MATTHEWS, Stanley (1824-1889)
Senate Years of Service: 1877-1879

MATTHEWS, STANLEY, (uncle of Henry Watterson), a Senator from Ohio; born in Cincinnati, Ohio, July 21, 1824; attended the public schools; graduated from Kenyon College, Gambier, Ohio, in 1840; studied law; admitted to the bar in 1842 and commenced practice in Maury County, Tenn., the same year; returned to Cincinnati in 1844; appointed assistant prosecuting attorney of Hamilton County in 1845; editor of the Cincinnati Herald 1846-1849; clerk of the State house of representatives 1848-1850; judge of the court of common pleas of Hamilton County 1850-1852; member, State senate 1856-1857; appointed by President James Buchanan as United States district attorney for southern Ohio in 1858 and served until his resignation in March 1861; during the Civil War served as lieutenant colonel and then colonel with the Ohio Volunteers; resigned in the spring of 1863; resumed the practice of law in Cincinnati; judge of the Cincinnati superior court from 1863 until his resignation in July 1864; Republican presidential elector in 1864 and 1868; unsuccessful candidate for election in 1876 to the Forty-fifth Congress; was counsel before the electoral commission in 1877; elected as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of John Sherman and served from March 21, 1877, to March 3, 1879; was not a candidate for renomination in 1878; appointed by President Rutherford Hayes as Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1881, but was not confirmed; was renominated by President James Garfield, confirmed by the Senate May 12, 1881, and served until his death in Washington, D.C., March 22, 1889; interment in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.

Cincinnati Historical Society
Cincinnati, OH
Papers: 1861-1863. 92 items. Letters to his wife, written while serving with the Army of the Cumberland in its campaign in Kentucky and Tennessee. Available on 1 microfilm reel. Finding aid. Also miscellaneous letters in various collections.

Rutherford B. Hayes Library
Fremont, OH
Papers: 1803-1889. 193 items and 3 microfilm rolls. In part, microfilm of letters in Ohio Historical Society and State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Chiefly correspondence with his family and miscellaneous political papers.

Library of Congress
Manuscript Division
Washington, DC
Papers: In Henry Watterson papers, 1863-1920. Finding aid.

Ohio Historical Society
Columbus, OH
Papers: Miscellaneous items in various collections.

Pierpont Morgan Library
New York, NY
Papers: 1869-1883. 2 items.

State Historical Society of Wisconsin
Archives Division
Madison, WI
Papers: 1848-1865. Letters.

  • Jager, Ronald B. "Stanley Matthews for the Supreme Court: `Lord Roscoe's' Downfall.'' Cincinnati Historical Society Bulletin 38 (Fall 1980): 191-208.