Albert I. Mather was born around 1842 in Maine to Israel and Irene Mather. His father was a carpenter who owned $1,800 of real estate and $600 of personal property by 1860. The family lived in Rockland, Maine, and by 1860, Mather was working as a clerk in an apothecary shop.

 

He enlisted in the Union army on November 4, 1864, and he mustered in as a private in Company B of the 1^st Maine Sharpshooters. The regiment took part in the siege of Petersburg and the Appomattox campaign. He became a hospital steward on April 15, 1865. Then, on June 21, 1865, Union officials transferred him to Company B of the 20^th Maine Infantry. He mustered out on July 16, 1865.

 

He returned to Rockland after the war, and he married Augusta Cunningham on November 13, 1866. Their son Harry was born around 1877. Mather worked as a huckster, and his wife worked as a telegraph operator. By 1870, they owned $200 of personal property. He supported the Democratic Party, and he served as deputy customs collector. He reportedly later “tried his fortune in the gold fields of Dutch Giana [Guiana], but the work netted him only a fair return.” He eventually returned to Rockland. He applied for a federal pension in April 1904 and eventually secured one.

 

By the early 1900s, he supported sectional reconciliation. He informed one Confederate veteran that Civil War soldiers were all “comrades…whether we wore the Blue or Gray…With me, the war ended at Appomattox.” His wife died on September 6, 1918, and he married Katherine Schofield on September 13, 1919. He passed away in Rockland on May 29, 1926.

SOURCES