He came to Wisconsin with his family in 1838. Joseph, like his brother Peter, walked to California during the gold rush. It has been said that he walked from Omaha to San Francisco barefooted. He shed his shoes whenever it was possible, whether it was proper or not. In the fall of the year the footprints of his bare feet could be seen in the frost when he had been out early in the morning to bring in the cows.

A book on the early gold mining days of California told of the holdups, robbing the miners and taking their gold. This situation became so bad and so frequent that a crew of vigilantes was organized. The story related that the culprits were caught, and one who helped hang them was Joe Van Matre of Mineral Point, Wisconsin.

When his gold mining adventures were over, Joseph returned to Wisconsin and settled on the family farm in the town of Fayette. On September 1, 1856, he married Jane Martin and they had six children.

Jane Martin was born on a farm known as the Mains of Craig Hall, located near the village of Kennethmont, fifty miles from the city of Aberdeen, Scotland. She was born July 8, 1834, the oldest child of William and Mary Lurnsden Martin, came to America in 1852, and settled with the family on a farm two and a half miles northeast of Waldwick, Wisconsin. She was a teacher at the Georgetown school. Later Joe and Jane had a post office, also called Georgetown, right across the road from their house.

It was at a Van Matre picnic in Lathrop’s Grove, near Freeport, Illinois, that Judge W. N. Cronkete of Freeport spoke the following words in regard to the family: “I want to tell you what a stranger thinks of the Van Matre family, whose connection with the history of this community dates with its earliest colonization. Members of this great family have been recognized as leaders in agricultural pursuits, in the production of fine stock, in politics, and in the educational and religious movements which have marked the progress of this section of this great commonwealth. The Van Matre family has placed its mark upon the history of this community. By your fruits are you known! No every hero makes his mark as a president or a professor. Members of this family were heroes in the pioneer life and in the humbler walks of life, but were heroes nevertheless. The community regards this family with pride, and well it may.”

It was at this same picnic that T. J. Van Matre of Fayette told an interesting story. He and his brothers had gone fishing and when they returned, Joseph went to wash the milk utensils to have them ready for the next day. Suddenly his mother remembered that she had left a mass of tallow in the container which Joe would be using. She hurried out to warn him not to spoil her unfinished tallow, but she was too late. From that day on Joseph was known as “Greasy Joe.”

Joseph and Jane were buried in Waldwick.

The first child born to them was a daughter, Mar Ella, on February 9, 1858. Mary Ella went to college in the Platteville Academy. On September 1st, 1882, she married John H. Calvert and then went to Whitewater to live, where John was the depot agent. Early in her married life she became a charter member of the Order of the Eastern Star in Whitewater. Ella was killed in a car accident while riding with her son and his wife from her childhood home to Whitewater on September 24, 1940. Both she and her husband were buried in Darlington.

John and Ella Van Matre Calvert had two children. Clarence Calvert graduated from high school and then attended the Colorado School of Mines at golden where he became on of their star football players. After graduating from college, he went to British Columbia to work in the mines , where he was injured. After his recovery, he went to Butte, Montana, and again found a job in the mines. He ended his mining career by being foreman of the Mountain View mine in Butte. It was while he was in the hospital with an injury that he met and fell in love with his nurse, Anna Stephens of Anaconda, Montana, who later became his wife. Their marriage was blessed with only one child, a son they named John, who graduated from the Idaho School of Mines. Most of his working days were spent as a diamond driller. In his early manhood he lived a very carefree life but later he really became obsessed with religion and his existence became monastic. He gave away practically all his possessions to the church and charitable causes. He never married. John died in 1982 and was buried in Santa Barbara, California, beside his mother and father.

The second child of John and Ella Calvert was a daughter named Ida, who married a man named William Martin and lived in New York City. They had one child. William Martin, Jr., and shortly after his birth Ida died.

The second child born to Joseph and Jane Van Matre was another daughter, Frances Marian, on February 17, 1859. She married F. Wilson Baker of Barnston, Quebec, Canada, on December 31, 1884.

Marion Ella Baker Smyth Noble gave me the following interesting commentary on her grandmother: “My grandmother, Frances Marion Baker, was a very self-reliant, fun-loving person. She met tragedy with an unbelievable stoicism. Her husband, son, a brother, and her sister all died tragic deaths. She loved nice clothes; at 96 she traded her beaver coat for a nice new seal one. She was neat and stylish and remained young until she died, one month before she was 99. Even when she was in her eighties, her thin ankles turned men’s eyes. Widowed when she was in her forties, she spent many years alone. She was always busy, caring for her large home, dewing and mending, hooking rugs, doing the repair work herself and even doing the carpentry work for minor remodeling. She was a whiz with a hammer as well as a needle. I was always welcome to spend the night with her, but she never allowed me to sleep late. grandma was an early riser. My father loved to tell how she would get up early, get everyone else up and put to work, and then go back to bed herself.

True to her Scottish heritage, Grandmother was frugal about many things. She was always developing recipes to “use up” something. The results were not always completely successful. No doubt she was “using up” something the day of the “Great Pancake Battle.” We all loved to hear my father tell the story-even Grandma! It seems my father when he was eighteen or so, and a cousin, Clarence Calvert, were to have some of her famous pancakes for breakfast. The boys complained that they just weren’t up to standard and started throwing them. Grandma joined in – first throwing pancakes at each other and then throwing batter. Grandma ended up under the backyard pump. My father held her under the pump and Cal pumped water on her trying to wash away the batter.

She could play only one piece on the piano – “Pop Goes the Weasel.” She had learned how to play on an old pump organ and she always pumped the piano when she played.

I was the first grandchild – on both sides of my family – so it was decided I should be named for my grandmothers. I was given their middle names, Marion Ellen. Had I been given their first names, I would have been Nancy Francie. I’m grateful they decided against that.”