Mrs. Sanford Mathews May 1903

Mrs. Sanford Mathews May 1903

Mrs. Sanford (Clara) Mathews home, May 1903 Clara Starrett Mathews was the wife of Sanford H Mathews (1832-1897) On October 7, 1890, a Non-Partisan Woman's Christian Temperance Union was organized, with Mrs. Eliza A. (Dickerson) Burrington as president. In 1893, it conducted a manual training school, of sixty-eight pupils. At the annual meeting in October, an address was delivered before it on "The Greek Diana," by Rev. George Warren Field, of Bangor. The officers in 1893 were Mrs. Annie M. Griffin, president; vice-presidents, Mrs. Charles Albert Pilsbury, Mrs. Sanford Hills (Clara) Mathews, Mrs. Albert Gammans, Miss Mary Jackson, and Mrs. George F. Ryan; secretary and treasurer, Mrs. Mary E. Hubbard. The sewing school continues, under charge of Miss Lilian Ryan. A State Convention of this Union was held in Belfast September 28, 1895. In 1854 brothers Noah Merrill Mathews and Spencer Walcott Mathews began a partnership in a window sash and millworks company - called the N.M. & S.W. Mathews Company. In 1860 brother Sanford Hills Mathews joins the family business and the name is changed to Mathews & Co. By 1872, the brothers had expanded the products manufactured by Mathews & Co. to include doors, window sashes, blinds, shutters, window and door frames. On August 24, 1873, the company lost its storehouse on Front Street to the Great Fire of Belfast. The company reopened 70 days later at the corner of Cross and Miller streets as Mathews Brothers Company. By 1899, after the deaths of Noah, Spencer and Sanford, the company officers are made up of Clara Starrett Mathews, president; Addie Richmond Mathews, vice-president; Maude Elizabeth Mathews, treasurer; and Orlando Ephraim Frost, superintendent. Of the officers, Maude, tended to be the most involved in the company. At this time it was the largest Maine business owned by women. In 1904 Orlando E. Frost assumed control of Mathews Brothers Company and added spiral staircases and coffins to the company's product line. Frost began Mathews Brothers long standing tradition of community involvement with his commitment to the Waldo County General Hospital.