Mather, Oscar Lord, 1867-1944.

Oscar Lord Mather was born in Detroit (Mich.) on July 20, 1867, the son of Asher E. and Laura Lord Mather, and was educated in Detroit and Battle Creek schools. Mather married Alice Kernochan Hill (d. 1912) in Battle Creek in 1897, and Eva Marion Smith in Minneapolis in 1921.

He was the first postmaster and notary at LaPrairie (Hubbard County, Minn.) and was a partner (1891-1899) of Beckfield and Mather Company, Grand Rapids. From 1899 on he was a principal of a number of timber companies doing business in Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia. In 1905 he organized the Sheldon-Mather Timber Company and, the following year, the Sims Timber Company, Ltd. (Vancouver, B.C.)

In 1918 Mather volunteered for wartime foreign service with the American Red Cross, and ended up with the Swiss and Rumanian Red Cross commissions charged with conveying ARC relief supplies from Berne to Berlin and Warsaw.

Following World War I, Mather was president (1923-1932) of the People's State Bank, Madison Lake, Minnesota. He died in Madison Lake on May 1, 1944.

From the guide to the Oscar Lord Mather in the World War., [ca. 1927]., (Minnesota Historical Society)