An extraordinary life ended when Leonard Matthews passed to his reward Tuesday evening. Mr. Matthews died at the age of 102. We are familiar with claims of longevity, but as a rule they are not well authenticated. This is particularly true among the ancient colored brothers who knew General Jackson or even served as body guard to George Washington.

But the life of Leonard Matthews was of record. He was a man of affairs. There has been no obscurity in the growth of his family tree. This banker, traveler and nature-lover, was born in Baltimore City, as it was then called, on Dec. 17, 1828. There is not only ample record of his birth, but his schooling, including a study of medicine, is set forth in the enrollment books.

Here we have a man whose life spans the major development of our nation. When he was born railroads were a matter of grave doubt as to what they could do. The steamboat was a novelty. The entire west was a wilderness. Napoleon was a recent memory. Missouri had just been carved out of the Louisiana Purchase as a feeble member of the union. The telegraph, telephone, electric light, aviation and radiation were not even shaped in the wildest dreams. Tennyson had not written Locksley Hall. Jules Verne was not weaving his fancies across the web of imagination. Mark Twain had never touched a steering wheel and General Grant was not in the record of history. There was not division between the north and south. General Custer had not met the Sioux and Black Feet and Flat Heads, and if Geronimo lived he was merely a young Apache buck. A million buffalo rushed unhindered over the great plains. No white man had ever looked into the paint pots of the Yellowstone nor had seen the reiterant wonder known as Old Faithful. The Pony Express had not flashed from St. Joseph to Oakland. The Alamo was yet to be defended and the trail from the Panhandle to Ogallalla was to be made. Gold and Forty-nine were yet to have their place in history and there was no dream of the Panama Canal.

The story of what had happened since Leonard Matthews was born is the history of the nation as we now have it. In his hundred years this quiet and distinguished citizen had touched life at its every angle. He was always busy. Even at the time when most men have passed into oblivion he was a factor in his country’s activities. At the age of 90 he was a forceful figure in the movement of the community.

Mr. Matthews offered a brilliant example of a quiet and useful life. He was a rare exception. Natural endowments were his and of these he made much.