Wordsworth Bryant Matterson (1859-1929)

From the Syracuse Journal, July 26, 1929.

  Lifelong New Yorker Wordsworth Bryant Matterson is likely the only Empire State political figure to share a name with famed English poet William Wordsworth, and during a long career as an attorney in Chenango County carved a career for himself as a "shrewd and tactful" trial lawyer.  Matterson earns placement here on the site due to his being District Attorney for Chenango County, and at the time of his death in 1929 held the record for the longest term of service in that office, having held that post for three consecutive terms. The son of Menzo and Sarah Delilah (Dutton) Matterson, Wordsworth Bryant Matterson was born on July 4, 1859, in South Edmeston, New York.

  Deciding upon a career in law at an early age, Matterson enrolled at the Albany Law School and graduated in the class of 1883. He joined with his cousin, Oscar F. Matterson, in the latter's law practice in New Berlin, New York, and later removed to the neighboring town of Bainbridge to continue practice. Matterson's residence in Bainbridge saw him elected to his first political office, that of township supervisor, and in that capacity represented it on the Chenango County Board of Supervisors.

  Wordsworth B. Matterson married his first wife Ella M. Butts (1857-1898) in the late 1880s and had two children L. Lucile (died in infancy in 1888) and Warren Butts Matterson (1890-1964). Following Ella's death in 1898, he remarried on July 26, 1899, to Helena Susan Curtiss (1875-1940). The couple were wed for nearly three decades and had two sons, Curtis Dutton (1901-1974) and Clarence Hovey Matterson (born 1909).

  In 1892 Matterson won election as district attorney for Chenango County, and soon after relocated to Norwich, New York. Early in his tenure in that post, Matterson was a prosecuting attorney in the case of Edward Tracy, then on trial for the murder of his aunt Minerva. Matterson and fellow attorney D.L. Atkyns proved successful in presenting their case, with Tracy being convicted of the crime and sent to Auburn Prison. Despite this conviction, Tracy developed a record as a model prisoner, and a decade following his conviction gained an advocate in the person of Wordsworth Matterson, the man who helped convict him. Matterson would even travel to Albany in December 1905 to "plead for a pardon" for Tracy, and in January 1907, following the commutation of his sentence, Tracy was freed.

  Matterson would be returned to the post of district attorney on two more occasions, and at the time of his leaving office in 1901 had held that office more times than any other occupant. He later moved to Syracuse and joined in a law partnership with Frank Miller, and following Miller's death took on W.F. Quin as a partner. Matterson was later joined by his son Curtis, with their firm name undergoing a name change to Matterson, Quin, Higgins, and Toumey.

  A member of several civic and fraternal groups in his region, Matterson was active in the Syracuse Elks Lodge, the Chenango and Onondaga Bar Associations, and was long a parishioner in the Presbyterian Church. In the weeks before his death, he took an extended visit to his summer home in New London, Connecticut, where he died on July 26, 1929, a few days following his 70th birthday. He was survived by his wife and sons and was later returned to New York for burial at the Riverview Cemetery in Oxford, Chenango County.

From the New Berlin Gazette, August 8, 1929.