S. B. Mathis

    S. B. Mathis, a native of Philadelphia, and one of the pioneers of Warren County, was born October 8, 1820; he moved with his parents to Champaign County, Ohio, in 1830, where he lived until he came to Warren County, in 1843. He is the eldest of eleven children, three only of whom are now living, born to Nehemiah and Catharine (Miller) Mathis. He was bound out when eleven years old to a farmer, and since that time his life has been almost wholly passed among strangers.

    July 13, 1843, he married Sarah J. George, and settled in Western Indiana. for three years, they farmed in Liberty Township, then moved to the place Mr. Mathis yet owns in Jordan Township, where they remained for upward of thirty-five years. In December, 1881, they rented a part of the old homestead, which consists of 1,600 acres, moved to Williamsport, erected their brick store and hotel building, and are now engaged in the grocery trade an in keeping a hotel. When they first crossed the Wabash River, twenty cents was the sum total of their assets. They rented land and farmed under all those disadvantages and hardships of pioneer life, and with their hard earned wages, invested in land from time to time until they are now among the heaviest land owners of the county.

    Mr. Mathis was a Whig until 1856, was then a Republican and now belongs to the National Greenback Party. He and wife have had born to them thirteen children - Ephraim G., James E., William F., Eli W. S., Mary A., Catharine E., Samuel B., Almyretta, deceased, March T., deceased, Sarah J. and three that died in infancy unnamed. Mrs. Mathis was born in Champaign County, Ohio, February 28, 1821, and throughout her life has ably assisted her husband in all his efforts.

Source: Counties of Warren, Benton, Jasper and Newton, Indiana. Historical and Biographical. F.A. Battey & Co., 1883.