Frances and William Mathews at the Mt. Vernon House, where
they raised 22 children and kept the hotel
Courtesy Claire Lewis, in "The Shining Mountains" by Georgina Brown
In 1867 Casto returned after an absence to Mt. Vernon, which was alive but dwindling after the Civil War, and he resolved to revive the enterprise. Once again he advertised the lucrative town lot offers made before, and its town plat was officially filed by George W. Charles. Accompanying the filing were statistics indicating Mt. Vernon possessed two hotels, a store, blacksmith shop, several homes, and other buildings. A Baptist church was recognized there during the Council of Baptist Churches, by Rev. T.T. Potter.
On February 13, 1869 the Valley House, kept by the wife of Horace Alden, caught fire under the floor, having burnt through from a sheet iron stove. At the time 10-15 men were staying in the hotel, and they all worked devotedly to save it, wisely keeping the building closed to prevent a draft. The flames were conquered before causing much damage or potentially jeopardizing all of Mt. Vernon.
As Mt. Vernon faded away, the Matthews family came to the forefront and were ultimately its final residents. William Edward Matthews, a Royal Bootmaker from England who had lived for some time in the United States, bought the Mt. Vernon House in 1870 and the next year brought his new bride Frances there. She came straight from England, where he had married her after his first wife Louisia died, leaving him with 13 children. Area Utes learned of the new foreigner’s arrival and were very curious to see her. They turned out en masse, which reportedly sent the now terrified young woman upstairs to hide under her bed until William agreed to put bars on the windows. The couple had 9 more children, making a total of 22, enough to keep the Mt. Vernon School running singlehandedly. Theirs is the largest documented Jefferson County family to date.
The Mt. Vernon House continued to be run as a way station and tavern and finally became fully a private home. Another stone house, reputedly built around the same time as the Mt. Vernon House by an outlaw named Wilson, continued to stand across from the Mt. Vernon House and came to be in the Matthews family too. By 1890 the town had vanished almost entirely. In 1913 Frances Matthews filed a deed to vacate the townsite and dedicate its thoroughfares to the public. The Colorado Historical Society later placed a historic marker at the site of Governor Steele's home, and in 1970 the Mt. Vernon House became the first Jefferson County landmark to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places.