Gaston, Joseph.  "Portland, Oregon Its History and Builders."  Vol. 3. 
Chicago and Portland, S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911. p. 171.
 
MATHIAS SPURGEON
 
     Vancouver is the home of many men who are living retired — men whose
business ability has carried them from a humble financial position to a place of
affluence, now enabling them to rest from further labor. Such is the history of
Mathias Spurgeon, who has reached the age of seventy-two years, and is enjoying
the fruits of his former toil in a pleasant home in Vancouver. He was born in
Iowa, April 22, 1838, and was reared there to the age of fourteen years. During
that period he had had the privilege of attending school for only one winter.
Both of his parents being dead, he sought the opportunities of the Pacific
northwest, making his way first to Oregon territory and then crossing the river
to Vancouver in November, 1852. The journey westward was made over the old
Oregon trail with ox teams and a covered wagon. There were five families in the
party and they traveled after the slow and tedious manner of the times,
experiencing hardships and privations by want of pasturage and water for the
stock. After reaching his destination, Mr. Spurgeon went to live with William
Dillon, a pioneer settler, under whom he worked until twenty-one years of age.
He then made his way to the mountains arid engaged in mining for a year, but was
very unsuccessful. Subsequently he engaged in driving team for a year and thus
made back the money he had lost in his mining venture. He afterward rented land
which he cultivated for three years, during which period he saved enough to
enable him to purchase the property, which consisted of one hundred and sixty
acres. He still owns that place and one hundred acres that he purchased later,
making a total of two hundred and sixty acres which return to him a good annual
income. He continued to carry on farming and stock raising until 1905, and
annually harvested good crops while his stock also found a ready sale on the
market. With advancing years he decided to put aside the more active duties of
the farm and, renting his place, removed to Vancouver, where he built a home and
lives retired. In the mean time, he had bought and sold much land in this
vicinity, and had realized good returns from his investments.
 
     On the 21st of October, 1877, Mr. Spurgeon was married to Miss Olive
Dillon, who was born in Oregon and is a daughter of Jeremiah and Roxie Dillon,
early pioneer settlers of this locality. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Spurgeon have been
born the following named sons and daughters: Mrs. C. W. Nickols, of Vancouver;
Mrs. H. Brooks, who has two children: Dean and Dale; John, who is engaged in
fruit-raising in Vancouver; Mathias O., who is married and has one child, Olive
Alice, and is the proprietor of a confectionery store in the same city ; and Leo
and Gerald, at home.
 
     Mr. Spurgeon is a member of the Grange of Vancouver. He has never regretted
his determination to seek the opportunities of the northwest. His early youth
was a period of earnest, unremitting toil, and in fact on the guide posts of his
life he has always found the word labor. What he has undertaken he has carried
forward to success, and it is this which now numbers him among the substantial
pioneer residents of his adopted city.
 

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Submitted to the Oregon Bios. Project in July 2017 by Diana Smith. Submitter
has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned above.