Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/251

 HISTORY OF GOODHUE COUNT! 7 195 living for the family during all the years of its subjugation and improvement, but in response to good cultivation made possible the purchase of an additional eighty acres adjoining, at a much greater price per acre than its own first cost, and the building of a hue home in the village of Zumbrota, at a cost, including the lands, of over $5,000, to which the family, then consisting of himself, wife, Annie and Wesley, removed, remaining until the fall of 1906, when, because of declining years and health, he sold with the idea of purchasing a home of less size, where he and the wife and mother might pass the last years of their lifetime with the least care and responsibility. In this respect, however, his calculations were defeated. He died at the home of his dauedi- ter, Mrs. Laura Secore, Red Wing, February .">. 1907. At the tillage home above mentioned, April. 1900. Mr. and Mrs. Matchan celebrated the fiftieth (golden) anniversary of their wedding, at which were in attendance all of their eight children, the wives of those married, all their grandchildren and most of their nephews and nieces, numbering in all fifty-five persons. Mr. Matchan from his early boyhood was identified with the Meth- odist church, being one of the few original organizers of the First Methodist Episcopal church at* Zumbrota, with which he was identified as member, and in one and another official capac- ity, until the time of his death. Mr. Matchan was a man of positive character and intense conviction, clinging at all cost to the right, frowning publicly and privately upon that he con- sidered wrong. His word once given was sacred, and no incon- venience or sacrifice was too great for him to suffer that he might fulfill the simplest promise. He g left surviving him five sons and three daughters, and his wife. Mary Ann. The oldest son, George L., is a prominent attorney residing at the city of Minneapolis. The second son, Robert D.. a well known physician and surgeon, also resident of Minneapolis, where for two decades he has continuously occupied the chair of surgery in the homeopathic department of the medical school of the State University of Minnesota. The third son, William, resides at Milton, N. D., where he is engaged in the lumber and grain business. A daughter, Almira Osborne, resides at Payette. Idaho. Edward M. resides on the old home farm in Roscoe, where he is making good both as a farmer and citizen. Laura, wife of J. A. Secore, resides at the city of Anoka, where her hus- band occupied the important position of superintendent of the department of manual training in the public schools of that city. Annie, wife of Rupert Staiger, resides at Zumbrota. where they own their home and large grounds, which represent no inconsid- erable increment indicative of their thrift and future prosperity. Wesley G., the youngest of the eight, was a graduate of the