[2] A funeral service was conducted by the Reverend Herbert Booth Smith in Immanuel Presbyterian Church, and burial followed in Inglewood Cemetery.

He also directed the legal battle that resulted in the city acquiring the right to the water in the Los Angeles River.

He bore the brunt of the legal work in the city's water development program in the Owens Valley .

[2]In 1929, Mathews took on a similar job with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and he was a member of the Colorado River Commission.

[2] In July 1906 Mathews announced his candidacy for nomination on the Republican ticket for Congress,[8] but in August he dropped out because, he said, the committee in charge had not allowed enough time for campaigning.