Claude Matthews

Family and background Matthews was born in Bethel, Kentucky, on December 14, 1845, the son of Thomas A. and Eliza Ann Fletcher Matthews. His mother died when he was four months old, and his father sent him to be raised by an aunt in Kentucky. His father remarried in 1858, and he returned to live with them near Danville, Kentucky. He worked on the family's farm and attended Centre College and graduated in 1867. The same year he moved to Clinton, Indiana, where he met Martha Whitcomb, the daughter of former state governor James Whitcomb. The couple married on January 1, 1868, and had three children. Early political career Matthews purchased a farm and began to raise livestock and produce grain. He became prominent in the area because of his breeding program and the qualify cattle and horses he produced. In 1872 he was one of the founding members of the National Association of Breeders of Short-Horn Cattle. In 1876 he was elected to a seat in the Indiana House of Representatives and served a single term. In 1882 he ran for the state senate, but was defeated. In 1890, Democratic party leaders approached Matthews and encouraged him to run for Indiana Secretary of State. He was one of several men the party was grooming as a potential candidate for governor in the upcoming election. Democrats at that time were losing members to the Populist Party, and were seeking farmers to lead the party and help win back farming voters. He campaigned against Republican John B. Stoll and won the election by 20,000 votes. He continued in that office for two years before resigning to run for governor. He used his position to become a well-known advocate of the unlimited coinage of silver. ==Governor of Indiana 1893-1897==

1892 election Matthews was nominated to run as the Democratic candidate for governor in 1892 and ran in the fall election against incumbent Republican governor Ira Joy Chase and Populist candidate Leroy Templeton. The campaign focused primarily on depressed farm prices and farmers desires to inflate the currency to alleviate debt problems. Matthews won the election by seven thousand votes. The Populist party failed to make significant gains in the state, and the election marked the party's decline in the state. Conflict with the General Assembly As the 1894 mid-term elections neared, Republicans were able to secure blame for the poor economic situation on the Democrats, and swept into power in the statehouse, taking strong majorities in both houses. The legislative districts created in 1890 were a subject of intense debate at the time; the legislature during the term of Governor Isaac P. Gray had created several gerrymander districts that favored Democrats. Republicans had contested the districting in the courts, who ruled the state must be redistricted. The Democrats had done so in 1893, but the Republicans overrode their redistricting upon taking power, and created their own plan which effectively reversed the situation and created pro-Republican gerrymander districts. 1896 presidential bid Before his term as governor ended, Matthews was nominated by David Turpie to run for president at the 1896 Democratic National Convention held in Chicago. Matthews was a leading candidate until the sixth ballot when his supporters switched to William Jennings Bryan after Bryan delivered an impassioned speech. Matthews left office and returned to his farm. Later life and death He continued making occasional public appearances and delivering speeches. While delivering a speech in Montgomery County, he suffered a stroke and died three days later in an Indianapolis hospital on August 28, 1898. His body was returned to his home town and buried in a Clinton cemetery. ==Electoral history==