OKGENWEB NOTICE: These electronic pages may NOT be reproduced in any
format for profit or presentation by any other organization or
persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material, must
obtain the written consent of OKGenWeb State Coordinator.

Presentation here does not extend any permissions to the public. This
material can not be included in any compilation, publication,
collection, or other reproduction for profit without permission. Files
may be printed or copied for personal use only.
=====================================================================

SMITH C. MATSON
Vol. 3, p. 1321

In April, 1910, Smith C. Matson was appointed attorney general of
Oklahoma by Attorney General Charles West. At the beginning of the
new administration in January, 1915, he was re-appointed to the same
duties by Attorney General S. P. FREELING. As assistant attorney
general Mr. Matson has handled nearly all the criminal cases that
have come within the jurisdiction of his office during the past five
years.

Mr. Matson is on the basis of his performance one of the able
members of the Oklahoma bar, and is a lawyer by inheritance as well
as by inherent talent and training. Both his father and grandfather
before him were eminent members of the bar in Indiana. Smith C.
Matson was born at Greencastle, Indiana, in 1872, and is a son of
Courtland Cushing and Mary Nelson (FARROW) Matson. The Matson and
Farrow families in the early days were Virginians. They moved from
Virginia to Kentucky, thence to Ohio, and from there to Indiana. The
parental grandparents of the Oklahoma lawyer were John Allen and
Margaretta Melvina (WOELPPER) Matson. His grandfather at one time
lived on land now included in the city of Cincinnati, and from there
moved to Indiana, where he was one of the prominent lawyers of ante-
bellum days. In 1849 he was the candidate of the whig party for the
office of governor of the state.

Courtland Cushing Matson, who died September 4, 1915, at
Greencastle, Indiana, was born at Brookville, Indiana, April 25,
1841. He was pursuing his higher education in Asbury, now DePauw,
University at Greencastle when the war came on, and he left at the
close of his junior year and enlisted in the Union army April 14,
1861. In 1870 by a vote of the university trustees he was graduated
A. B. as a member of the class of 1862. He served in Company K of the
Sixteenth Indiana Volunteers, rising from the ranks to lieutenant,
from April 1861, to June, 1862. He was then appointed post adjutant
of Camp Dick Thompson at Terre Haute, and helped to organize three
regiments. In December, 1862, he was appointed lieutenant colonel of
the 71st Indiana, later the 6th Indiana Cavalry, after all the field
officers of the regiment had been killed at the battle of Richmond,
Kentucky. He was lieutenant colonel until the close of the war, when
he was promoted to colonel of the Fifth and Sixth Indiana Cavalry
consolidated. After the war he took up the active practice of law,
and for several years served as prosecuting attorney. From 1881 to
1889 he was a member of the 47th to the 50th congresses from Indiana,
and in 1888 was democratic candidate for governor. From 1909 to 1913
he served as a member of the State Board of Tax Commissioners of
Indiana. Colonel Matson was married December 12, 1871, to Mary Nelson
FARROW, who died February 6, 1893.

It was with the eminent example of his father before him that Smith
C. Matson grew up in his home state of Indiana, acquiring an
education in the public schools and at DePauw University in
Greencastle. In 1893 he was admitted to the Indiana bar, and was in
active practice at Greencastle for thirteen years, being in
partnership with his father under the firm name of C. C. & Smith C.
Matson. From 1900 to 1905 he was prosecuting attorney of the
Thirteenth Judicial District of Indiana.

Mr. Matson has lived in Oklahoma since 1906, just prior to
statehood. He located at Ardmore and soon had a large private
practice. In 1907 he was appointed assistant county attorney of
Carter County, and held that office until his promotion to the larger
responsibilities of his present position. Mr. Matson is affiliated
with the Lodge No. 648 of the Benevolent and Protective Order of
Elks, at Ardmore, and is a member of the Chickasaw Lake Club of that
city. In June, 1911, he married Miss Janie GWIN, whose father, Darvel
Gwin, of Dallas, was long in service with the Texas Rangers.

Typed for OKGenWeb by Charmaine Keith, October 12, 1998.