Oregon Secretary of State

Drury Mathews

Drury Mathews (1826–1905)

Drury Mathews was born April 28, 1826 in Montgomery Co., North Carolina. He married Mary Catherine “Jenny” Martel in Marion County about 1863, but no record of the marriage can be found in either the early Marion County records or the transcribed Catholic Church records of the time. Mary was the daughter of former Hudson Bay Company employee, Octave Martel, and a native woman, Marie, from the Okanogan tribe. Drury is listed in the 1865 Marion County census, but around 1872, the family moved to the Cowlitz Prairie in Lewis County, Washington Territory. That particular area had a large number of mixed race families. Drury and Mary had 12 children:

  1. Alice Mathews (1864–1933); married Joseph Russell and second husband, Samuel William Layton
  2. Alfred Mathews (1866–1929); married Rhoda Viola Pratt
  3. Josephine Mathews (1867–1960); married Frank Muratt Rumsey
  4. George W. Mathews (1869–1949); married Mary Virginia “Jennie” Mills
  5. Mary Jane Mathews (1870–1904); married Samuel W Layton
  6. John Mathews (1872–1929)
  7. William Mathews (1873–1925; married Allie Pratt and second wife, Virginia “Jennie” Labriere
  8. Joseph Charles Mathews (1875–1972)
  9. Christina Marselina Mathews (1876–1953); married John Welcome Cheney
  10. Henry Mathews (1878–1952); married Mary Ann Wapato
  11. Emma Amy Mathews (1881–1947); married Benjamin Elijah Smallwood
  12. Augustus Louis Mathews (1884–1955)

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Drury Mathews with long hair and beard and wearing a suit, sits in a wicker chair while Mary stands behind him.
Drury and Mary Martel Mathews. Enlarge image