Howard Matthews was born in the City of Philadelphia in 1817. The following year his family moved to Kentucky where he was eventually apprenticed as a printer in Lexington. Following his apprenticeship he worked for a number of years as a journeyman printer. At different times he held various positions of trust and responsibility, among which were those of teller in the bank of the Ohio Life Insurance and Trust Company, auditor of Hamilton County, president of the La Fayette Insurance Company and paymaster of the United States Volunteers. The manner in which he discharged his responsibilities in these positions earned him the respect and confidence of those with whom he came in contact.
M. W. Brother Matthews received his Masonic degrees in Independence Lodge No. 76 of Missouri, having received his Master Mason’s Degree on November 12, 1846. He subsequently received his York Rite and Scottish Rite degrees in Cincinnati, having returned to Cincinnati in the spring of 1847.
On January 27, 1848 he affiliated with Cincinnati Lodge No. 133 and remained a member of that lodge thereafter. He was elected Worshipful Master of Cincinnati Lodge No. 133 in 1856 and was re-elected to that post for five consecutive terms.
In October 1861 he was elected Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Ohio, and the following year, being out of the state, he was not re-elected to that office. In 1863 he was again elected to the office of Deputy Grand Master and continued to fill that office until October 1867 when he was elected Grand Master. He was re-elected to the position of Grand Master of Masons in Ohio in October of 1868. It is reported that in all of these positions he devoted the best energies of his mind, that he as social in disposition and affable in manner.
A scant six months after retiring from the position of Grand Master he unexpectedly died on March 16, 1870. Grand Master A. H. Newcomb of Toledo presided at the Masonic serviced held for M. W. Brother Matthews. The Cincinnati Commercial reported the attendance at Most Worship Brother Matthews’ funeral to be “in the hundreds”, with representatives from many Ohio Symbolic Lodges, York Rite Bodies, Scottish Rite and over a hundred Knight Templars” some on horseback” taking part. The funeral procession, more than half a mile in length, passed through a crowd that densely lined a mile or more of the thoroughfare.
M. W. Brother Matthews was interred in the Spring Grove Cemetery, Section 54, Lot 46, Cincinnati, Ohio on March 20, 1870.