Robert W. Mathis (1908)
MATHEWS, MATHIS
Posted By: Kent Transier
Date: 11/8/2023 at 18:03:21
Times-Republican
Marshalltown, Iowa
Tuesday, April 14, 1908
Page 5, Column 4VETERAN OF HOME STRICKEN DEAD
Robert W. Mathis, of Winterset, Drops Dead in Street of Heart Disease – STRICKEN AS HE SAT DOWN
Aged Veteran of the Civil War Meets Sudden Death on South Third Avenus Near Union Station – Had Been in Hospital With Heart Disease for Months
Robert W. Mathis, aged 77 years, a veteran of the civil war and a member of the home from Winterset, Madison county, dropped dead of heart disease at 4:50 o’clock Monday afternoon in front of the Stone restaurant on South Third avenue, near the union station. Death was instantaneous, and overtook Mathis as he was in the act of sitting down on the curbing. The body remained where it lay until Coroner H. H. Nichols arrived. He decided the conditions did not warrant holding an Inquest.
Mathis had evidently been on the south side of town for a walk. He was seen crossing the Iowa Central and Northwestern tracks, coming north, just a few moments before death overtook him, but there was but one eye witness to his sudden end.
Went to Sit Down; Dropped Dead
When in front of the Stone restaurant, Mathis paused for a moment, and advanced to the curb. He stepped into the gutter and stopped to sit down, then fell backward on the sidewalk, which he struck with his head. The home officials were notified soon after the coroner had arrived and Mathis had been identified by letters in his pockets. The body was removed from the street by the police to the South Third avenue station, and later was taken to the home.
Was Indiana Veteran
Mathis was a veteran of Company C, Twenty-second Indiana Infantry, in which he enlisted in Brown county, Indiana, July 11, 1861. He was discharged at Blaine’s Cross Roads, Tenn., Dec. 22, 1863, and immediately re-enlisted in the same company and regiment. He was discharged at the end of the war, on July 24, 1862, at Louisville, Ky.
Mathis was born in Lawrence county, Indiana, Nov. 24, 1830. He entered the home from Winterset, Nov. 26, 1900.
Mathis is survived by two sons, Thornton and Robert A., who were formerly of Winterset, but are now supposed to be living in Portland, Ore. Their address is not known at the home. Mathis recently received a telegram telling of the injury of one of his son’s family. The receipt of the telegram gave the home officials the clue to the son’s residence, but the telegram cannot now be found.
Prior to a few months ago Mathis had been a patient in the home hospital for about a year, suffering with disease of the heart. Arrangements have not yet been made.
________________________Transcriber's note: The deceased appears in the 1895 and 1900 Madison County censuses under "Mathews" and his two sons used that surname throughout their adult lives. His ancestors, found in Brown County, Indiana, used the surname "Mathis" which is also in the deceased's military records and on his gravestone.
Gravesite
Madison Obituaries maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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