Alexander Ferdinand Mathews

Alexander Ferdinand Mathews (November 13, 1838 – December 17, 1906) was an American lawyer, banker, and university board director in the U.S. State of West Virginia. He served as a Confederate officer and aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Henry A. Wise during the American Civil War.

Early life

Alexander F. Mathews born on November 13, 1838, in Frankford, Greenbrier County, Virginia, to Eliza (Reynolds) and Mason Mathews. He was educated at the local Lewisburg Academy and enrolled in the University of Virginia in 1854 at the age of 15, where he earned a Masters of Arts in less than two years, graduating before his 18th year. This accomplishment was said to have been unprecedented in the history of the university at the time. He was a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity. He returned to the University of Virginia School of Law in 1857, and in the same year was admitted to the bar.

Due to the restrictions placed on former Confederates in the years after the war, Mathews was unable to practice the law. He taught for several years at the Lewisburg Academy, where he had received his early education. When restrictions for Confederates were lifted, he and his brother Henry M. Mathews opened a law firm under the name Mathews & Mathews, which became one of the most successful in the region.

In 1871, Mathews, along with Adam C. Snydor and Homer A. Holt, founded the first bank in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. Until 1888, this was the only bank between Staunton, Virginia and Charleston, West Virginia some 200 miles apart. He served as president or director of the bank continuously until his death.

He died on December 16, 1906, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and was buried at the Old Stone Church in Lewisburg, West Virginia.