SCOTT J. MATTHEWS is founder and president of the Matthews Company at Port
Clinton, Ottawa County, manufacturers of motor boats and cruising yachts
and operating one of the largest plants of the kind. This company also
builds various types of pleasure boats, gas engines, electric lighting
plants and other mechanical equipment for marine service.
Scott J. Matthews was born at Bascom, Seneca County, Ohio, March 8, 1869,
son of Henry W. and Linney C. Matthews. His parents still live at Bastom,
his father, at eighty-two and his mother at eighty. His father is a retired
lumberman,and for many years operated saw mills in Lauderdale County,
Tennessee, and elsewhere, and had planing mills and lumber yards at
Bascom.He and his wife are members of the United Brethren Church.
Scott J. Matthews was the only child of his parents and in his early
manhood was actively associated with his father in the lumber business.
In 1892, while he was manager of his father's lumber and timber business,
which included a plant for the manufacture of cabinets, Mr. Matthews
constructed his first boat, one for his own pleasure and use, a launch
propelled by a two-horse power motor, internal combustion engine. Several
years later he was commissioned by the superintendent of the Lozier
Manufacturing Company at Toledo, Ohio, to construct a twenty-six foot cabin
boat. After considerable difficulty a motor was secured and installed in
the boat, but Mr. Matthews and the owner spent nearly an entire day before
they could get the motor in action.
Out of this came an alliance between the great Lozier industry and Mr.
Matthews, the latter turning out the boats at his plant in Bascom, while
the Loziers built the motors. In 1906 Mr.Matthews moved his plant to Port
Clinton, and the Matthews Company now has an establishment with about
50,000 square feet of floor space, covering eight acres, and with 1,200
feet of dockage. The company is capitalized at $820,000, Mr. Matthews being
its president.
Mr.Matthews also invented and designed the high class type of the farm
lighting plants, and manufactured some of them before the World war. The
company still sells marine lighting plants. During the World war the
Matthews plant was greatly enlarged, and handled a number of government
contracts, including contracts for twenty submarine chasers for the navy,
about one hundred sea plane hulls and pontoons, and also built some
submarine chasers for the French Government, all the contracts being filled
with honor. After the war the Matthews plant was shut down for three years,
but in 1922 it was reopened and has since been busy with yacht
construction. The company has built some of the finest cruising yachts in
existence, including one for a Cleveland man that is ninety-five feet long
and designed for ocean travel. While at Bascom Mr. Matthews built a
seventy-foot motor yacht called Onward, and made a notable cruise of a
year, beginning at Peoria, on the Illinois River, and down the Mississippi
and across the Gulf and up the Atlantic coast to New York. that was in
1905-06. The boat is still in commission on the Atlantic coast.
Mr. Matthews married Martha J. Miller, of Bascom. They have two sons and
two daughters. The oLdest son, Carl F. Matthews, was a naval designer with
the navy department at Washington during the World war, and is now chief
engineer and designer for the Matthews Company. He is the inventor of a
tire rope for automobiles. The second son, Allen W. Matthews, is assistant
engineer at the plant. the two daughters are Catherine and Helen. The
family are members of the Episcopal Church. Mr. Matthews is a member of the
Kiwanis Club, Colonial Club and many yacht and hunting clubs. He is a
republican, and his sons are members of the Masonic Order.
File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by
Gina Reasoner
GReasoner@prodigy.net
December 23, 1999
History of Ohio
The Ohio Historical Society, Inc., 1925
Volume IV, page 383.