John Allen Mathews was an American frontiersman and slave owner who settled among the Osage Nation and later advocated and died for the Confederate States of America.

[3][2] He arrived with a seven-year-old son and a slave and the Osage were generally disappointed that the three men represented the fulfillment of their treaty promise of a functioning blacksmith for the nation.

He claimed 140-acre plot and imported slaves to build a large house, trading post, water well, blacksmith, stables, and horse racing track.

[8] In 1861, he was commissioned a Confederate Army captain and led a meeting on June 4, 1861, to organize Cherokee, Osage, and white people living in the area (then known as "the Neutral lands") to join the Confederacy.

[9] His recruiting included his son John Mathews Jr.[10] He eventual led a raid on Father Schoenmakers and the Jesuit run Osage Mission's post.