Uriah Matthew was born in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island on 18 November 1842 to Uriah Matthew (1816-1882) and Harriet Bryenton. Uriah Sr. married a second time to Jane Maria Barnard. Uriah Jr. married Elisa Bovyer Passmore (1842-1925), the daughter of John and Susan Passmore, on 28 February 1872. They had five children: Bessie Botterell, Eliza Gertrude, John Brenton, Ella Jane, and Harold Gilbert. In 1869 John McLean of the Charlottetown dry goods firm McLean Heartz & Company opened a general business in Souri under the name of Matthew McLean & Co. The active partners in this company were Uriah Matthew and John McLean. Mr. Matthew removed to Souris shortly after 1869 but returned to Charlottetown to assist in the operations of McLean Heartz and Co. until that firm went out of business in 1880 at which time he returned to Souris. In 1887 the firm opened a branch at Dundas Cross Roads which was later moved to a wharf in Bridgetown. When Uriah Matthew died on 7 February 1902, his interest in thecompany passed to his wife and children, in particular to his son John Brenton who was already associated with the business and in 1911 to another son Harold Gilbert. The Company was incorporated in 1908 and carried on through occasional severe reverses until the deaths in the mid 1950s of the two Matthew brothers. The business was dissolved with the surrender of tis charter in May of 1982.