Arthur Matthes Takes Over Tractor Agency

Arthur Matthes of Blessing, while in Palacios Monday, informed the Beacon reporter that he was now an authorized International dealer, and would have his headquarters in Blessing. He has all of Matagorda county west of the Colorado river as his territory.

Mr. Matthes has purchased the corner brick building, now occupied by the Drug Store and C. A. Lucas Grocery store. He will use the room now being used by Mr. Lucas and will carry a complete stock of International farm implements, trucks, tractors, separators, milking machines, etc.

Mr. Matthes' business abilities, qualifications and fair dealings, are well known throughout the county through the oil agencies he has been connected with during the past several years, all of which will enable him to better care for the needs of the farmer in this new line of work he is taking up.

He will continue to keep the agency for the Sinclair Oil Company, which he has had for some time and will be assisted in this by his brother-in-law, Paul Braden.

Palacios Beacon, November 27, 1930

When Arthur Matthes started selling tractors, farmers were just starting to transition from using horses and  mules to using tractors.  AR would take the horses and mules in trade for the tractors.  He would use the animals to graze the right of ways along the railroad tracks.  His sons, Russell and Fred,  would take the animals to the railroad right of ways to graze.   -- Jim Matthes, grandson of A. R. Matthes and son of Russell Matthes
 

Matagorda County Agriculture Is Served By A. R. Matthes’ Thriving Farm Implement Business

Arthur R. and Ruth Matthes Head Farm Equipment Business Here Since 1936
Plant Remodeled In 1944 Served Agriculture, Rice, Cotton and Cattle

In 1845, when Matagorda county was yet a part of the Republic of Texas, when the city of Matagorda was the metropolis and supplies were brought in by sailing vessels from eastern parts, agricultural implements were few and of an extremely simple nature. From the first year of the colonization of the county, cotton was an outstanding crop, but it was harvested by slaves. Two strong hands to a cotton picker resulted in one slave picking 800 or more pounds a day. What need of any new-fangled contraptions? Grass grew higher than the body of a wagon, but if it was cut and baled for hay, the implement again was two strong hands wielding a sickle or a scythe, a rake, a pitchfork. Slaves were many and it was their job to harvest the crops. Truck farming was unknown—this soil would not grow vegetables, preached the cattlemen. Matagorda may have had hardware stores where the sickle, the scythe, the hammer, the wrench, the hoe and the rake were used but such an implement store as A. R. Matthes Farm Equipment Company of Bay City in 1945 just was not imagined.

The farmer’s needs were far fewer. Customers in 1945 ask Mrs. Matthes, presiding behind the counter, for nuts and bolts, for Quaker State Oil and Alemite, for windmills and tube repair kits, for screws, springs, magnetos, and Casite, for Motor Rhythm and ... sparkplugs. The merchants of old Matagorda, hearing such a jargon, would have said, “Sorry, sir! I don’t speak your language.” Yes, the farmer’s needs were fewer and simpler. Steam and electricity and mechanical science had not troubled the brain of man. The complicated age in which the farmer of today lives and produces food for a whole world existed only in the wild imaginings of an occasional writer. The cotton and sugar kings, the cattle barons of a century age were a secluded, a contented group compared with their successors a century later. Yet out of the beginnings of the century following 1845 have grown the needs of cotton, rice, vegetable farmer which call for just such establishments as the A. R. Matthes Farm Equipment Company.

Opened Here 1936

The company took over the F. G. Cobb Implement business here in 1936, the business located then as now in the large brick building at 1932 7^th St., built by C. L. Sisk as a hotel. The interior had been arranged to suit the purpose of the community, show room and stock room in front, garage and repair shop at the rear, the stock continued to expand and the room seemed to grow smaller by comparison for the next eight years, until in 1944 and 1945, it underwent a complete remodeling. Its outstanding characteristic today is a place for everything, the scheme of cabinets, closed drawers, open shelves, cases and racks being, for the most part, the child of Mrs. Matthes’ brain, for it is she who must go directly to one of several thousands of parts for machinery and implements when the customer prefers a request. Today she can do exactly that, make a “bee-line” for the smallest item, neatly segregated in a marked compartment of its own. The racks as they line up the left of the customer entering the store remind him of stacks in a library. The system worked out here for filing the countless parts needed by the farmer who manipulates modern machinery in time of war when new machines are not available is unique in the county and state.

The customer, entering by the front door, passes through the show room where the display consists mostly of Goodyear tires and tubes but where, when reconversion releases new Electrolux refrigerators, Bendix Home Laundry, dairy equipment and new farm machinery, these things too will be displayed.

At the customer’s left is the office. He follows the full-length counter to the rear where is the opening to the repair shop.

On all sides are smaller details of farm machinery, temptingly displayed—tempting, at least, to the man with a broken piece of equipment who had been worrying all the way into town for fear he could not find the part or repair.

First At Blessing

The A. R. Matthes Farm Equipment Company first went into business in Blessing. This was in 1931, five years before the company took over the store in the county seat. They contracted to handle the International Harvester line of farm implements and continue that line to the present.

A word about the line will not be amiss for the McCormick farm implements are more than 100 years old, having observed the centennial of the invention of the reaper by Cyrus Hall McCormick in 1836. Today they advertise such a long list of implements as disk harrows, weeder-mulchers, peg-tooth harrows, spring-tooth harrows, soil pulverizers, rotary hoes, rod weeders, land packers, tractor plows, special Riceland plows, combines, rakes, reapers, binders. Each and every implement has been kept in advance of the latest improvements and will be so when the war is ended and manufacture begins again.

Succeeded F. G. Cobb

The five years following the opening of the company at Blessing in 1931 were pretty low years in most parts of the United States. They were years of unemployment and low farm prices, of the killing of little pigs by government order and the plowing under of crops; days of bank failures and men employed to rake leaves for the CCC; days of wages paid for and by the WPA, the PWA, days when many families did not know where the next week’s food money was coming from. But, it appears, the farmers of this section went on a merry way, needing parts and machinery, and the A. R. Matthes company in Blessing flourished. Bay City looked like a promising field at the time and F. G. Cobb was willing to sell his implement business here. The deal was consummated in December, 1936.

All-Year Proposition

Selling farm machinery is an exacting business in the Gulf Coast area where crops are all year. There is no breathing spell for the business man who serves the farmer here. Cotton is followed by rice and rice by cotton with cattle a never-varying source of farm needs and extensive truck farming and general farming thrown in. It makes for the prosperity of the county and the county seat as well as for the farmer and the businessmen who serve his needs.

A. R. Matthes Is Farmer

A. R. Matthes knows the farmer’s problems because he, too, is a farmer. The magic of rice farming did not pass him by in the early days of its development. Indeed, it was rice farming that called Arthur R. Matthes to Matagorda county in 1921, ten years before he took on the contract with International Harvester Line.

From Middle West

The Matthes family lived in Slater, Mo., at the beginning of the twentieth century. Mr. and Mrs. F. R. Matthes, father and mother of Arthur R., moved to Canada, Texas, in 1905, accompanied by their family. Mr. Matthes died in 1932.

The Braden family, Mr. and Mrs. George Braden and two children, came to Matagorda county, to Citrus Grove near Collegeport in 1910. They had lived for years in Alton, Kansas, where Mr. Braden farmed. He continued this line in Collegeport and later took up rice farming which he followed to the time of his death in 1929. It was at Collegeport that his daughter, Ruth, met Arthur R. Matthes and there that they were married in 1923. Their son, Sgt. Paul Braden, is at Ellington Field, Houston, as the second World War goes into its final stages.

Mrs. Braden, known as Mrs. Della Braden since the death of her husband, also is from a family of farm tradition. She speaks of her parents, Mr. and Mrs. S. P. Shuey who left Alton, Kansas, in 1909 and were joined in Collegeport one year later by Mr. and Mrs. Braden. “My father,” she recalls, “owned one of the first binders Deering put out. This was in Osborn county, Kansas. It had no bundle-carrier and my brother and I were old enough to follow the binder and shock the wheat.”

From this it appears that Mr. and Mrs. A. R Matthes, known throughout this section of the Gulf Coast as farm implement dealers, have farming and interest in its development in their blood.

This season, Arthur R. and his brother, Frank R., are rice farming between Bay City and Van Vleck. Mr. Frank R. Matthes has purchased a home at Blessing.

Personnel

The company has the following personnel as of June 1, 1945:

Manager at Blessing, Mr. Steve Rickaway since 1928.
Repair Shop at Blessing, Hibbits & Campbell store.
Manager of new machine department and refrigeration service, Mr. Arthur Foster.
Parts Man, Mr. Virgil Walleck.
Manager of the Service Station and Repair Shop, Mr. J. J. Denn.
Mechanics in the Repair Shop, Messrs. Dick Wheeler and Mack Dornak.

In the office besides Mrs. Matthes, Mrs. J. W. McKelvy, Jr., formerly Miss Dorothy Duller, and Mrs. Floyd Howell whose husband is with the Seabees in the Philippine Islands.

Truck driver and deliveryman, Perry Bryan, and his helper, Charlie Woods.

Personalities

Mrs. Matthes is one of the most capable businesswomen of the city. She is an active partner, at the counter every day in the week, holding in her mind an unbelievably large amount of the detail of the stock and business. She is a member of the Order of Eastern Star, Bay City chapter and past matron of the Palacios chapter. She is a former president of the Bay City Business and Professional Women’s club.

Mr. Matthes has served on the board of education in Blessing. He is a member of the Arabia Temple Shrine and other Masonic chapters.

The family attends the Presbyterian church.

They have two sons, one in the service of his country, the other a sophomore in Bay City high school in 1945-46. This younger son, Fred “Fritz” is a lively young person, jolly fellow well met.

Russell A. Matthes, AOM 3/c, as of June 1, 1945, is soon to embark for the Pacific war area, aerial gunner on a PBN. He was planning to be a physician and surgeon when Pearl Harbor intervened. He began his training for the U. S. Navy with the V-12 program at the medical school of Tulane University. He received his naval technical training at Memphis, Tenn., aerial gunnery at Banana Field, Fla., and operational training at Corpus Christi and San Francisco.

Other members of the Matthes family include Miss Clara Matthes, administration dietitian at Memorial Hospital in Houston; Mrs. T. C. Robertson, employee of the federal government in Dallas; Dr. H. C. Matthes, Gorgas Hospital at Ancon City, Panama, Canal Zone.

Matagorda County Tribune, 100^th Anniversary Edition, Thursday, August 23, 1945
 

Arthur Raymond Matthes

Funeral services for Arthur Raymond Matthes of Blessing were held at 5 p. m. Saturday, May 8,at the Bay City Presbyterian Church with the Rev. W. D. O'Neal officiating. Interment was in the Palacios Cemetery.

Born March 5, 1898, in Slater, Mo., he had lived in Matagorda County for 55 years. He had farming and ranching interests in Blessing. He was the former owner of the International Harvester Implement Company of Bay City and Blessing Hardware. He was a member of the First Presbyterian Church of Bay City, Blessing Masonic Lodge No. 411 A. F. and A. M. and also the Eastern Star Auxiliary. He died at 12:20 a. m. Friday, May 7, in Matagorda General Hospital.

He is survived by his wife, Ruth Braden Matthes of Blessing; two sons, Dr. Russell Arthur Matthes and Dr. Fred Taylor Matthes of Bay City; one sister, Miss Edna Matthes of Bay City; one brother, Dr. Homer C. Matthes of Bay City; eight grandchildren and three great grandchildren.

Palacios Beacon, May, 1976
 

Ruth Braden Matthes

Bay City Resident Dies in Wreck on Texas 35
Troopers Say Driver Failed to See Oncoming Traffic at Intersection

A long-time Bay City resident died Friday in an automobile accident at the Markham intersection on Texas 35 occurring at 4:05 p. m.

Ruth Matthes, 86, was pronounced dead at Matagorda General Hospital at 4:32 p. m. Two nurses on their way home from the MGH happened to arrive at the accident soon after it occurred. One of the nurses said Matthes had no pulse when she arrived.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation was attempted before the Taylor Brothers ambulance arrived.

Matthes was driving her 1985 Ford Escort south on Farm Road 1468 and had stopped at the intersection of Texas 35. A 1983 GMC Jimmy driven by Deborah Mosier of Palacios was westbound on Texas 35.

According to the Texas Department of Public Safety report, Matthes apparently failed to see the westbound traffic and pulled in front of it.

The driver's side door of Matthes' vehicle received extensive damage. The car turned and slid into the median.

Mosier, a teacher, received minor injuries in the accident and was expected to be released from the hospital. At the scene, she complained of neck, leg and shoulder pain.

Matthes

Funeral services for Ruth Matthes are scheduled for 4 p. m. Sunday at First Presbyterian Church in Bay City. Burial will follow at Palacios Cemetery.

Matthes, 86, was born February 22, 1904, to George and Della Braden of Kansas and died May 11, 1990, in a car accident in Markham.

She is survived by two sons and daughters-in-law, Dr. Russell Arthur and Juanita Matthes and Dr. Fred Taylor and Betty Jean Matthes, all of Bay City; 14 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren.

Matthes was preceded in death by her parents, George and Della Braden; one daughter, Margaret Ruth; husband, Arthur R. Matthes; and one brother, Paul Braden.

Pallbearers include James Raymond Matthes, Douglas Paul Matthes, Michael Taylor Matthes, Patrick Raymond Matthes, Thomas Mark Dodd, Taylor Douglas Matthes, Matthew Taylor Dodd, Travis Mark Dodd and Garrett Lee Dodd.

Donations may be made to the First Presbyterian Church, Matagorda General Hospital Ladies Auxiliary or the charity of your choice.

Arrangements are with Taylor Brothers Funeral Home in Bay City.

Daily Tribune, May, 1990
 

Fred Taylor Matthes
March 27, 1930 – Dec. 18, 2012

Fred Taylor Matthes, 82, of Bay City passed away at home on Tuesday, December 18, 2012.

Fred was born March 27, 1930 in Bay City to the late Arthur Raymond Matthes and Ruth Braden Matthes.

He grew up in Blessing and Bay City and he graduated from Bay City High School in 1948. He attended Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine and practiced pediatrics in Bay City for 41 years.

He will be fondly remembered as a devout Christian man with a strong faith and a passion for the success of the communities of Matagorda County. His family was always a high priority for him. In fact, he loved all children and he touched many lives through his pediatric practice and community service.

Fred is survived by: his wife of 62 years, Betty Jean Gordon Matthes of Bay City; five children, Patrick Raymond Matthes and wife Janet of Bay City, Michael Taylor Matthes and wife Paula of Foster City, California; Margaret Jardee and husband Gary of Mill Iron, Montana, Douglas Paul Matthes and wife Vicki of Bay City, and Ellen Ruth Dodd and husband Mark of Bay City; 15 grandchildren, Shelly Grimes and husband Bink, Julie McDaniel and husband Steve, Laura Mosley and husband Kurt, Katie Matthes, Kristy Salas and husband Jason, Susan Dawson and husband Ryan, Jenny Pust and husband Donny, Matthew Dodd and wife Shanna, Taylor Matthes and wife Kim, Travis Dodd and wife Nicole, Garrett Dodd and wife Meredith, Amy Erpelding and husband Tim, Lauren Bottani and husband Bryan, Haley Schneider and husband Wes, and Caroline Matthes; 19 great-grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.

He was preceded in death by: his parents; brother, Russell Arthur Matthes; and sister, Margaret Ruth Matthes.

The family will receive visitors from 6 until 8 p.m. Thursday, December 20, 2012 at the funeral home.

A funeral service will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, December 21, 2012 at the First Baptist Church of Bay City with Dr. Mike Zimmerman officiating.

Interment will follow at Hawley Cemetery in Blessing.

Pallbearers will be Matthew Dodd, Taylor Matthes, Travis Dodd, Garrett Dodd, Bink Grimes, Wes Schneider, Ryan Dawson, Jason Salas, and Bryan Bottani. Honorary Pallbearers will be Kurt Mosley, Steve McDaniel, Donny Pust, and Tim Erpelding.

The family wishes to thank the health care providers that supported them through the recent months and especially the staff of Houston Hospice – El Campo.

Memorials may be made to Houston Hospice – El Campo, First Baptist Church Benevolence Fund, or a charity of your choice.

Condolences may be shared with the family by visiting www.taylorbros.net.

Arrangements are with Taylor Bros. Funeral Home, 979-245-4613.

Bay City Tribune, December 19, 2012

Betty Jean Matthes
January 12, 1931 - December 25, 2023

Betty Jean Matthes passed away in her home in Bay City, Texas on December 25, 2023. We rejoice as she joins her beloved husband, a host of friends, and loved ones in her new home in heaven. Betty was born on 01/12/1931 to the late William Robert Gordon and Helen Marie Johnson Gordon in Bay City, Texas. She grew up in Bay City and graduated from Bay City High School in 1948.

She married her childhood sweetheart of Bay City, Fred Matthes (affectionately known as Dr. Fred) on June 24, 1950. They moved back to Bay City in 1958 after he attended medical school and continued their lifelong journey together until his death on December 18, 2012. Her kind, gentle spirit and love of family, friends, and this community were her primary priorities. The testimony of a life well-lived is well-known in the community and is a tribute to her success as a woman of a strong Christian faith.

With the love of her life, she raised five children, Patrick Raymond Matthes (Janet), Michael Taylor Matthes (Paula), Margaret Ann Jardee (Gary), Douglas Paul Matthes (Vicki), and Ellen Ruth Dodd (Mark). She was influential in the life of her 15 grandchildren, Katie Matthes, Susan Dawson (Ryan), Lauren Bottani (Bryan), Caroline Matthes (Rose), Julie McDaniel (Steve), Laura Mosley (Kurt), Jenny Pust (Donnie), Amy Erpelding (Tim), Shelly Grimes (Bink), Kristy Salas (Jason), Taylor Matthes (Kim), Matthew Dodd (Shanna), Travis Dodd (Nicole), Garrett Dodd (Merideth), and Haley Schneider (Wes). She has 33 great grandchildren and one great-great grandson. She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband; her siblings: Billie Marie Scheel (Paul), Thomas Raymond Gordon (Delores), and Ann Marie Ryan (Paul); her son, Michael Taylor Matthes and his wife Paula Kalina Matthes; and great granddaughter Ellie Erpelding.

The family will receive visitors at First Baptist Church on Friday December 29, 2023 at noon. Funeral Services will follow at 2:00 pm with Dr. Michael Zimmerman officiating. Interment will follow at Hawley Cemetery just outside of Blessing, Texas. Pall bearers include Ryan Dawson, Matthew Dodd, Travis Dodd, Garrett Dodd, Bink Grimes, Taylor Matthes, Jason Salas, and Wes Schneider. Honorary pall bearers include Bryan Botani, Mark Dodd, Tim Erpelding, Gary Jardee, Steve McDaniel, Kurt Mosley, Donnie Pust.

The family wants to give special thanks to her health caregivers: Patricia Sardinea, Gloria Ochoa, Bertha Fields, Barbara Daniels, and Amber Bluntson. Their kindness and support have been instrumental in the quality of life she has had in the last few years. Deep gratitude goes out to the staff of Houston Hospice - El Campo for the management of her care in the last weeks of her life.

Memorials may be made to Houston Hospice - El Campo, First Baptist Church Benevolence fund, Matagorda Regional Medical Center Auxiliary, or a charity of your choice.

Taylor Bros. Funeral Home
 

Michael Taylor Matthes
June 02, 1951 - January 24, 2021

Michael Matthes died on January 24, 2021 at the age of 69 with his daughters at his side. He was born in Bay City, TX on June 2, 1951 to Dr. Fred and Betty Matthes. He is survived by his mother Betty Matthes; daughters Lauren (Bryan) Bottani and Caroline (Rose) Matthes; grandchildren Jackson and Kallina Bottani; siblings Pat (Janet) Matthes, Margaret (Gary) Jardee, Doug (Vicki) Matthes, and Ellen (Mark) Dodd. He is preceded in death by his wife, Paula Matthes, and father, Dr. Fred Matthes.

He earned the rank of Eagle Scout and graduated from Bay City High School in 1969, received his B. S. and M. S. from Trinity University, and his Ph. D. in Pathology from UCLA in 1985.  He ran a research and teaching laboratory at UCSF, studying degenerative eye diseases. He published many papers and visited many classrooms teaching children about the eye.   

His first priority was always family, and he took pride in caring for the people he loved. He built many play structures for his children and grandchildren and loved supervising projects, big and small. He was the best Papa to his two grandchildren, who loved him dearly.  While he made his home in California, he cultivated his “cowboy corner” full of treasures from his time at the 7M Ranch in Blessing, TX.

He will be remembered as a generous, kind, and loving individual who never met a stranger he didn’t befriend. Michael chose to spend the last few years as his mother’s primary caregiver and his Texas family has been blessed to build lasting memories and have that time with him. 

For safety reasons, a private service will be held for family.

In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, in memory of his late wife, or a charity of your choice.  

Bay City Tribune, January 27, 2021

Paula Kallina Matthes

Paula Kallina Matthes passed away at home with her family on the morning of May 7, 2013 in Foster City, Calif. Paula was born to Buren Kallina and Dorothy Kallina Schiurring in Columbus on Feb. 23, 1952. She grew up in Garwood and attended El Campo High School. She graduated from Southwest Texas State University with a master’s in special education and a license in speech pathology.

She will be fondly remembered as a devout Catholic with a passion for working with children. She taught school for 35 years. Family was her first priority and she was thankful to have been able to see both of her daughters graduate and to become a “Grannie” before passing away.

She was a strong woman who fought to overcome many health conditions. Paula provided her family with many wonderful memories over the years.

Paula is survived by Michael, her husband of 35 years; her two children, Lauren and Caroline; her son-in-law, Bryan and her grandson, Jackson.

She is also survived by her mother, Dorothy Kallina Schiurring; brothers, Kris, Craig, Paul, Peter and sister, Ava.

She was preceded in death by her father, Buren Kallina.

The family would like to thank their wonderful friends and family for their support these last few years and especially this last month.

Services will be held at St. Mary’s Parish in Nada on Friday, May 17 with a Rosary at 1:30 p.m. and memorial Mass at 2 p.m. A reception will follow at the parish hall.

Donations may be made in honor of Paula to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

El Campo Leader-News online, May 13, 2013
 

Pictures courtesy of  Jim and Diane Matthes and Blessing Masonic Lodge