How to Pronounce Henry M. Mathews
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Mar 29, 1834 Greenbrier County, West Virginia, United States Died on 28 Apr 1884 (aged 50)
American politician
AriesHenry M. Mathews - Place of Birth, Date of Birth, Age, Wiki, Facts, Net Worth, Birthday, Biography and Family
Henry M. Mathews, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Family, Facts, Age, Net Worth, Biography and More in FamedBorn.com
About Henry M. Mathews
- Henry Mason Mathews (March 29, 1834 – April 28, 1884) was an American military officer, lawyer, and politician in the U.S.
- State of West Virginia.
- Mathews served as Governor of West Virginia (1871–1881) and Attorney General of West Virginia (1873–1877).
- He was the first former Confederate elected to a governorship in the United States.
- Born into a Virginia political family, Mathews practiced law before the outbreak of the American Civil War, at which point he volunteered for the Confederate States Army, where he served in the western theater as a major of artillery.
- Following the war, he was elected to the West Virginia Senate, but denied his seat due to state restrictions for former Confederates.
- He participated in the 1872 state constitutional convention that overturned these restrictions, and was quickly elected attorney general of West Virginia.
- After one successful term, he was elected governor of West Virginia. Mathews was identified as a Redeemer, the southern wing of the conservative, pro-business Bourbon faction of the Democratic Party that sought to oust the Radical Republicans who had come to power across the postwar South.
- However, Mathews took the uncommon practice of appointing members from both parties to important positions, causing his administration to be characterized as "an era of good feelings." His administration continued to faced challenges related to the Long Depression, most notably the outbreak of the Great Railroad Strike of 1877 in Martinsburg, West Virginia, as a protest to wage cuts.
- Mathews eventually called on President Rutherford B.
- Hayes for federal assistance in breaking up the strike, which brought national attention to the strike that spread to other states in what would be the first national labor strike in United States history.
- Mathews' handling of the strike was criticized at the time, though the involvement of the federal government in breaking up the strike has come to be seen as inevitable by modern historians.
- In later life, Mathews served as president of the White Sulfur Springs Company (now the Greenbrier Resort).
