Matthews (Nathan Jr.) is born in the West End.

The son of a wealthy real estate investor, Nathan Matthews Jr. attends the Dixwell School, graduates from Harvard College and Harvard Law School, and travels in Europe. He married Ellen Sargent in 1884, helps found the Young Men’s Democratic Club of Massachusetts in 1888, serves as mayor of Boston (1891-94), lectures on municipal government at Harvard, and serves as the first chairman of the Boston Finance Commission in 1907.* Described by the New York Times as a “brilliant orator, and a fearless champion of clean politics and decent methods of administration,” Matthews dies in 1894.