Virginia Express Company imprint across top of cover to Capt. Joseph William Mathews, Care of Messrs. Mathews & Miller, Lewisburg West Va., missing part of top flap, Very Fine and RARE. I’ve never seen this imprint before. $850.

Capt. Joseph William Mathews (1841-1897) was the son of Mason Mathews (1803-1878), an American merchant and politician in West Virginia (then Virginia). He served 7 years in the Virginia House of Delegates representing Greenbrier County from 1859-1865 as a Whig. Joseph Williams was one of his 8 children. Capt. Mathews served with his brothers in Gen. Henry A. Wise’s Brigade (governor of Virginia 1856-1860) in the West Virginia Campaign.