Captain Daniel Matthews House

Tags

Queen Anne

Featured by: AHPP

Location: Osceola, Mississippi, 335 Elizabeth Avenue

Get Directions

Share This Registry

c.1890 Queen Anne-style house.

Listed in Arkansas Register of Historic Places on 12/06/17

Summary

The Captain Daniel Matthews House is being nominated to the Arkansas Register of Historic Places under Criterion C, with local significance, as an example of a simplified Queen Anne style residence from the early period of development in the community of Osceola, Arkansas.

Elaboration

The town of Osceola is located in northeastern Mississippi County along the Mississippi River, north of Memphis, Tennessee. It now serves as one of two county seats in Mississippi County, the other being the town of Blytheville. In the early 1800s, the area along the Mississippi River within the Arkansas Delta was originally swamplands. The early settlement of Plum Point by Europeans started as settlers took possession of a small group of temporary dwellings along the Mississippi River in 1830.[1] By 1833, log structures were built at Plum Point along the riverbank and a landing was established for travelers moving along the adjacent river. [2] In 1837 an official settlement was established at Plum Point with a post office following the next year.[3] In 1840 the growing community changed its post office name to Osceola.[4] In 1875, the local inhabitants filed with the county court to officially incorporate the town under the name Osceola.[5] For years the industry of Osceola was mixed; the diverse economy included farming, logging, and trapping, as well as commerce that centered on the steamboat traffic along the Mississippi River.[6] The town of Osceola’s development was shaped by two major periods of economic growth. Initially, the town developed on land adjacent to the Mississippi River in order to accommodate the river boats that facilitated nearly all the trade and transport for the region. After the arrival of the St. Louis and San Francisco Railroad during the 1890s and with the backing of local business leaders, the town soon saw a boom in development of new residential and commercial properties along the railroad and intersecting Hale Avenue, to the west of the original town center. The Captain Daniel Matthews House was constructed between these two areas of development, just as new investments were being made near the newly built railroad.

Captain Daniel Matthews and the Matthews House

According to the Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889), Captain Daniel Matthews was born in Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania, on June 9, 1814.[7] He is noted as coming to Arkansas in c. 1835. He eventually operated a boat from Cincinnati, Ohio, to New Orleans, Louisiana, until 1850.[8] After retiring from the river, Matthews settled into a mercantile business in Osceola.[9] In 1849, Captain Matthews married Miss Mary Young, who had been born in Indiana, but who lived in Osceola, Arkansas, at the time.[10] The Young family was also an important locally, with Kate Young, Mary Young’s sister-in-law, owning several properties in and around town.

Daniel and Mary Matthews would eventually have three children; Thomas A. Matthews, Mollie C. Matthews and Beulah Matthews.[11] Mollie C. married H. D. Tomlinson of Osceola. Beulah married O. B. Ferguson of Ripley, Tennessee. Thomas Matthews was known to have attended the College of the Christian Brothers in St. Louis, Missouri, where he graduated in 1868 with a Bachelors of Accounting.[12]

Also according the Goodspeed Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889), Captain Daniel Matthews was a well-known pillar of the local community:

No one unacquainted with him can realize what a benefit his life was to this county, or what an influence he exerted upon all those around him. His efforts in behalf of the poor and oppressed, without regard to race or color, will long be remembered, and his methodical business, coupled with strict integrity, may well be emulated by the rising generation… Capt. Daniel Matthews, during his life, had but one serious accident, and that back in the 30’s, in an eastern railroad collision, near Harrisburg, his native state, were he lost a leg, afterward making his way through life with a cork leg.[13]

Captain Daniel Matthews was intimately and prominently associated with Mississippi County development. He helped to incorporate the city of Osceola in 1875 and was one of the first aldermen.[14] Daniel Matthews and his son Thomas Matthews are both recorded in the initial group of petitioners for the 1875 incorporation of the town of Osceola. [15] The Matthews family was also active in the local Catholic church, helping to build the first dedicated Catholic church in the town in 1879. In May of 1884, Daniel Matthews passed away, leaving his extensive farm lands and real-estate to his wife and three children.[16] It appears, based on Daniel Matthews’ will, that his son Thomas had not been as studious or respectable as his father required. The will states conditions on his son’s inheritance:

having been dissipated in his habits, but now having sobered up and having a disposition to reform, it is my desire so long as he may remain sober and refrain from disrafation [sic.] for him to have control and to manage the Real Estate herein devised to him, but upon his becoming wild, disaffected, and profligate in his habits, I desire and do qualify the bequest contained in clause five in this my last will and testament …[17]

Shortly after his father’s death, Thomas sells his inheritance, land and all, to his brother-in-law Hugh Tomlinson.[18] Thomas then tries in hand at the pharmacy business, buying out a local business in 1885.[19] Thomas was still around in 1891, when his mother passed away, leaving him property. After this, Thomas disappears from the records of Mississippi County. Thomas Matthews’ sisters, Beulah and Molly continue to reside on farms in the surrounding county, with Beulah eventually moving to Memphis by the first decade of the 20^th century.[20]

Prior to 1927, the history of the house at 335 Elizabeth Avenue is murky. The property was not within the original plat of the city of Osceola and areas outside the city in early county records are not referred to in precise detail. Daniel Matthews’ will of 1884 notes that “The house and lot upon which we now reside, it being my homestead and containing three acres of land” was left to his wife.[21] This may be referring to the Elizabeth Avenue house. At the death of Mary Matthews in 1891, she bequeathed to her son Thomas “My Home place and residence in the town of Osceola, Arkansas, being the property at the corner of Broad Street and the road running out to Ayres Mill.”[22] Elizabeth Street at one time did run directly west into a lumber mill and cotton gin owned by Brickley and Ayers.[23]

The house first appears on the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Osceola. The 1913 map is the first year that the area surrounding the Matthews House is included in Sanborn Map as it was not originally within the city limits. The plan of the house as show in 1913 is the same as it now appears, except for three small rear buildings, possibly storage buildings that were attached to the rear of the home. One of these additions was likely in the same location as the current attached rear laundry room.

During the 1910s and the early 1920s, the house is thought to have been the residence of the Joseph C. Young family, who are noted in the local census as living on Elizabeth Avenue but without a house number noted for any of the entries. In 1927, as noted in local tax records, the home was forfeited due to non-payment of taxes.[24]

The Union Savings Building and Loan Association purchased the home on December 19, 1930.[25] The 1930 census notes that Joseph C. Young and his family live at 335 Elizabeth Avenue. Four years later, on June 12, 1934, the home was sold back to the Young family with Joe Clay Young, Jr., and Welby Young named as owners.[26] One year later, on March 8, 1935, L.C.B. Young, trustee of Joe Clay Young was granted the home.[27]

On January 28, 1955, L.C.B. Young sold the home to Margaret Dillard Morse.[28] When Margaret passed away, the home was passed down to her heirs Lawrence Morse, Jack Morse, and Jake Morse who on May 4, 1964, sold the home to E.H. Stephens.[29] After the death of E.H. Stephens, the home was passed down to his daughter Carolyn Wallace, an Osceola historian who worked as editor of the Osceola Times for many years.[30] On May 19, 2003, Mrs. Carolyn Wallace sold the home to Murray Ross, a long time neighbor.[31]

The Daniel Matthews House was designed and built in a simplified Queen Anne architectural style, with asymmetrical massing, a large front façade bay window, overhanging eaves, and ornamented gables. The Queen Anne style was an influential style across the United States, where it was popular from the late 1870s through the 1910s.^{^[32]} The style was originally named and popularized by a group of late 19^th century English architects and designers, including Richard Norman Shaw. Shaw was a popular architect, originally from Edinburgh, Scotland, who designed large houses and commercial buildings in various styles during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. He is credited with helping to popularize the Queen Anne style, a misnamed style that combined elements of earlier Jacobean and vernacular English architectural forms to create picturesque architectural designs that focused on the art of individual design and used ornamentation to add layers of complexity.^{^[33]} Architectural pattern books and magazines, such as the new The American Architect and Building News, included drawings of Queen Anne styles designs from Shaw and other architects. These new, readily available architectural publications helped to quickly spread the style across the United States.^{^[34]} New technologies also allowed for the production of ready-made architectural elements which were cheap and easily transportable.^{^[35]}

Statement of Significance

The house meets the Arkansas Register criteria because it is a surviving example of a traditionally constructed Late Victorian era home. The home was most likely constructed in the late 1800s and is an important local surviving structure as many of the town’s late 19^th century homes have been demolished.

Bibliography

Baker, Russell Pierce. From Memdag to Norsk: Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832-1971. Hot Springs, AR: Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988.

Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889). Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Company, 1889.

Brand, S. “Do Spirits Live at 335 Elizabeth Street?” The Osceola Times. (2016 March 17) Pg. 1A

Edrington, Mabel F. History of Mississippi County, Arkansas. Ocala, FL: Ocala Star Banner, 1962.

Hale, Ruth C. “Mississippi County.” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, updated 5 April 2017. Web. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net. accessed 1 August 2017.

Hemann, P. Early Catholic Settlers Paved the way for St. Matthew Church. (January 22, 2011)Retrieved from http://www.arkansas-catholic.org/news/article/2419/Early-Catholic-settlers-paved-the-way-for-St-Matthew-Church.

McAlester, Virginia, and A. Lee McAlester. A Field Guide to American Houses. New York: Knopf, 1994.

Mississippi County, Arkansas. Land Deeds and Real Estate Records. On file at the Mississippi County Circuit Clerk Office, Osceola, Arkansas.

Mississippi County, Arkansas. Wills and Probate Records. On file at the Mississippi County Circuit Clerk Office, Osceola, Arkansas.

Mitchell, John Boyd. “Osceola: A Delta Cotton Community.” The Delta Historical Review 1.3 (Spring 1991): 36.

Mooney, C. P. J., ed. The Mid-South And Its Builders. Memphis, TN: Mid-South Biographical and Historical Association, 1920.

Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps, Osceola, Arkansas: 1913.

Strange, Lonnie. “Osceola (Mississippi County).” Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, updated 23 January 2017. Web. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net. accessed 12 March 2017.

Thompson, G. The History of Osceola. (date unknown) Retrieved from http://cityofosceolaar.com/history.php.

United States Census Rolls, Mississippi County, 1860 -1930.

Worley, Ted R. “Early Days in Osceola.” The Arkansas Historical Quarterly. Vo. 24, n. 2, (Summer 1965), pp. 120-126.

[1] Lonnie Strange, “Osceola (Mississippi County)”, Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture. Central Arkansas Library System, updated 23 January 2017. www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net>.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid. Russell PierceBaker, From Memdag to Norsk: Historical Directory of Arkansas Post Offices 1832-1971, Arkansas Genealogical Society, 1988.

[4] Baker, From Memdag to Norsk.

[5] This may have actually been the second time the city was incorporated, with other sources noting the town was first incorporated in 1843 or 1853. The creation of Craighead County in 1859 and the tumult of the Civil War years may have led the city leaders to re-organize the town’s government.

County of Mississippi, State of Arkansas, Petition to Incorporate, 1875, Book 6, pp. 247-250.

Strange, “Osceola (Mississippi County)”, Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and Culture.

[6] John Boyd Mitchell, “Osceola: A Delta Cotton Community,” The Delta Historical Review 1.3 (Spring 1991): 36.

[7] Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889), 536-537.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Mable F. Edrington, History of Mississippi County, Arkansas, Ocala Star Banner, 1962, 300.

[10] United States Census, 1880.

[11] Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889), 537.

[12] Thomas is recorded as Thomas H., Thomas A., and Thomas M. in various sources. Christian Brothers College, 1914-1915, Pamphlet, “Chronological List of the Graduates of the College, p. 64. Ancestry.com. U.S., School Catalogs, 1765-1935 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012.

[13] Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889), 537.

[14]Biographical and Historical Memorials of Northeast Arkansas (1889), 453.

[15] County of Mississippi, State of Arkansas, Petition to Incorporate, 1875, Book 6, pp. 247-250.

[16] He was buried in Elmwood Cemetery, Memphis, Tennessee, with a large, ornate obelisk marking his grave. Mississippi County Wills and Probate Records, Will of Daniel Matthews, April 19, 1884.

[17] Ibid.

[18] County of Mississippi, State of Arkansas, Book 13, p. 85.

[19] County of Mississippi, State of Arkansas, Book A, p. 341. Purchased from Bacchus & Fletcher on July 13, 1885.

[20] United States Census, 1910.

[21] Mississippi County Wills and Probate Records, Will of Daniel Matthews, April 19, 1884.

[22] Mississippi County Wills and Probate Records, Will of Mrs. Mary Matthews, December 3, 1890. Pp. 265-266.

[23] Sanborn Fire Insurance Map, Osceola, 1913.

[24] County of Mississippi, The State of Arkansas, For Forfeited Town Lots Sold, Deed, No. 33,221

Record Book 60, p. 70.

[25] County of Mississippi, The State of Arkansas, For Forfeited Town Lots Sold, Deed, No. 33,221

Record Book 60, p. 70.

[26] County of Mississippi, The State of Arkansas, Quit Claim Deed, Record Book 65, p. 97.