Archer Mathews

Biography

Archer Mathews was born in 1744 in Augusta County, Virginia to John and Anne (Archer) Mathews. His parents were among the first settlers of Augusta County who had immigrated to America during the Scotch-Irish immigration of 1710-1775. On his father's death, he moved to Greenbrier County, where brothers Sampson and George had established the county's first mercantile outpost.

In Greenbrier County, he was saddler and was active in the Virginia frontier skirmishes between European settlers and local Native American tribes. When Fort Randolph was erected at the site of the Battle of Point Pleasant of Dunmore's War, he acted as commissary, purchasing a large drove of cattle and hogs for the post. He served as one of Greenbrier County's first magistrates, overseeing road construction, surveying the land, and holding court. He was elected to the Virginia House of Delegates from Greenbrier County from 1780-1782, and in the latter year was appointed one of eight original trustees of the city of Lewisburg, Greenbrier County on its foundation by the Virginia General Assembly. As trustee he divided the city land into plots to be sold. One such plot was bought by a nephew, Joseph Mathews, who was the grandfather of West Virginia Governor Henry Mason Mathews.

In later life he was a charter member of the Greenbrier Masonic Lodge A.F. & A.M. when it was chartered by the Grand Lodge of Virginia on December 5, 1796. This lodge is the oldest Masonic Lodge west of the Allegheny Mountains. He died c. 1796 and was buried at the Old Stone Church in Lewisburg, West Virginia.