John Allen Mathews was a native of
Kentucky with
Virginia roots. Mathews worked as a
blacksmith sent by the United States to work among Indian tribes to fulfil treaty obligations. He worked for the
Seneca tribe in 1839 before being sent to work in the
Osage Nation in 1840. He was one of the first white people to settle in
Labette County, Kansas and is one of the founders of
Oswego, Kansas. He arrived with a seven-year-old son and a
slave and the Osage were generally disappointed that the three men represented the fulfillment of their treaty promise of a functioning blacksmith for the nation. He claimed a plot and imported slaves to build a large house, trading post, water well, blacksmith, stables, and
horse racing track. He married Mary Ann Williams, the daughter of
William S. Williams and his Osage wife A-Ci'n-Ga, in the mid-1830s. The couple had two children, Sue and Aloysius Allen, before Mary's death in 1843. After her death, he married her sister Sarah Williams and they had four children (John, Janes,
William Shirley Mathews, and Edward Martin) before her death in 1856. He gained a reputation as a fair trader among the Osage (rare for white traders in the era) and was a strong advocate for
slavery in the United States. ==American Civil War and death==