California Biographies
Matson, Jacob

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Matson, Captain Jacob. Native of Halsteren, born November 27, 1811. When he
arrived at the age of fifteen years, he was apprenticed for a term of four years
to the trade of ship carpenter, at the expiration of which time he became a sea
faring man. In 1829 he emigrated to New York, arriving March 1, 1830. He then
engaged in running a packet ship by the name of "David Clinton," from New York
to New Orleans, for about six months, after which he followed steamboating on
the Mississippi for some time. In 1835 he sailed for Europe. After an absence of
about five months he returned to New Orleans and worked at his trade for a year
or so, when he built a schooner and made a trip to Central America, returning in
about three months. In 1837 we find Mr. Matson in Galveston, Texas. In 1838 he
built a sloop called "Thomas Jack," this being the first vessel ever constructed
in Texas, which he sailed for three years. He then built a second schooner,
known as the "Native of Texas," which was used in the Quartermaster's Department
during the Mexican war of 1846-7-8, carrying troops and provisions from New
Orleans to the Rio Grande. This was the first vessel that ever sailed from the
port of New Orleans under the Texas flag. In 1857 he built the schooner "Union"
at Texas. In 1861 he entered Pensacola just as the war broke out, and was there
blockaded, and had the misfortune to have his vessel destroyed by fire on the
11th of March, 1862, by confederate troops. He then remained on shore until
1866, when he raised that portion of the vessel which escaped being burned (the
hull), and rebuilt the craft. In 1868 he took a load of lumber to Havana, Cuba,
and from that point proceeded to New York with a cargo of sugar, sold the same
and emigrated to California via Panama, arriving in San Francisco August 20,
1868. Mr. Matson has been master of different vessels for thirty years, He
settled in this county September 9, 1868, upon his present estate comprising
fifty acres of land. Here, beneath his own vine and fig-tree, sheltered from the
fierce storms and the lashing waves of the trackless deep, he has settled, to
live in peace and quiet until summoned to guide the bark over smoother waters
into a fairer land. Mr. Matson married Mrs. Mary M. Porter, August 12, 1861. She
is a native of Mississippi, born December 20, 1824


Source: HISTORY OF SONOMA COUNTY, Alley, Bowen & Co. 1880