W.B. Mathews

William Burgess Mathews (1865–1931) was a "pioneer figure in the water development program of Los Angeles" and chief counsel for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. He was also city attorney of Los Angeles. A funeral service was conducted by the Reverend Herbert Booth Smith in Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and burial followed in Inglewood Cemetery.

Vocation Water law Mathews became known as "one of the outstanding water law attorneys of the West". when he was associated with LeCompte Davis and later with Thomas J. Curran.

It was under the direction of Mr. Mathews that the city consummated the purchase of the City Water Company, a step that started the city on its long march toward obtaining an adequate water supply. He also directed the legal battle that resulted in the city acquiring the right to the water in the Los Angeles River. He bore the brunt of the legal work in the city's water development program in the Owens Valley . . . . but in August he dropped out because, he said, the committee in charge had not allowed enough time for campaigning.

Legacy

Mathews was memorialized in the name of Lake Mathews (previously the Cajalco Reservoir) in Riverside County, the western terminus for the Colorado River Aqueduct. It was dedicated to him in November 1940.