MATTHEWS, WILLIAM CARVOSSO (1864-1905)

MATTHEWS, WILLIAM CARVOSSO, Methodist minister, Chatham circuit, 1900-03; b. Saint John, N.B., 5 Nov 1864, s/o Adam G. Matthews and Elizabeth J. MacAllister; m. 1893, Rebecca McDonald, of Wolfville, N.S.; d. Saint John, 24 Mar 1905.

William C. Matthews's father was a house carpenter in Saint John. He was of Methodist church affiliation, and his wife was a Baptist.

Admitted into the Methodist ministry on trial in 1889, Matthews was ordained in 1893. He served on eight different circuits in New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island before he was appointed to Chatham in 1900. In 1901 he was ill with tuberculosis and was granted leave to enter a sanitorium. He returned to his duties a few months later but continued to be unwell. He was assisted during 1901-02 by John J. Pinkerton, who was then a probationer for the ministry. In 1903 he was called to a pulpit in Saint John, but his rapidly failing health soon required him to retire. He died at age forty, leaving his wife, Rebecca McDonald, and a daughter as his survivors.