From The Sentinel, May 17, 1900

"Another Old Veteran Gone"

Captain George Matrious, an old veteran, of real old Chippewa stock, met his fate on his way to be examined for an increase of pension last Wednesday, at the Chicago Junction crossing. he was run into by a passing freight train and himself and his team killed.

Matrious was a full-blooded Chippewa Indian. At the time of the Civil War, when the country needed men and his services, he came forth with both. he left Osceola and St. Croix Falls April, 1863, and came up in the vicinity of this place and Mud Lake and raised 100 men from amongst the natives. The men he raised were mustered in mostly at La Crosse and some in Minnesota. Matrious himself served in Co. G. 2nd Minn., Volunteers. he was drawing a pension and was looking for an increase when he met his fate.

He was a man of more than ordinary ability; well thought of by his people and by all of his acquaintances; had been instrumental in the doing of many good things, amongst which may be mentioned the building of a church in the vicinity of the place where he was born near the mouth of Yellow river, and, which has long been used by his tribe and kinsfolk as a place of worship. It was a Catholic church and was built in the early days, long before many of us now here knew where this place or the mouth of the Yellow River was on the map.

Old acquaintances around Osceola and St. Croix Falls, that is, old pioneers, will remember him with kindly feelings for he did his duty when his country needed his services. His remains were interred in the little cemetery by the church which he built.