January 20, 1924

Today I am recorded by the calendar eighty-five years old – by the grace of God I am eighty- five years young. The Bible says I was born in 1839. I do no mean the inspired part of the Bible, but the modern chronological part, the family record, and that I was christened “Thomas Jefferson Higgenbottom van Matre”.

The addendum notes that I was put into a basket and placed between the handles of a plow, which was propelled by a yoke of cows and when the pangs of hunger clung me, the team was stopped and miled, my hunger appeased and the work went on. So you see my earliest experience and education was in the direct line of agriculture. My eyes first beheld the light of day on the same farm where I now spend my summers, so you see I have not been migratory in my habits, and I assure you I have never been sedentary. I never had any use for a sedentary farmer. I mean a farmer who would sit around the streets on dry goods boxes in summer time and tell long stories while the weeds were devouring his crops, and would sit around the saloons in winter, guzzle beer and munch tobacco while poverty and cold were devouring his stock. of course we have no farmers of that description about Mineral Point, but they are legion in our neighboring cities and villages.

In 1827 father came here to the lead mines of southern Wisconsin. He dug over here on the hill back of Billy Walker’s old hotel, he dug up at Dodgeville and he dug down at Shullsburg with varying success for two years, after which he went back to Ohio and remained there until 1837 when accompanied by his family and a few friends he moved here and settled upon the same farm, which is in the hands of the fourth generation of Van Matre’s in direct descent.

He selected for the situation of his home, the most unsightly spot which could have been found on the whole section of land and surrounded it with outbuildings and fences corresponding with the site. Those of you who have noticed the early pioneer have noticed this fact, they were not very particular in the selection of a site or the beautifying of a home. I do not say this as a reproach upon those good people, for I believe there is no class of men and women of earth to whom society is under greater obligations than to the early pioneer. (They have made the future of America possible and I say to you, when you view the cloudless heavens, the stars shining with greater luster, but feebly represent the disembodied spirit of the early pioneer made perfect, each of who deserves to have erected to his memory a monument higher than the Eiffel Tower of France.)

At that time Wisconsin was almost a reckless wilderness where might be seen the smoke ascending from the Indian wigwam and the wild fox dug his hole unscared. I have seen Wisconsin grow from a territory of less that thirty thousand souls to a state of more that two and one half million. I have witnessed the development of her agricultural and mineral resources until today they are second to none in quality and high above the average in quantity. I have seen the primeval forests denuded and the stubborn glebe subdued until so far as the eye can reach may be seen cultivated fields groaning under their weight of agricultural products which find a market in the most remote parts of the civilized world. I have seen the patient bovine which was used as a best of burden to transport the agricultural and mineral products of southern Wisconsin to the great metropolis of the state superseded by the more fleet and agile equine and he in turn superseded by the iron horse whose labored breathing and breath of this great commonwealth.

I have seen the educational system improved from its primitive, crude form to its almost perfect system of today, which makes it possible for every son and daughter to receive an education which will fit them for future usefulness.

I have seen the old log school house give way to the more neat and attractive stone and frame building which may be seen at every crossroad.

State normal schools, seminaries, academies and colleges of the highest order may be numbered by the hundreds, benevolent institutions are met with wherever their presence is required and here and there, all over this beautiful land may be found churches whose spires pointing heavenward seem to admonish us to raise our eyes from earth to heaven, that mysterious source from whence cometh every blessing. But in the very shadow of these sanctuaries might have been found the licensed grog shop placed there by and with the consent of the Christian manhood of this land. I say shame! shame!

I have seen the deadly upas tree strike its roots deeply into the earth and spread in poisonous branches all over the state until its baneful effects may be traced to every village and hamlet and its blighting influence too plainly written upon the countenance of helpless infancy and dependent womanhood.

Fifty years ago I entered the crusade against intemperance and in favor of universal suffrage.

Imagine my great complacency upon having lived to see both of these great reforms become not a statuary law, but a part of our national constitution. And today at 85 years of age I stand firmly with our president in favor of a rigid enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, and he who does not is unworthy to be a citizen of this great and glorious country.

“Once I was young, now I am old, yet have I never seen the righteous forsaken or his seed begging bread.”

My feet are now tottering on the verge of eternity, the grave open to receive me and I shall soon sink into its bosom.

But I will not go like “the quarry slave at night scourged to his dungeon, but with a firm, unfaltering trust in the saving grace of God, I will wrap the drapery of my couch about me and lie down to pleasant dreams.”

I have but one request to make on my departure from this life, and that is that Mineral Point Lodge No. 1 Free and Accepted Masons, see that I am decently interred.

This is my last will and testament and by divine providence and the assistance of the bretherns, I hope the terms of this bequest will be consummated.

T. J. Van Matre

Passed away July 30 1925 at Jonesdale.