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Was born in Frankfort, Kentucky, in 1807, and
came with his family to this place. He was a fine English
scholar, having enjoyed the benefit of the tutelage of the
Hon. Amos Kendall. He possessed a great deal of native
talent, and when grown up was a great wag, and enjoyed
innocent sport, as will be seen before this sketh closes.
At the death of my father he
was the only one of the children capable of rendering
any assistance to my mother in the support of the
family.
In the year 1823, he engaged
with Messrs. Smith & Bolton, proprietors of the
"Indianapolis Gazette," the first and only paper
published here at that time, to learn the printing
business, reserving the privilege of boarding at home.
At the end of one year he was sufficiently advanced to
earn, and did receive, half wages.
After he had obtained a pretty
fair knowledge of the business, he went to Vincennes and
took charge of a paper, of which the Hon. John Ewing was
proprietor and editor, often, in the absence of the
editor, doing his duties.
After being in Vincennes one
year (as he had engaged), he was persuaded by a printer
to accompany him to New Orleans, which he did. The
second day after their arrival there he stood upon his
comrade's coffin to keep it under water while the dirt
was being thrown on, he having died of yellow fever.
This silent but impressive admonition caused him to
return home as quick as possible, and he found work with
Messrs. Douglass & Maguire, in the office of the
"Journal."
About that time there was a
kind of "jack-legged lawyer," as they were then called,
here from Salvysa, Kentucky, named Eccles. This man was
thrusting himself before the people on all occasions,
for office. He talked so much about his former
residence, and how he stood there, Mat gave him the
sobriquet of "Salvysa."
Salvysa was a candidate for the
Legislature, and Governor Ray a candidate for
re-election. Mat, with his quick perception, soon
discovered a fine opening for the enjoyment of his
peculiar passion, and became a candidate against
Salvysa. Knowing him to be a very irritable and
passionate man, he set bout getting up innocent charges
against him. The first was that he thought it an insult
to the people for a Kentucky lawyer, who in his own
State, was thought only fit for and did keep a "fancy
horse," to offer himself to the intelligent citizens of
Indiana, especially to those of the capital of the
State, to represent them in the Legislature. This had
the desired effect to irritate Salvysa, who, in a very
excited manner, asked a suspension of opinion until he
should have time to disprove "the vile slander." This
gave Mat several weeks in which to enjoy this charge,
for it took some time for Salvysa to send to Kentucky to
get the necessary certificates; but in due time they
came.
Salvysa, with great exultation,
displayed a string of certificates three feet long to
prove that he never was known to be in any such
employment while he lived in Kentucky; and that he
(Salvysa) hoped that his opponent would publicly
apologize for the "vile charge." This Mat did by saying
he had been mistaken; it was not a horse, but a
"Jackass" that Salvysa had kept in Kentucky, and that he
defied the honorable Kentuckian, who had so insulted the
people of Indiana, to disprove it. This was only the
week before the election, and Salvysa knew he could not
get a letter to Kentucky and an answer in less than
three weeks, which excited him very much, and caused him
to heap all kinds of imprecations on the head of Mat.
While he had Salvysa going
through the mill, he was not neglecting Governor Ray,
but kept him busy clearing up charges. One charge
against his Excellency was that, while traveling on a
steamboat he registered his name as "J. Brown Ray,
Governor of the State of Indiana, and Commander-in-chief
of the Army and Navy thereof." Another was that, while
on the steamboat, a servant placed a spittoon before
him, and that the Governor told the servant if he did
not take it away he would spit in it. The third charge
was that the Governor, when he pardoned young Bridges at
the falls of Fall creek, for the murder of the Indians,
commanded young Bridges to stand up, and then addressed
him in this way: "Sir, do you know in whose presence
you stand?" Being answered in the negative, "You are
charged by a jury of your countrymen with the murder of
several innocent Indians. There are but two powers
known to the laws of your country that can save you from
hanging by the neck until you are dead. One is God
Almighty, the Great Ruler of the Universe; the other is
James R. Ray--the latter stands before you." With these
charges he kept his Excellency in hot water all the time
of the canvass, and would occasionally follow him to
adjoining counties.
Mat was one of the "bloody
three hundred," and many anecdotes are told of him
during that remarkable expedition. One of the company
to which he belonged was very chivalrous, always
expressing a wish to meet and encounter hostile Indians,
and was very free to express the opinion that the most
of the company were afraid that they would meet an
enemy. When encamped on the Calumet, a false alarm was
given that the hostile Indians were advancing upon them,
and preparations made for action. Mat took particular
pains to hunt this man up, and found him concealed under
the baggage wagon, and charged it on him, which
furnished apart for the entire command during the
balance o the campaign.
Mat was the first to learn the
"art preservative of all arts" in Indianapolis, and the
first to learn how to make the composition roller, then
so little used by printers. He was a fine pressman, a
correct and quick compositor; in short, knew the whole
routine of a printing office as well as any person of
his day. He was a man of great vivacity and humor, ever
ready for an innocent joke; very quick to detect and
resent an intended insult or injury, and just as quick
to forgive and forget it; was liberal and confiding to a
fault.
He brought the first tame
pigones to this place, in 1824, which he carried on
horseback from Frankfort, Kentucky, and from which
sprang, no doubt, the myriads that now swarm and fly
around the city.
No man ever cast a line in
White river that was more successful as an angler. This
taste he inherited from his father, who was the first to
introduce tht fascinating amusement here, in June 1820,
and caught about the first bass with hook and line, at
the mouth of Fall creek.
He was a ready writer, a fair
speaker, and possessed the faculty of attracting the
attention of the people. He had his faults, but they
were rather of the head than the heart. He died
suddenly on the fourth of October, 1834, leaving many
friends, and, I believe, no enemies.
They passed away a
generous-hearted young man, that might have been one of
Indiana's brightest sons.
Nowland, John H. B., Sketches of Prominent Citizens of 1876, with a Few of the Pioneers of the City and County Who Have Passed Away, A Sequel to “Early Reminiscences of Indianapolis.” 1820-’76, c. 1877, Indianapolis, Tilford & Carlon, Printers., p. 51-53. |