MATTISON, Benjamin F.

MATTISON, EATON

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/18/2003 at 22:37:21

Source: The 1901 Biographical Record of Clinton Co., Iowa, Illustrated published: Chicago : S. J. Clarke Pub. Co., 1901.

BENJAMIN F. MATTISON.

Among the public officials of Clinton county there is probably none more popular than B. F. Mattison, the efficient county recorder. He was born upon a rocky little farm in Scriba township , Oswego county, New York, March 24, 1844, and until his sixteenth year lived in sight of the blue water of Lake Ontario. Seeing the vessels pass and repass daily, he early formed the resolution to become a sailor, and in the spring of 1861, his father deeming him to young to enter the army, he shipped as an able seaman upon a grain schooner, but one trip satisfied him, and he left the lake.

Finding on his return home that regiment was being organized for the front Mr. Mattison wrote his father’s consent and enlisted in Company D, in the eighty-first New York Volunteer Infantry, September 14m 1861. Upon the arrival at Washington, D. C., the regiment was placed in General Casey’s division, and at once was sent to the investment of Yorktown, Virginia, under General George B. McClellan. The early evacuation of that place sent them with the van of that “grand army” in its “On to Richmond” march, and they received their first baptism of fire in the battle of Fair Oaks, although they had been under fire frequently, where the regiment lost many of its best men and officers. Later they took part in various battles and skirmishes in the historical “seven days’ retreat” to Harrison’s Landing, where General McClellan was relieved of the command. The regiment was next detailed to guard the works at Yorktown, and held that place, while the main party of the army went to the relief of Washington. When the expedition was formed to attack Charleston, south Carolina, they were sent to Hilton Head, that state, the rendezvous, and when the iron-clads made their assault on Fort Sumter, they lay on a transport outside the bar awaiting orders, which, when they came, sent the regiment to General Foster, at Newbern, North Carolina, where they spent the summer and fall of 1863, taking part in many raids and skirmishes. They were then ordered back to Virginia, and passed the winter on the outskirts of the Great Dismal Swamp of that state. After veteranizing in the spring of 1864, the regiment took the field for the final campaign, which ended in the surrender of Lee at Appomattox. But a skeleton of the old organization remained when they crept into the trenches before Petersburg. They were in the engagements of Violet Station (or Swift Creek), Drury’s bluff and Cold Harbor, and were in the assault on the work before Petersburg under “Baldy Smith,” their beloved commander. This practically ended the fighting campaign by leading up to the assault on the strong works at Chapin’s Farm, or Fort Harrison, which they captured and held against the repeated charges of the enemy.

On the expiration of his term of enlistment, Mr. Mattison was honorably discharged at Bermuda Hundred, September 14, 1864, on account of expiration of term service, and soon afterward came west and located at Clinton, Iowa, where he has resided most of the time since 1866. During all these years he has been in the employ of C. Lamb & Sons, the greater part of the time, and has been promoted from one position to another until he was made foreman of one of their sawmills, in which capacity he faithfully served the company for twenty years.

March 25, 1869, Mr. Mattison was united in marriage with Miss Helen C. Eaton, of Oswego, New York, and by this union was born one son, George E., who is now a practicing attorney of Mechanicsville, Iowa. Although Mr. Mattison’s business duties have been arduous, he has always found time to write and work for any enterprise that he believed would advance the interests of the county and city of his adoption. On two different occasions his friends sent him to the city council to represent them as alderman at large, and in the fall of 1900 he was elected county recorder, which office he is now so creditably and satisfactorily filling. He is an enthusiastic member of the Grand army of the Republic, and in this way keeps in constant touch with his old army comrades who are still able to respond to the roll call. He was one of the early members of N. B. Baker Post, No, 88, G. A. R. He was too busy to fill the minor offices of the post, but his comrades, wishing to honor him, elected him from the ranks, in 1898, to the office of commander of the post, an honor that is seldom conferred. He has always been active in Republican councils, and has done much for the party. During the time he was serving as alderman, the charter for the new bridge was obtained, and the movement for paving the streets with brick was inaugurated, which has resulted in making Clinton one of the best paved cities in the west.