DENVER COUNTY   History of Colorado Pg 34   Woodford A Matlock   It is impossible to determine what would have been the condition in the west had it not been for the oil discoveries, so important has the development of the oil fields became a source prosperity and progress beyond the Mississippi. Opportunities in this direction have called forth the efforts and enterprises of many men who have made for themselves notable places in the business world, men of marked energy of keen foresight and perseverance. With development projects Woodford A Matlock has long been connected and he is now fiscal agent for the Kinney Oil and Refining Company with office in Denver. He was born in Bowling Green Kentucky, September 18 1870. His father Woodford A Matlock was a native of Kentucky and his grandfather was also born in that state. He, too, bore the name of Woodford A Matlock, so that the subject in review is of the third generation to be so called. His father was an active business man and is now deceased. His mother, who bore the maiden name Cochran, was a native of Kentucky and is now living in California. At the time of the Civil War Woodford A Matlock, father of the subject of this review, responded to the call of the country to preserve the Union and joined the Eighth Kentucky Calvary with which he did active duty in defense of the stars and stripes.   Woodford A Matlock Jr. came to Greeley, Colorado with his father in 1872, a which time he was but two years of age. The days of his boyhood and youth were there passed and he acquired a public school education in Greeley. He afterward took up work if telegraphy as an operator entering upon that field when but fifteen years of age and for a quarter of a century he followed railroad interests. Gradually he advanced in that connection until he became a traffic manager of the Cripple Creek Railway. The next change is his business career brought him into close relations with the McNeil-Penrose Company in connection with land development enterprises and afterward he developed the Maxwell land grant in New Mexico. He then turned his attention to the oil business and is now fiscal agent for the Kinney Oil and Refining Company. Each change the he has made in his business connections has brought him a broader outlook and wider opportunities, marking a stepforward in his career.   In 1892 Mr Matlock was united in marriage to Miss Jessica Shadony, of Jennings Indiana, and they have become the parents of four children. Their oldest son, Paul B born August 16 1896 is now a lieutenant in the Twentieth Infantry, United States Army, stationed at the present time at Fort Douglas. Woodford A bearing the name a fourth generation is a student in Princeton University in New Jersey, with the class of 1920. Bruce King, 14 years of age is a student in the Denver high school. Jessica a little maiden of nine is also in school.   Mr. Matlock belongs to the Country Club, the Denver Athletic Club, to the Lakewood Country Club and to the Civic Association. He is much interested in shooting golf and other sports, to which he turns to for recreation when leisure permits. He belongs to the Central Christian church and its teachings have guided him in all of life’s relations. As a member of the Civic Association he manifests his deep interest in the welfare and progress of Denver and its upbuilding along those lines those lines which are a matter of civic virtue and of civic pride. What he has accomplished represents the fit utilization of is innate talents and his life record is indicative of the power that may be developed in the individual through exercise of effort.   Graphics and page designed by Leona1999 January, 2005 Copyright © The main image is a courtesy of http://dirk.holoweb.net/~liam/pictures/oldbooks/pictures-of-old-books/ updated May 2008