John W. Matson - Sunday's Obituary

This was transcribed from an obituary card in the Mercer County Library in Celina, Ohio: 

Matson, John Wilson 
b. 18 January 1857 Clinton County, Ohio 
d. 17 July 1951 Jefferson Twp.(Ohio) 
bd. Riverside-Ketcham  Ripley 

An update was made to the card on 5-11-1995: 
fa. Thomas Jefferson Matson - died in Civil War 
mo. Mary Ann Pond 

Thanks to Marj for sending me the information! Marj and I caught some typos in the cards we had more information on, so I was a bit suspicious of the information on this card.

I found a death certificate for a John William Matson in Mercer County, Ohio with matching dates and places, but some of the other information was quite different.

According to the death certificate, he was John William Matson and his parents were Isaac and Ann Watson! So, which one is incorrect, Watson or Matson? The Matson name is carefully printed, while the Watson name is done in cursive. It's possible that what looks like a cursive "W" was really an "M". I found matches for a John Matson of the same age in the 1870 and 1880 census records for Hopewell Township, Mercer County, Ohio, but nothing so far after that. Hopewell is where my Creeden and Matson ancestors settled, so it is interesting to find that some Matsons were there ahead of them. 

Updating this post to add a newspaper obituary from the Lima News on July 19, 1951. The mystery is solved and the last name really was Matson!

 John Matson

   ROCKFORD, July 19-- Services were held at 2 p. m. Thursday in Ketcham's funeral home, Rockford, for John (Bill) Matson, 94, who died at 5 a. m. Tuesday in the Mercer-co Home. Dr. John Gregory was in charge of the services, with burial in Riverside cemetery.
   Born Jan. 18, 1857, in Clinton-co, he had lived in Rockford 55 years and had been a patient at the county home for the last six months.
   Survivors include a stepdaughter, Mrs. David Freewalt, Route 3, Rockford, five grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.