FACES OF THE CENTURY--FACES WHO MADE NEWS IN THE 1900S--SCHELLE MATHEWS: TURNOW'S SHERIFF

	There have been thousands of news stories that have appeared in The Vidette over the past 100 years. So, as we celebrate the year 2000, we have decided to run a weekly feature on influential people of Montesano and Grays Harbor County who made a name for themselves during the past 100 years.

	Schelle Mathews, the man who, as 'sheriff, led the forces which tracked down and killed John Turnow in 1913 in the most famous manhunt of the Olympic peninsula, died peacefully in his sleep in California. He was 82 years old.

	Mathews was born on September 9, 1873 in Evansvilla, Minnesota. He became a blacksmith by trade, and after coming to the Grays Harbor area in the early 1900s, he was employed by the Wynooche Timber Company and Clemons Logging Company in that capacity, and he operated his own smithy in Elma for a considerable time.

	He married Amanda Quimby in 1905. Mrs. Mathews came to Montesano with her parents when she was 10 years old. She was a lifelong and well respected teacher and school superintendent in Melbourne and Montesano. The local PEO chapter named a scholarship in her honor. She died in February, 1946 and is buried in the Wynooche Cemetery.

	Mathews served as deputy sheriff for some years, then was elected sheriff on his own in 1912. He presided over the climax of the long search for Turnow, which concluded in the then remote wilderness of the Wynooche Ox Bow country. Turnow had fled into the wilderness after allegedly killing his teenage nephews, the Bauer twins, and lived in solitude for over two years while a ceaseless search for him continued. In the search, Deputy Sheriffs Colin McKenzie and A.V. Elmer were killed. Characteristically, Sheriff Mathews had given orders for none of the searchers to pursue their quarry until he and a large force of men could come to the scene where Turnow was believed to be hiding.

	However, the trail proved hot, and two men, Louis Blair and Charles Lathrop, followed it. Both were shot by Turnow.

	Deputy Sheriff Giles Quimby then tracked the outlaw to his lair, and at the risk of his own life, killed him. And, characteristically, Sheriff Mathews disclaimed any credit for his own office for the successful conclusion of the long and tragic hunt. Montesano native Ron Fowler wrote a novel about the Turnow incident, Guilty by Circumstance, in 1998.

	Mathews also figured prominently in the investigation of Billy Gohl, the notorious Aberdeen mass murderer. Both cases won national attention.

	Mathews left Montesano in 1945, lived in Olympia for a few years before retiring to San Diego, near his son Vernon. He died in January 1956 and is buried in Lemon Grove, California. From the January 26, 1956 Vidette: His service as a peace officer for this county covered some of the area's most hectic days. He gained a reputation, not only for his ability and consideration for others, but for strict honesty.--The Vidette, April 6, 2000