S. J. Mathes

On December 4, 1881, the firm contracted with Nathan Cole Jr. and Thomas Gardiner to publish their new newspaper, the Los Angeles Daily Times.

[2]With Otis as editor, Mathes served for a short time as business manager but then "we finally sold out our interests and the paper was reorganized.

He moved to Catalina Island off the Southern California coast, where he became the correspondent of the Times and was editor of a small daily.

[1][3] Mathes was born in Knoxville, Tennessee, the son of a Presbyterian clergyman who was a firm believer in abolition.

The father sold his slaves and moved to Sigourney, Iowa, where the younger Mathes received his education.

[4] An illness he contracted in 1900 remained with him until the day he died at age 78 in Los Angeles on January 28, 1927.