Freestone County, Texas
Biographies 



Biography of Joseph Beck Matthews
  (Aug 24, 1824-Jun 27, 1895, buried Albany Cemetery in Shackelford Co., TX.)
    
Source - Historical and Biographical Record of the Cattle Industry and the
Cattlemen of Texas. By James Cox. 1895. Published by Woodward & Tiernan 
Printing Co. of St. Louis.


J. B. MATTHEWS.

John Matthews, the father of J. B., was a native of Georgia, as was also his
wife, Elizabeth Harris. The greater portion of their married life was spent in
Alabama, where they reared and educated a family of twelve children, a 
thirteenth dying in infancy. They were named according to age as follows: 
Nancy, Sallie, Winnie, Mary, Martha, Annie, Benjamin, John, Joseph B., James, 
Thomas, Andrew and Baker. Mr. Matthews died in Louisiana in 1859.

Born in Lowndes County, Alabama, August 24, 1824, Joseph B. Matthews was yet
young when his father removed to Louisiana. He was married at Spearsville, in 
that State, to Miss Caroline Spears, and remained there for a few years, 
engaged in farming, with his father. Subsequently he crossed the Texas 
boundary and located for a time in Rusk County, then moved to Freestone
County, and in 1859 located in Shackelford County, where he engaged actively 
in the cattle business. The Indians on the border were then quiet and peaceable, 
but in the first year of the civil war they became very troublesome. Horse 
stealing was their principal and favorite pursuit, and they feasted upon 
stolen beef in preference to game. Making their raids during moonlight nights,
and in the most unexpected quarters, they generally got away with the stock
undetected. Mr. Matthews suffered as did also all of his neighbors, but never 
had any serious trouble with the Indians, though on several occasions he was 
attacked by them while serving as scout. However, danger from Indians always 
threatened the settlers along the upper Brazos, and the need of protecting his
home from their attack prevented Mr. Matthews from entering the army. The 
country was generally unsettled and perfect safety was a thing unknown. 
Tragedies were of frequent occurrence. In Palo Pinto County, about the time of
Mr. Matthews' arrival, a man named Ko was killed while standing in his doorway.
His assassin was never known. At Hubbard a man named Holden was killed by the
Indians about 1859. About 1868 organized bands of cow thieves and desperadoes
became such a nuisance that the citizens were compelled to take the law into 
their own hands, and a band of regulators around Fort Griffin took effective 
and positive methods to keep down crime. Wrong doers who fell in their hands
were troublesome no longer. On one occasion they hung a lawyer, then the only
one in the county, for defending a woman accused of poisoning her husband.

In 1863 or 1864, while Mr. Matthews was living on his ranch six miles below
Fort Griffin, the Indians raided the settlement. They seemed to know how much 
ransom the friends of each prisoner could afford to pay, and always demanded 
as much as they could possibly hope to receive. Such is a brief description of 
Shackelford County twenty years ago, and of the hardships and dangers its 
citizens were then forced to contend with. But those troublous times soon 
ended, and with nothing to disturb him in the pursuit of his business of stock
raising, Mr. Matthews soon became notedly successful. He is still busied in 
the cattle industry. Of the seven children that were born to him six are still
living, have married and are living in and around Albany. His only son, J. A.
Matthews, married Miss Sallie Reynolds, sister of G. T. and W. D. Reynolds, 
bankers and stockmen of the county, and whose biographies appear elsewhere in
this volume. He is following his father's footsteps and devoting his time and
energies to the cattle business. The five daughters have married well and 
their husbands are counted among the most successful business men of the 
county. Bettie, the eldest, married G. T. Reynolds; Mary married John Larn; 
Martha, Mart Hoover; Susan, W. D. Reynolds, and Ella, F. E. Conrad. Mr.
Matthews is justly proud of the family he has reared. They are worthy children
of a worthy sire, and true types of that gentle, yet energetic, class of men 
and women to whom the new West is so largely indebted for its prosperity and
social progress. Mr. Matthews has never shown any inclination for a political
career, though his popularity would doubtless insure him recognition in case
he should aspire to an office. So far his public services have been limited to
holding the County Commissioner's office for a number of terms. He is a 
prominent Freemason and a strict member of the Presbyterian church.