Edward Payson Mathewson was born on October 16, 1864 in Montreal, Canada. He was one of fourteen children of James Adams Mathewson and Amelia Seabury (Black) Mathewson. His father, a native of Strabane, Northern Ireland, was a wholesale grocer; his mother was a Nova Scotian descended from Massachusetts Loyalists.
Young Mathewson received a Bachelor of Applied Science degree in mining engineering from McGill University in 1885.
He worked for the Dominion Geological Survey in Ontario; then in 1886, through the influence of the geologist and chemist Thomas Sterry Hunt, he began his metallurgical career as an assayer for the Pueblo Smelting and Refining Company in Colorado, a practical training ground for numerous fledgling engineers. In 1889 Mathewson was named superintendent of the Pueblo plant and was building a reputation; in 1897 he came to the attention of Meyer Guggenheim and his son, who were welding together a vast smelting empire; they employed him to manage lead and copper refineries, first in Pueblo, then in Perth Amboy, N. J. ; Monterrey, Mexico; and Antofagasta, Chile. In 1901 after the Guggenheims merged their interest with the American Smelting and Refining Company, Mathewson was recalled to New York. He recommended closing the plant in Chile in the interest of efficiency, a decision that cost him his job. Unemployed for six months, in June 1902 he took charge of the blast furnaces of the Amalgamated Copper Company (soon to be the Anaconda Copper Mining Company) in Montana. Of the five furnaces, never more than two had been running at one time, but Mathewson managed to keep all five in operation. In the following year he took charge of the company's new Washoe Reduction Works at Anaconda, Mont. , a plant that he made the "show-place of the metallurgical world" before he left it in 1916.
In 1905 he conducted important investigations of the damage of smelter fumes to animals and vegetation; with Frederick Laist, he made advances in the lixiviation of copper tailings, the precipitation of copper by sponge iron produced by direct reduction of iron ore, and the leaching and electrolytic precipitation of zinc. Like the old Pueblo Company, Anaconda became a kind of postgraduate school for young metallurgists who served under Mathewson and Laist, his successor. In addition, Mathewson took charge of erecting smelting and refining plants at Tooele, Utah, and East Chicago, Ind. , for an Anaconda subsidiary, the International Smelting and Refining Company; he also found time to consult as far afield as India, Burma, and Japan. Having already worked intensively in lead and copper, Mathewson in 1916 moved into nickel when he became general manager of the British America Nickel Corporation, with headquarters in Toronto. Two years later he became director and consulting metallurgist of the American Smelting and Refining Company in New York City. Soon, however, he opened his own consulting office in New York, which he maintained until 1926, when he was named professor of administration of mineral industries at the University of Arizona, a position he held until retirement in 1942. Mathewson died on July 13, 1948 of arteriosclerotic heart disease at his home in Tucson, Arizona. Following cremation, his ashes were scattered over Mount Lemmon near Tucson.
Mathewson increased the size of the Washoe Reduction Works plant at Anaconda, Mont. , that is already the world's largest plant, as well as he devised a furnace system that could be lengthened indefinitely, depending upon the ore supply, and any part of which could be repaired without halting the operation of the rest of the plant. Along with expanded capacity, he brought savings in fuel consumption and slag loss. Earlier he had invented a tapping device for lead and copper furnaces. Mathewson's stature in the profession was recognized by honorary degrees from McGill University and the Colorado School of Mines; by a decoration from the Japanese government; by gold medals of achievement from the Institution of Mining and Metallurgy (London, 1911) and the Mining and Metallurgical Society of America (1917); and by election to the presidency of the American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers in 1923.
Mathewson was an Episcopalian.
Mathewson was a Republican.
Mathewson was a popular man, civic-minded and moderate in his attitudes toward labor.
On June 25, 1890, he married Alice Barry. They had six children: Alice Seabury, Grace, Marymet, Gertrude, Elizabeth, and Edward Payson.
