Matthews, Joseph Mdowell, Dd

Matthews, Joseph M'Dowell, D.D.

a Methodist Episcopal minister, was born in Augusta County, Virginia, December 8, 1804. At the age of ten he removed with his parents to Kentucky, and, settling on a farm, was given a thorough private academical education, which he increased by. personal effort. He joined the Church at the age of eighteen, was licensed to preach in 1825, in 1827 began a school or academy for boys in Hillsborough, Ohio, which he continued till 1831, when he entered the Ohio Conference. In 1831-32 he served the Church in Chillicothe. and in 1833 in Cincinnati. There his health failed, and he retired to a farm, where he spent nearly six years. In 1839 he opened the Oakland Female Seminary, where he did noble work until 1856, when he took charge of the Hillsborough Female College. In 1860 he. became president of Jessaminne Female College, Nicholasville, Kentucky, but in 1863 returned to Hillsborough, and opened a private boarding-school. In 1872 he again accepted a call to the presidency of Hillsborough Female College, where he remained until ill-health led him, in 1877, to resign his office, and retire to his home in the suburbs of Hillsborough, where he died, August 5, 1879. See Minutes of Annual Fall Conferences, 1879, page 15.