Gilbert De La Matyr

(July 8, 1825-May 17, 1892). Born in Philadelphia, New York, De La Matyr was licensed to preach by the Methodist church at age 20. He served as an army chaplain during the Civil War and preached in Brooklyn, Omaha, and Kansas City before coming to Roberts Park Methodist Church in Indianapolis in 1874. Under De La Matyr’s leadership, the church constructed a new building at 401 North Delaware Street despite the economic depression of the mid-1870s.

De La Matyr became prominent in the city as an advocate of social justice, monetary reform, and lower interest rates. He was nominated in July 1878, as the National (Greenback) Party candidate from Indiana’s 7^th  district to the U.S. House of Representatives, a nomination supported by the Democrats in August. After a lively campaign dominated by economic and fiscal issues, he defeated Republican incumbent John Hanna by a thousand votes. De La Matyr served one term in Congress, continuing to work for financial reform, including an unsuccessful bid for the issue of a billion dollars in greenbacks to be loaned by the government to private corporations in financial trouble.

Returning to the ministry for a brief tenure in Denver, Colorado, he then joined the Northeast Ohio Methodist Conference in 1883, remaining there until his death in Akron in 1892.

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