Richard Matchett : Short Biography

Born in Derrycaw, Lurgan, Co Armagh in Northern Ireland.

Moved to USA in 1909. Therefor may not appear in 1911 census.

Member of Acacia Lodge No. 33 A.F and A.M.
Lifetime member Methodist Church
At age 38 he was working as emergency hospital nurse smelter, in Anaconda Montana USA.
After the concrete foundation was completed in May 1918, construction of the stack began on May 23, 1918 and was completed on November 30, 1918

Male Choir 1921

walked with a limp.

Became Deputy Sheriff
Policeman in 1920 retired Dec 1952
Aug 1954- Visited Ireland and family
loved gardening and flowers

Worked in Hardware Department at Copper City Commercial company

Buried at Lower Hill Cemetery, Sec M15. G S 3. Family lot west of west road.

Bamby's recollection: I was in my early teens when I first was in Anaconda and visited any of the Rasmussen family. There must have been 15 people in a little house there that day. It would have been about 1955 and who was there is a total blur in my mind. Anaconda was where the smelter was that processed the ore (copper, lead, mercury, gold, silver, and many more) hauled from nearby Butte (known as the "Richest Hill on Earth"). The processing was so polluting that there was nothing green in Anaconda--no grass, no trees-very stark. And the river that runs nearby (Clark Fork) was a brilliant turquoise from the waste after the smelting process. There were huge piles of slag, completely black, which shone like diamonds in the sun. The main feature which could be seen all the way to Deer Lodge to the west (no more than 20 miles) was a giant brick smokestack belching dark smoke. Of course the river had no fish. It was not a place that anyone would willingly visit. Now the town is green and many millions have been spent cleaning all of that up and the river has fish, etc.

The town used some of the black slag to fill the sand traps on their fairly new Jack Nicholas golf course. I have played it and it's quite interesting to play out of and certainly novel to look at as you drive by. There is a movement to remove it since there are now even more modern techniques to remove even more pollution. Don't really know if it passed or not.

I drive an hour each month to attend the local Powell County Genealogical Society meeting in Deer Lodge when I'm in Montana. Interestingly that meeting was yesterday. Because of my contact with you I had pulled out the few pictures I have of Mattie. I have not shown you the third one I found. It is again a picture of my grandmother Emma Anderson Beaumont and Mattie taken soon after she was married (about 1913-4 maybe). This little club had a luncheon yesterday to celebrate their 30th anniversary. I had looked at this third picture and realized I had reproduction clothing that was remarkably similar to what my grandmother was wearing. I happened to speak with our president about something else and mentioned that I was going to wear it to the meeting. She suggested I then show the picture and explain my contact with you. I used it as an opportunity to tell about my father's 10 Anderson first cousins, his 10 Rasmussen first cousins, and his 5 Beaumont first cousins--all raised within 30 miles of one another and then to point out that I have 6 first cousins--3 from my dad's side and 3 from my mother's side and had never lived close to any of them and to talk about how different the make up of the US is since my relatives first came here in 1859.

The fact that you sent this picture (which I have never seen) must mean that Richard's two families must have been in contact. Is that true? Genealogy research is endlessly interesting. I need to send this because my one goal for this morning was to make airplane reservations to visit my half brother in San Francisco and then fly on to Palm Springs, CA to join my husband who fled snowy Montana November 1. More later. Thanks again. Credit: Bamby

Appears to be a newspaper article in The Dillon Examiner 1939/03/01