Representative Ebenezer Mattoon

Ebenezer Mattoon (August 19, 1755 – September 11, 1843) was a United States Representative from Massachusetts and a long-serving public official and militia officer in the Commonwealth. He was born in North Amherst, in the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on August 19, 1755. Raised in a rural community, he attended the common schools and also received private instruction, an educational foundation that prepared him for both collegiate study and later public service. In his youth he worked on family agricultural pursuits, an experience that would keep him closely connected to the farming interests of western Massachusetts throughout his life.

Mattoon entered Dartmouth College and graduated in 1776, at the height of the American Revolution. During this period he served in the Revolutionary Army, reflecting the widespread mobilization of New England men in the struggle for independence. After the war he returned to civilian life in Amherst, where he taught school and continued to engage in agriculture. His early career as an educator and farmer helped establish his standing in the community and laid the groundwork for his entry into local and state politics.

Following the Revolution, Mattoon embarked on a lengthy career in public office. He became a justice of the peace in Hampshire County, serving from 1782 to 1796, a position that involved local judicial and administrative responsibilities in the new Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was elected a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, where he represented his community in the state legislature, and later served in the Massachusetts State Senate. Concurrent with his civil offices, he advanced in the state militia, rising from the rank of captain to that of major general of the Fourth Division of the Massachusetts State Militia, a reflection of both his Revolutionary War experience and the continuing importance of the militia in early national defense.

Mattoon’s prominence in Hampshire County led to his appointment as Sheriff of Hampshire County, a post he held for twenty years. As sheriff he oversaw law enforcement and the execution of court orders in a large and predominantly rural jurisdiction in western Massachusetts. His combination of legislative service, judicial responsibilities as a justice of the peace, and executive authority as sheriff made him one of the key public figures in his region during the early decades of the republic.

Mattoon entered national politics at the turn of the nineteenth century. A member of the Federalist Party, he was elected to the Sixth Congress to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of Representative Samuel Lyman. He took his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives on February 2, 1801, and was subsequently reelected to the Seventh Congress, serving until March 3, 1803. During his tenure in Congress he represented a largely agrarian constituency in western Massachusetts at a time of intense partisan conflict between Federalists and Jeffersonian Republicans, although specific details of his committee assignments and legislative initiatives are not extensively documented.

After leaving Congress, Mattoon continued his involvement in state affairs. He again served as a state representative in the Massachusetts House in 1812, during the period surrounding the War of 1812, when questions of militia organization and federal-state relations were particularly prominent. He was appointed adjutant general of the Massachusetts Militia, serving with the rank of major general from 1816 to 1818, and in that capacity he was responsible for the organization, training, and administration of the state’s military forces. In 1817 he was elected captain of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts, one of the oldest chartered military organizations in the United States, and he served a one-year term in that ceremonial and leadership role.

Mattoon’s active public career came to an end when he became totally blind in 1818, prompting his retirement from most official duties. Despite this severe disability, he remained engaged in important civic matters and was chosen as a delegate to the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1820–1821, which considered revisions to the state’s founding document in light of changing political and social conditions. His participation in the convention underscored the continued respect he commanded in Massachusetts public life even after the loss of his sight.

Ebenezer Mattoon spent his later years in Amherst, where he had long been a prominent citizen, landholder, and public servant. He died there on September 11, 1843. His interment was in West Cemetery in Amherst, Massachusetts, where he was laid to rest among the community he had served in military, judicial, legislative, and congressional capacities over the course of more than half a century.