1844-1905
Matthias J Bovee, Matt as he was called, was born January 17, 1844 in Amsterdam, New York to Benedict A and Catherine Bovee. He was the grandson of Matthias Jacob Bovee, one of the early pioneers who settled in the Town of Eagle Wisconsin in 1843. Benedict A Bovee moved his wife and child, Matt, to Wisconsin in 1844 and farmed his father’s land in the Town of Eagle.

Matt and his brother Frank worked the farm with his father until August of 1862 when he enlisted in the 24th Wisconsin Infantry along with twelve other young men from Eagle to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. He was wounded in the leg in May 1864 in skirmishes with Confederates at Dallas, Georgia. Matt was mustered out of service after the war in 1865, returned to Eagle and continued farming. In 1869, he married Mary Perkins from Mukwonago and continued farming until the mid-1870’s when he, Mary, and their adopted daughter Flora moved to Beloit Kansas where his wife’s relatives ran a hotel business. By 1880, he was proprietor of a bowling alley and saloon there, but his war injury gave him trouble so he filed for disability with the Veterans Association.

Matt later moved back to Eagle and ran a hotel, saloon, and restaurant in the old Railroad House, attached to the west end of the Diamond Hotel. He’s listed as a hotel keeper in the 1900 census and shows up as Proprietor of the “Commercial Hotel” in a 1900 advertisement.

In 1900 Matt was admitted to the Veteran’s Home in Milwaukee with a bad leg, varicose veins, and sciatica where he received a $12 monthly disability check. Though he was able to leave to the Veteran’s Home from time to time to visit friends and relatives back in Eagle, he eventually died on August 6, 1905 and is buried at Oak Ridge Cemetery in Eagle.

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