James Curtis Matheney, M. D. The most progressive principles of medical and surgical science find expression in the career of Dr. James Curtis Matheney, a general practitioner of Lindsay, since 1908, president of the Garvin County Medical Society, and a potent influence in securing to the children of this community the best possible educational opportunities. Doctor Matheney’s professional ambitions unfolded on the farm near Cookeville, Putnam County, Tennessee, where he was born June 29, 1880. He is of French descent, the family having originated in France, where the name was spelled Mathenee, and from whence it moved to Ireland. From the latter country three brothers emigrated to America, settling respectively in Pennsylvania, Virginia and North Carolina, and all their families later coming to the West. Doctor Matheney is a descendant of the last named branch.

David Houston Matheney, grandfather of Doctor Matheney, was a farmer in Putnam County, Tennessee, until the outbreak of the war between the states, at which time he enlisted in the Confederate army. He died at the age of thirty-five years, probably while a prisoner of war. L. D. Matheney was born at Cookeville, Tennessee, August 28, 1856, and has spent his entire life in that locality, having devoted his energies to farming and raising stock. He is one of the well known and public spirited men of his community, a faithful member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and a democrat in his political views. Mr. Matheney married Rhiba Alice Gross, who was born at Albany, Kentucky, April 14, 1806, and to this union there have been born six children: William Porter, principal of the Vanderbilt Training School, at Elkton, Kentucky; Nancy Lula, deceased, who was the wife of Mr. Elrod, a telegraph operator: Dr. James Curtis; Harva Jarvis, who resides on the farm at Cookeville with his parents; and Haskell and Paschal, twins, who are students at the Vanderbilt Training School.

James Curtis Matheney attended the public schools of Cookeville, and in 1901 entered the sophomore class of Branham and Hughes Training School, at Springhill, Tennessee, from which institution he was graduated in 1903. During the following term he taught school at Cedar Hill, Tennessee, and in July, 1904, entered the University of Kentucky, where he spent two years in the medical department. This course of study was followed by two years at Vanderbilt University, Nashville, Tennessee, from which he was graduated in 1908 with the degree of Doctor of Medicine, and since that time has returned to Vanderbilt for post-graduate work. He first began practice in 1908, at Erin Springs, Oklahoma, but after six months came to Lindsay, which has since continued as his field of endeavor. He has a general medical and surgical practice with offices in the Masonic Temple Building, and is enjoying a large and constantly growing professional business, his fine abilities and talents having attracted to him a clientèle of the most desirable kind.

The esteem in which Doctor Matheney is held by his fellow-practitioners is evidenced by his presidency of the Garvin County Medical Society. He belongs also to the Oklahoma State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. His political belief makes him a democrat, and at this time he is acting as treasurer of the school board of Lindsay. With his family, he belongs to the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. He is also widely and favorably known in fraternal and social circles, belonging to Lindsay Lodge No. 248, Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons, of which he was worshipful master in 1913; the Woodmen of the World; the Brotherhood of American Yeomen; the Modern Woodmen of America; the Beta Theta Pi, a Greek letter college fraternity; and the Phi Chi, a Greek letter medical fraternity; and is a demitted member of the defunct Lindsay Chapter No. 62, Royal Arch Masons.

Doctor Matheney was married June 5, 1912, at Cedar Hill, Tennessee, to Miss Maud Long, daughter of J. C. Long, a tobacco warehouse owner of Cedar Hill. To this union there have been born two children: Betty Long, born October 11, 1913; and Sally Jo, born October 25, 1915.