John Werner Matson, 1894-1903

Headstone GPS Coordinates:

Birth: 21 April 1894, Seattle, Kitsap County, Washington

Death: 26 October 1903, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None

John Werner Matson was born on April 21,1894, in Seattle, Washington, to Finnish immigrants John E. Matson, a fisherman, and Mathilde Matson née Elfring. He was baptized on June 18th at Gethsemane Lutheran Church in Seattle; his sponsors (godparents) were his uncle, Otto Matson, and Edla Matson née Isaacson, both residents of Seabeck. According to notes by the late historian Fred Just, John tragically died at the age of nine after slipping from a log boom on which he was playing and drowning. His death was recorded in the Immanuel Lutheran Church records in Seattle.

In recent years, John’s headstone had been stolen out of the cemetery, but was thankfully found and returned by the Kitsap Sheriff’s Office.