Transcription contributed by Martie Callihan 28 January 2005

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The subject of this sketch was a prominent and influential pioneer and the father of Gov. Thomas Corwin. He was born in 1761, in Morris County, N. J.; removed with his father to the Redstone country, in Pennsylvania, thence to Bourbon County, Ky., and thence to what is now Warren County, Ohio, in 1798, and settled on a farm near where Lebanon now stands. He was one of the first Justices of the Peace in Warren County; a member of the first Board of County Commissioners; Representative in the Legislature by annual elections for ten years; Speaker of the House at the sessions of 1815 and 1824;

He was through life distinguished for his probity. He carried his notions of honesty much further than men generally do, condemning every shade of concealment or act calculated to deceive, as no better than direct fraud. All speculation, in the common acceptation of the term, was in his view wrong. He lived as a matter of choice on a farm, and took great pleasure in making it a pleasant home. In his habits, he was industrious, regular and abstemious, and did not permit any under his control to spend time idly. By this industry, he was able to raise and educate a family of nine children.

He was always a peacemaker, and very often selected as an arbiter to settle disputes between neighbors. All had the fullest confidence in his integrity. The office of Justice of the Peace he restored to its original intention of settling disputes, as well as constraining peace, and sometimes to effect this object, he resorted to measures, which, if not strictly legal, wore always really just. It is told of him, and doubtless truly, that a suit once being brought before him by a man who had been grossly defrauded in a trade of watches, he required both of the watches to be placed on the table before him as the evidence was given, and, the fraud being palpable, as he gave his decision, he took up the two watches, declared the contract of exchange void on account of fraud, and then restored to each his original watch.

Judge Corwin was a member of the Baptist Church at Lebanon for a period of thirty years. During most of that time he was the principal and most active Deacon of that church. When at home he was always at his post, and so constant was he in attendance at the meetings that if he was at any time missed when at home, it was known that something unusual had detained him. He was frequently one of the messengers of the church in the association, often a messenger of the association to some corresponding body. In the minutes of the Miami Association, the name of no layman occurs so frequently, as that of Matthias Corwin. As in society, so in the church of which he was so long a member, the greatest confidence was placed in him and much deference was yielded to his opinions. He possessed that firmness and independence of mind which led him to investigate all opinions for himself before he adopted them. He was, therefore, slow to receive any new dogma on any subject. This gave him, in the eyes of those not well acquainted with him, the appearance of being bigoted and prejudiced, but such was not his character.

He is described as above the medium height, very stout, with dark skin, black hair and black eyes. He died of bilious fever September 4, 1829, in the sixty-ninth year of his age. The following is an extract from an obituary notice of Matthias Corwin, which is believed to have been written by his intimate personal friend, Judge Francis Dunlevy:

"Judge Corwin, no doubt, partook of the frailties belonging to humanity, but we think we have never known one within the range of our knowledge who had fewer faults. If we should search for them we know not where we would find one. He was not great nor learned, nor possessed of any dazzling talents to attract the admiration of the world; but he had qualities much more enviable and enduring. He was the friend of the friendless, the comforter of the disconsolate, the affectionate and kind neighbor and relative, and, connected as he was through life, with religious, social and political communities, he was a