[2] Matthew was born in Ireland in 1840 and emigrated with his family to London, Ontario, Canada as a young boy.
[6] He arrived at the University of Notre Dame in September 1868 and served initially as an instructor of French.
[10] On October 2, 1885, Colovin shot and killed Dan Steel, an African American man, in Sunflower County, Mississippi.
Colovin was charged with murder but despite the “almost universal opinion of all who closely followed the evidence in the case [and] regarded a conviction as beyond question,” was acquitted.
[16] Due to continued problems with alcohol, Colovin was involuntarily committed to the Central Kentucky Asylum for the Insane on May 21, 1900.