Smith, Thelma E.

William Matthews, the son of Peter and Margaret Ross Matthews, was a bookbinder and a prominent member of the Brooklyn community during the 19th century. Born in 1822 in Scotland, he and his family moved to London after the death of his father, where he spent the majority of his early life. In 1833 he was enrolled in the London Orphan Asylum, and after leaving the Asylum, he worked as an apprentice for the London bookbinding firm of Remnant and Edmonds, where he acquired a wide breadth of knowledge about the bookbinding trade. In December of 1843, Matthews immigrated to New York to pursue his trade further, settling in the City of Brooklyn in Kings County. Within two years, he had married Julia Elizabeth Marle (1828-1906), the daughter of bookbinder William Marle (d. 1873). Over the course of their life together, William and Julia Matthews would have seven children.

In 1845, Matthews was working for his father-in-law at William Marle and Co., Bookbinders, located at 74 Fulton Street in New York City. For several years he labored in obscurity with limited financial means. Then, in 1853, Matthews won the silver medal in fine bookbinding at the International Exhibition at the Crystal Palace in New York City. The silver medal was the highest honor awarded at the Exhibition, and Matthews's accomplishment led to a position at the firm D. Appleton & Company as the head of the bindery at the company's newly-opened plant at 107 Franklin Street. The plant later moved to the Town of Williamsburgh in Kings County. In 1850, Matthews became a naturalized United States citizen, and by 1855 he and his family were living in a house he had built in the Village of Greenfield (later Parkville) in the Town of Flatbush in Kings County. After the move to Greenfield, Matthews became an active member of St. Paul's Church in Flatbush, where over time he served as Treasurer, Junior Warden, and Senior Warden.

...