Joseph Warren Matthews

Joseph Warren Matthews (1812 – August 27, 1862) was an American politician who served as Governor of Mississippi from 1848 to 1850.

Biography Matthews was born in 1812 near Huntsville, Alabama. During early adulthood, he came to Mississippi as a government surveyor, engaged in laying out the newly purchased Indian lands. Soon after the Chickasaw purchase, he relocated to Marshall County, Mississippi, near the now extinct town of Salem, to become a farmer.

Matthews left office in 1850. In 1862, he accepted a commission in the Confederate army, but died in transit at Palmetto, Georgia on his way to Richmond, Virginia. There is a large monument to Matthews located in the Matthews family cemetery on his former plantation. This monument is in a wooded area approximately due north from the intersection of Hoover Road and Bonds Loop, and is not visible from the road. It was placed by the Sons of Confederate Veterans.