John Mattes (politician)

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John Mattes Jr. (born 1856 in Nendingen, Württemberg, Germany) was a brewer and politician in Nebraska City, Nebraska. He and his family left Germany and lived in Burlington and Brookfield before settling in Des Moines, Iowa, in 1876. There, his uncles Paul and John started the Mattes Brewery, and Mattes became a partner in 1886. In Nebraska City, he served as mayor and was elected to the Nebraska Legislature, representing Otoe County in both the House and the Senate. He was President pro tempore of the Nebraska Senate from 1917 to 1919. He opposed women's suffrage and worked as an agent for the U.S. Department of Agriculture during Grover Cleveland's administration. In 1906 he renamed the Des Moines brewery the Otoe Brewing Co. Prohibition in Nebraska led to its closure in 1917. He married Katie Schaefer in Des Moines, and they had a daughter, Nora Angeline (born 1883). His date of death is unknown.