"Portrait and Biographical Record of Portland and Vicinity, Oregon." Authors: "a
compilation of this work....by a number of writers".  Chapman Publishing Co;
Chicago, 1903. p. 558.
 
JOHN MATTHIESEN

     The manager and proprietor of the Hotel Zur Rheinpfalz is an exceedingly
helpful example of the class of successful men who have evolved much from a
childhood absorbed in responsibility and cheerlessness. His present prominence
among the hotel men of the country has been reached after much tribulation, and
much juggling with adverse circumstances. The fourth oldest of the eight
children in the family of John Matthiesen, he was born in Schleswig-Holstein,
northern Germany, February 3, 1857, the paternal farm being scarcely large
enough to support so large a household. His environment was characterized by all
around poverty, and the lad of nine, namesake of his father, had the
responsibility of livelihood resting heavily upon his shoulders. Before that he
had at intervals attended the district school for one or two months in the
winter time, but this was uncertain, as was also everything else but work. The
little fellow applied himself to work on farms of the surrounding neighbors,
and the general dreariness of his lot may be imagined when it is known that his
last year in his native land brought him in $6 and a suit of clothes.
     With his brother, Thomas, Mr. Matthiesen started for America in 1875, he
being at that time eighteen years old. They left Hamburg on the Clapstock, and
arrived in New York eighteen days after embarking. They came on to Lyons, Iowa,
where John found work on a farm for eighteen months at what seemed to him
enormous wages, judged from the standard of Wurtemberg prices. This $18 per
month for eighteen months helped him out considerably, and gave him a great
impression of the possibilities of America. With the money above expenses he
came to California in 1877, and in San Francisco found employment in an hotel.
The next year, in 1878, he made his first trip to Portland on the old Ajax, and
there found employment in the old New York hotel. After six months he removed to
the farm of Mr. Cooley, Washington county, Ore., where he remained for eighteen
months, after which he homesteaded a claim on the Tualatin river, the right to
which he afterward sold to his brother. He lived on a farm in Amity for one
summer, and then removed to Independence, where he completed his trade as a
cook, an occupation in which he had long been interested.
     In the spring of 1880, Mr. Matthiesen came back to Portland, entering the
employ of Ernest Haus, of the Prescott house, and soon after entered the employ
of Henry Rodfurth of the old New York hotel, as chief cook. In 1882 he started
in business for himself at the Narrow Gauge hotel at the corner of First and
Jefferson streets, where his marriage with Alvina Hoehler occurred in 1883. In
the fall of the same year Mr. Matthiesen became chief cook at the Globe hotel;
later filling a similar position at the Oregon hotel, still later going to the
International hotel. In 1887 this chef with the firmly established reputation
started in the hotel business on his own responsibility, and on the corner of
Front and Main streets established the Zur Rheinpfalz, which he ran with
increasing success until the lease ran out in 1890. Nothing daunted, he gathered
together his furnishings and removed to his present location on Front and
Madison streets, where he has built up about the largest hotel business in the
city, the Zur Rheinpfalz easily ranking with the most elaborate, comfortable and
well managed hostelries on the coast. Besides his hotel business Mr. Matthiesen
has several interests in Portland, and his faith in the future has been
evidenced by the purchase of considerable town real estate. The first wife of
Mr. Matthiesen died in 1895, leaving two children, Edward and William. His
second marriage occurred in Portland in 1898, and was with Meta Winters, who was
born in Bremen, Germany, and who is the mother of one child, Walter. Mr.
Matthiesen is fraternally associated with the Knights of Pythias and the Sons of
Herman, of which latter .organization he is past grand president. He is past
president of the Eintracht Society, a member of the German Aid Society, and of
the Turn Verein. In political affiliations he is a Republican.


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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in March 2008 by Diana Smith.  Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.