Valentine Mathes was born Feb. 13, 1846 in Durham, N.H., the son of John and Pamelia (Mathes) Mathes. He attended Durham schools and Colby Academy in New London, N.H.
He ran a general store in Durham for ten years and then go interested in the brick making business. This led him to the organization of the Piscataqua Navigation Company of which he was the prime mover and a director. The company started by hauling bricks, but gradually became a hauler of lumber between ports in Maine and New Hampshire. Mr. Mathes left Durham in 1879 and moved to Dover where he dealt in coal, wood, lumber, grain and groceries. In 1906 he disposed of most of his other businesses and became exclusively a manufacturer of lumber. He then started building homes, tenement houses and business blocks which he rented, until he became the largest individual taxpayer in Dover. He then went into the real estate business and turned the lumber business over to his son John.
Mr. Mathes married Mary E. Pendexter of Durham on Jan. 18, 1872. Mary who was the daughter of James M. and Mary Ann (Meserve) Pendexter was born Sept. 14, 1851. Valentine and Mary had five children:
- Fannie Pendexter – b. Aug. 13, 1874 – never married – was a school teacher – d. June 12, 1964
- John Ralph – b. Sept. 13, 1877 – married Lona DeWitt on Oct. 5, 1904 – president of Mathes Bros. & Co. – lived in Rollinsford – d. March 24, 1960
- Maurice Everett – b. Nov. 1, 1881 – married Alice Varney the daughter of George Varney of Dover and lived on Littleworth Road – d. Jan 18, 1956
- James Munroe – b. Dec. 23, 1888 – moved to Plandome, NY
- Margaret Joy – b. Nov. 23, 1890 – married Earl Dewey Hooker of Longmeadow, Mass. on June 1, 1920
Their three sons; John, James and Maurice (later known as M. Everett) all graduated from Dartmouth.
Valentine Mathes was Postmaster of Durham for ten years. After he moved to Dover he became a state representative from that town and was a State Senator at the time of his death. In 1889 he built the house at 11 Cushing Street where he spent the rest of his life. Mr. Mathes died Nov. 27, 1915 and his wife Mary Ellen died March 9, 1934. After the death of her parents, Fannie Mathes continued to live in the house at 11 Cushing Street until her death in 1964.
Photograph from Dover Public Library archives, text from Marston, Robert, Dover, NH: People, Businesses and Organizations: 1850 to 1950. Dover, NH, 2004.