Portuguese Christian, Antonio, from Madeira Island, settled in
Jacksonville, IL with wife Isabella, and organized the Portuguese
Presbyterian Church there in 1849. He continued as pastor there
until 1869. Antonio had been banished from his father’s home in
Madeira and gone to Scotland where he studied, was licensed and
ordained under the Free Church of Scotland, then to Illinois.
Isabella was the daughter of James Paterson, who emigrated from
Scotland to
St. John, New Brunswick. James had an L.L.D. from the University of
Glasgow and was the principal of the grammar school in St. John and
involved with the New Brunswick Auxiliary Bible Society. Another
daughter, Eliza, never married, taught at the grammar school and
died in 1890. A third daughter was married to Robert Sheraton, a
merchant, and had at least two children, James Paterson and Anna.
Isabella and Antonio had three sons, one of whom died at the age
of eight, in 1865. Isabella died in St. John, in 1867 at the age of
46. In 1877, Antonio returned to Madeira, a prominently Catholic
area, to preach Christianity and was arrested. He died that same
year in Portugal, possible in Lisbon.
Their eldest son, James, born in 1854, was the first Portuguese
student at Illinois College the winter of 1866-1867. He left
Jacksonville shortly after this and lived with his mother’s family
in St. John for a brief time and then attended Columbian College Law
School in Washington D.C. where he received his L.L.D. in 1872. He
worked as a clerk for the Department of Treasury from 1873-1875. He
was an active member of the Y.M.C.A. while living in Washington D.C.
In 1875, he moved to Colorado and practiced law in Leadville,
Colorado with a partner, Elisha Brearly. At the age of 28, he moved
to the state of Washington where he eventually became the first
Mayor of Whatcom, which later became New Whatcom and then
Bellingham, Washington. He was mayor for seven different terms, not
all sequentially, and was also a circuit judge. He started an
abstracting business which he owned from 1884-1909. He was
responsible for the building of a large brick building in Bellingham
about which he had some legal difficulties. At some point, he left
the Presbyterian Church to become a Baptist, but lost his membership
with that church and unable to regain it. James never married and
died of a stroke in 1929.
Their second son, Frederic Sandeman, was born in 1860. He
attended the University of Glasgow from 1876-1878, but left and
studied in Paris for awhile. He was not officially ordained from a
divinity school, but instead “read privately” with an ordained
minister and received his ordination that way. From 1883-1886, he
worked as a minister in Ravenswood and Chicago, Illinois, Schuyler,
Nebraska, and Leavenworth, Kansas. While in Kansas, he gained some
notoriety for performing requiem masses. He was rector of St. James
Episcopal Church of Baton Rouge from 1886-1889. While there he met
and married Lessie Tracy, the daughter of John and Lavinia Tracy, in
1888. From 1890 through 1892, he worked at various churches in
Texas, South Dakota, and Colorado, but none for any length of time.
After this, he resigned the priesthood of the Episcopal Church and
was quoted in one newspaper as saying he hoped to enter the Catholic
Church. He and Lessie lived in Canada for a number of years where he
served as pastor in churches in Brandon and Winnipeg, Manitoba. They
returned to the United States in 1919 and he became Rector of the
Church of Annunciation, Oradell, New Jersey for one year before
going to St. John the Evangelist in San Francisco in 1921. He
remained there until he died in 1924. He and Lessie had one child,
Dunbar, who was living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, at the time of his
father’s death. Dunbar eventually married Phyllis Atherton Drew.
Correspondence, newspaper clippings, church histories and
reports, legal papers and research papers documenting the family
history including the Portuguese exile. It is divided into two
different files. The first file, Family Papers, (Box 1-2) includes
letters discussing family and church life in Jacksonville and in St.
John, the death of their son, the death of Isabella, the death of
Eliza, James Paterson, Scottish relatives and his parent’s estate in
Scotland and family requests. Personal and business correspondence
of James during his years as a student and through the time of his
life in Bellingham. Speeches made during his political career.
Correspondence regarding the career of F. Sandeman. News clippings
about religious persecution in Madeira and Antonio’s return there
and the lives and careers of both his sons. Ephemera of F. Sandman’s
career include church cards, schedules of services from various
Parishes. There are typed and handwritten church minutes, parochial
reports and other documents from various churches. Court transcripts
of the J.P. de Mattos building litigation. File 2, Research Papers,
(Boxes 3-6) contain materials used for research for the book
Protestant Portuguese Exiles in Antebellum Illinois: Antonio de
Mattos, the Community and the Second Generation including court
records, different manuscripts/articles about Maderians and their
exile, letters and the history of Dr. Kalley and several church
records. Some of these articles are written in Portuguese. Materials
in this file date from the mid-nineteenth century forward.
Access: Open for Research Acc. No. 2000-14 Processed by: Cheryl Schnirring, August 2000, Connie Butts, 2000,
and Debbie Hamm, 2006
DeMattos Family Container List
Box 1
Folder
Contents
1
Group 1 - John Showers letter to James
Paterson, 29 April 1852
2
Group 1 - Isabella de Mattos letter to
James Paterson, 9 November 1852
3
Group 1 - Inscriptions of James Paterson
to Antonio and Isabella de Mattos,15 July 1853
4
Group 1 - Antonio de Mattos letter to
James Paterson, 25 February 1854
5
Group 1 - Isabel de Mattos letter to Mrs.
James Paterson, 6 May 1856
6
Group 1 - Isabella de Mattos letter to
James Paterson, 16 February 1858
7
Group 1 - Isabella de Mattos letter to
James Paterson, 16 July 1864?
8
Group 1 - Isabella de Mattos letter to
Eliza Paterson, May 1865
9
Group 1 - Isabella de Mattos letter to
Eliza Paterson, 13 August 1865
10
Group 1 - Antonio de Mattos letter to
Eliza Paterson, 1 May 1867
11
Group 1 - James Paterson letter to James
P. de Mattos, 2 November 1867
12
Group 1 - Unknown writer’s letter to
Antonio de Mattos, 15 January 1868
13
Group 1 - Antonio de Mattos letter to
Eliza Paterson, 2 March 1868
14
Group 1 - Antonio de Mattos letter to
Eliza Paterson, 2 January 1877
15
Group 3 - Newspaper clippings, 1860s and
1870s
16
Group 4 - Histories of Portuguese
Presbyterian Churches in Jacksonville
17
Group 5 - James Paterson, Eliza Paterson,
and related topics
18
Group 5 - N. McKay letter to Eliza
Paterson, 19 August 1874 (re: deaths of James Paterson and
Isabella de Mattos
19
Group 8 - Frederic Sandeman de Mattos –
Correspondence to, from and directly concerning, 1879, 1894,
1921
20
Group 9 - F. Sandeman de Mattos Christmas
cards, 1908, 1911
21
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Reports of
career, Leavenworth, Kansas, 1886
22
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Career in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 1886-1889
23
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Career in
Colorado, 1892
24
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Career in San
Antonio, 1889-1890
25
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Career in
Canada, 1909-1915
26
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Career in San
Francisco, Ca. ca. 1922-1924
27
Group 10 - F. S. de Mattos Miscellaneous
career information, 1886, 1992-1999
28
Group 12 - Lessie Tracy de Mattos
Background Notes, 1888-2000
29
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos
Correspondence, 1871-1889
30
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos
Correspondence, 1869-1884
31
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos
Correspondence, 1890-1909
Box 2
Folder
Contents
1
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos
Correspondence, 1890-1927
2
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos Correspondence
re: church controversy,
1903-1906
3
Group 13 - Carrie Moore Letters to J. P.
de Mattos, 1869-1870
4
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos
Correspondence, 1877-1879
5
Group 13 - J. P. de Mattos
Correspondence, 1881, 1893
6
Group 14 - J. P. de Mattos Speeches,
1902-1918 and n.d.
7
Group 14 - J. P. de Mattos Political
Letters, 1904 and undated
8
Group 14 - J. P. de Mattos Official
Correspondence, 1910-1916
9
Group 14 - J. P. de Mattos Mayoral
Proclamations and Reports,
1909-1915
10
Group 14 - J. P. de Mattos Newspaper
Articles, 1892-1929
11
Group 14 - Family Newspaper Clippings,
1894-1911 and n.d.
12
Group 15 - J. P. de Mattos Building
Litigation, 1891-1893
13
Group 17 - J. P. de Mattos papers re: de Mattos Building, ca. 1890-1902
14
Group 17 - J. P. de Mattos Commencement
Speeches and Invitations, 1872-1875
15
Group 17 - J. P. de Mattos Miscellaneous
Papers, 1875-1909
Research Papers File: Materials Arranged by Topic-Maderian Exiles