following March, when he was appointed an instructor in physics and 
meteorology in the Agricultural College, whose sessions are held curing 
the summer months, and he was thus enabled to do post-graduate work 
during the winters, availing himself of the advantages afforded in the 
University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, and later of those of the 
University of Wisconsin, at Madison. In 1896 he was made active 
professor in the department of physics, being given the full 
professorship in July of that year, and he has ever since retained this 
important office, in which his effective and indefatigable efforts have 
justified the wisdom of his being chosen. At the time when he became 
connected with the department of physics and electrical engineering no 
laboratories had been provided for said department, and it is gratifying 
to note that the college now has supplied for this important department 
one of the best equipped laboratories to be found in the northwest. In 
~898 the degree of Master of Science was conferred upon Professor 
Mathews by the South Dakota Agricultural College. He is prominently 
identified with the Masonic fraternity, being a member of the blue 
lodge, chapter and commandery at Brookings and of El Riad Temple, 
Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine, at Sioux Falls. 
He is also affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen and the 
Modern Woodmen of the World. Mrs. Mathews is also a member of the 
Ladies' Club of Brookings. 

	On the 12th of November, 1894, Professor Mathews was united in 
marriage to Miss Eva E. Plocker, who was born near Plainfield, 
Wisconsin, being a daughter of James and Fannie Plocker, the former of 
whom was born in the city of Amsterdam, Holland, and the latter in the 
state of Maine. The paternal grandfather of Mrs. Mathews was Cornelius 
Plocker, who was a sea captain, identified with the Dutch East India 
Company. After his marriage James Plocker settled in the southern part 
of Wisconsin, where he was engaged in farming for several years, 
eventually removing to Plainfield, that state, where he died in the year 
1884. In the same year his widow and her daughter, Eva E., wife of the 
subject, came to South Dakota, locating in Elkton, in which vicinity the 
son, Henry, and daughters, Fannie, Anna and Aura, had previously located 
and taken up tracts of land, which they were then holding preliminary to 
proving title. Of the other children of Mrs. Plocker it may be said that 
her daughter, Olive, was then residing in Nebraska; Edward and Frank at 
Bancroft,; and Lucinda in Arizona. Mrs. Mathews became a student in the 
State Agricultural College in the autumn of 1887, thus being a classmate 
of her future husband. She was graduated in 1892, having previously been 
a successful and popular teacher in the district schools, while after 
her graduation she taught in the Brookings city schools. In 1894 the 
degree of Master of Science was conferred upon her by her alma mater, 
while in 1891 she completed a course in pharmacy. She was for two years 
in charge of the art department of the college. Professor and Mrs. 
Mathews have three children, Hubert, who was born on the 4th of January, 
1897; Hermine, who was born on the 4th of October, 1901, and Baby, who 
was born at St. Petersburg, Florida, February 24, 1904.