Albert Mathews

Albert Mathews was, with two exceptions — ex-President Huntington and John Durand—the oldest living member of the Century, having joined the Club in 1848, the year after the adoption of its Constitution, During the fifty-five years since elapsed he was very faithful in his attendance, interested in club life, and faithful to its spirit and traditions. Born in this city in 1820 he was graduated at Yale College, prepared for the bar at Harvard Law School, and began practice in 1845. He acquired an extensive business and gained especial reputation in the Courts of Equity and was one of the founders of the Bar Association. From his youth he had a strong leaning toward literature. He was a frequent contributor to the old Knickerbocker Magazine in the fifties, and was a friend and associate of Nathaniel P. Willis from the foundation of The Home Journal, while his writing took a wide general range, from the discussion of protection and the codification of the common law, through light essays and a love story, with A Few Verses (privately printed), to training for extemporaneous speaking. In letters he was known and very favorably known by his pseudonym of “Paul Siegvolk.” Mr. Mathews had many friends in the Century, where to the last he kept up his associations. His richly stored memory, his wide reading, his intimacy with the literary men of two generations, his kindness, his quiet humor, and his intellectual and moral rectitude made him a companion sadly to be missed and long and affectionately remembered.

Edward Cary
1904 Century Association Yearbook