A history of Tennessee and Tennesseans, Volume 5
By Will Thomas Hale, Dixon Lanier Merritt
The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago and New York; 1913

Pages 1339-1340

Dr. Philip N. Matlock, a successful physician and a prominent and influential citizen of Obion county, Tennessee, whose residence is at Masonhall, is a man of intrinsic merit as a man, a citizen and a physician, and as supporting evidence of this statement is his record of forty-three years of continuous service there in a professional capacity and the fact that he has held the highest position in the Masonic order in Tennessee that the Free and Accepted Masons of the state could confer upon him. He comes of Revolutionary stock and is himself a Confederate veteran of the Civil war.

Philip N. Matlock was born in Davidson county, Tennessee, January 9, 1844, and was the only son in a family of five children born to Simpson and Maria (Shumate) Matlock, both of whom were natives of Davidson county. Simpson Matlock owned a farm of five hundred acres and was a citizen of prominence there. Philip N. grew up on the home farm and after pursuing the usual studies in the common schools of that locality he completed a course in Franklin College. It was about this time that the storm of civil war lowering finally burst over the country. In 1861 young Matlock, then but a youth of seventeen years, entered the Confederate service as a private in Harding’s Artillery, being subsequently transferred by the war department to Carter’s Scouts with the commission of first lieutenant, which rank he held until the close of the war. He was thrice wounded, the first time at Stone’s River on December 31, 1862, when his right shoulder was injured. He was next wounded in his left thigh at Sulphur Branch Trestle, Alabama, September 2, 1862, and on April 3, 1865, at Tuscaloosa, a few days before he surrendered, he received a wound in his right leg. Being paroled shortly afterward, he returned to his home in Tennessee and at once took up a course of medical study at Nashville College. Graduated in 1867 he began the practice of medicine, locating first at Fredonia, Kentucky, but removing in 1869 to Masonhall, Obion county, Tennessee, where he has since continued and where he is now the only representative of his profession. In line with the interest of his life work he sustains membership in the Obion County Medical Society, the Tri-State Medical Society, the Tennessee State Medical Society and the American Medical Association.

On June 18, 1865, was solemnized his marriage to Miss Mary J. Jetton, and to this union were born six children, three of whom are yet living, viz.: Philip E., and Preston C. and Presley (twins).

Dr. Matlock has also literary gifts of considerable merit, and in a fraternal way is prominently affiliated with the Masonic order as a member of the blue lodge, chapter and commandery. In 1896 he served as grand master of the Masonic Grand Lodge of Tennessee, is a past grand worthy patron of the Order of the Eastern Star of Tennessee, and is now (1912) grand sojourner of the Grand Chapter of Tennessee.

The Matlock family originated in Tennessee with William Matlock, the grandfather of Dr. Matlock, who came to this state from North Carolina in 1789. He was a soldier of the Revolution and was captured at Charleston by the British. His wife was Mary Simpson, who alone of her family survived from a murderous attack by Indians near Nashville, Tennessee. Simpson, the father of Dr. Matlock, was the youngest of ten children born to William and Mary (Simpson) Matlock.

Death-Certificate, Obion County, Tennessee
Registration District No. 46709; File No. 69; Registered No. 5
Full-Name: Philip Neely Matlock
Date-of-Death: March 25, 1921
Place-of-Death: 9th Civil Dist., Elbridge
Date-of-Birth: Jan 9, 1844
Birthplace: Tennessee
Occupation: Physician, General Practice
Father: Simpson Matlock (born in Tennessee)
Mother: Maria Chumate (born in Tennessee)
Cause-of-Death: cancer of blader & intestines
Place-of-Burial: Mason Hall