Thomas Matson, IV

Of those four, John Matson presents the most interesting success story, and a good illustration of the opportunities Salmon Brook offered to enterprising individuals. Born in Boston to a family of gunsmiths in 1664, he had come to Simsbury as a relatively young bachelor with his partner James miles, settling first in Scotland, and then venturing, in 1686, to Salmon Brook where he was offered better meadow land. Sometime before 1692 he married Mary Addams (probably the sister of other migrants from Massachusetts, Samuel and Daniel Addams) with whom he raised a family of six. Even as late as 1696, however, he was still near the bottom of the economic scale in Simsbury, according to the tax list that year, but he was higher up than he had been in 1693. He was not even allowed to take in his partner's widow (or abandoned wife) while he and Mary were building their lives at Salmon Brook. Yet over the years, he gradually added to his land holdings, picking up land at Crooked Brook, in the East Woods and , eventually, some 200 acres "under Manatuck" and "at the sawmill." He received grants, upon asking, in recognition of his value to the community (apparently Simsbury was anxious to have him as an "outliver"), as well as his obvious ability to make use of the land. Raising an extra steer or hog here and there, spinning yarn for the neighbors and assisted by their children as they grew in the early 1700's, the couple gradually added to their estate, so that by 1728, when John died, his inventory amounted to 382 pounds. in a society that still tried to pay attention to "estate and dignity," the Matsons are an example of the reality of opportunity, even for the poorest, on the frontier.