Prof. John W. Matthews, M. S., principal of the South Division street school at Grand Rapids, Mich., was born in St. Joseph county, Ind., September 23, 1858, the eldest of the ten children that comprised the family of Oscar and Diana (Hutchinson) Matthews. Of the ten children alluded to, nine are still living, and of these, five reside in Grand Rapids, two of the daughters being teachers in the public schools and one daughter in a commercial house; one son, Wallace B., is practicing medicine; one son is a teacher in Barry county, and another is interested in dairy products.

Oscar Matthews was born in southern Indiana and can trace his progenitors to the same stock from which Abraham Lincoln descended. He was a farmer by vocation, and came to Michigan about the year 1864, locating in Barry county on rented land, which he cultivated one year, and then bought a farm in Irving township, same county, on which he lived until 1873, when he purchased a wild tract of 160 acres, overgrown with maple timber, and the task of clearing off and breaking up this wild farm fell mostly upon the subject, who is the eldest son, and the next elder brother.

John W. Matthews first attended the district school in Barry, winter and summer, until nine years old, and then attended in winter only until about fifteen, when the family removed to the 160-acre tract mentioned above, on which his service were so requisite

that he was withdrawn from school altogether, and did not attend again until he had reached the age of twenty. About this time, also, a friend suggested that he apply for a certificate to teach, and this, after a severe examination, he secured. The same winter, he taught a district school most satisfactorily, and then taught two years longer, but, realizing his own deficiency, he entered the high school at Hastings, Barry county, greatly improved himself, and graduated at the age of twenty-four years. The money with which he paid his high school expenses had been earned by working on the farm in summer during the period in which he was engaged in teaching district schools.

In 1882, Mr. Matthews entered the Agricultural college at Lansing, Mich., and by hard study finished the full course in three years. He next taught one year, in order to secure the means for admission to the university at Ann Arbor, where he took a special course of two years in biology and pedagogy, and while there also acted as a member of the board of examiners in Barry county, and the year after leaving the university he was appointed secretary of this board, and filled the office with consummate ability for one year, when he came to Grand Rapids, and was for five years teacher of biology and chemistry in the Central high school.

At the close of this term of service in the Central, Prof. Matthews was placed in charge of the science department of the State Normal school at Platteville, Wis., but at the close of a year a division was made, or, rather, a re-organization, by which there were two departments erected—the department of natural science and the department of physical science—and of these, Prof. Matthews retained the natural science department. At the end of a year he obtained an appropriation of $1,700 for his department, with which he placed in a chemical laboratory and fitted up the physical and biological class-rooms in first-class order, but, at the end of about three years, political and religious dissension arose among the people of the state, and were brought to bear upon the school, and Prof. Matthews withdrew and came to Grand Rapids. Here he had charge of the ungraded school until 1897, when he was placed in charge of the South Division street school-his present position.

Prof. John W. Matthews was united in marriage, February 14, 1889, with Miss Dora E. Kennedy, of Hastings, Mich., and to this happy union has been born one child—Andrew Allen. But Mr. and Mrs. Matthews, in the kindness of their hearts, have adopted two boys, Felix, aged, five years, March 9, 1899, and Bayard, age four, April 19, of the same year—and these they are rearing with all the tenderness and care that could be given to their own offspring.

It will have been seen that Prof. Matthews is a gentleman of most persevering characteristics, as well as patience, qualities well calculated to qualify any person for the training of youth. His erudition is profound and his experience ripe, and no better man could be found for the position he fills. He and his amiable wife enjoy the esteem of the best people in the city, and it will be an unfortunate day for Grand Rapids when they take their departure. They attend the Unitarian church; fraternally, he is a member of Fraternal Mystic Circle.