[p. 713] a leading citizen of Ellwood City, for many years was identified with the glass industry. He was born October 11, 1868, in Philadelphia, and is a son of Thomas G. and Mary Elizabeth (Hibbs) Riley.
The great-grandfather, Matthew Riley, came from Ireland to America, and settled at Philadelphia, Pa., in 1760. There his son Matthew Riley, was born, and at one time owned that portion of Fairmount Park known as George's Hills. There his son, Thomas G., father of Matthew Albert, was born and reared. He married Mary Elizabeth Hibbs, who was born at New Salem, Fayette County, Pennsylvania, in 1836. Her father was Aaron Hibbs. Thomas G. Riley and wife left Philadelphia about 1874, and in 1900 they came to Ellwood City. They had two sons and two daughters, namely: Hannah Eliza, who married Frank Swaney, of Wilkinsburg; Matthew Albert, of Ellwood City; Katie Anna, who married Joseph Krytzer, who has charge of a gas company at New Kensington, Pa.; and Stewart William, who is a railroad man, residing at Portland, Ore.
Matthew Albert Riley started out for himself when he was about seventeen years of age. For twenty years he worked in the glass industry, and during this period he made so many useful inventions that in many lines he entirely changed the manufacture of glass. Mr. Riley possesses that remarkable talent that enables him to evolve ideas and put these into machines which entirely change old methods, producing wonderful results, with less cost and less loss of time than formerly. While his inventions have not been confined to the glass industry, his most notable ones have been machinery along this line. The Riley tumbler grinder is in general use as is also his down-draft glazing machine for finishing glass, and also the grinding machine for inner arc globes. By the use of his inventions, factories, with increased facilities, have been able to produce beautiful as well as substantial products within the reach of the ordinary consumer. Mr. Riley has been so successful that he now devotes the larger part of his time to experimenting, working out the details which swarm in his brain. His gift is an unusual one, and he has been able to put it to the most practical use.
In 1892 Mr. Riley was married to Miss Mary Elizabeth Conner, who is a daughter of Owen and Ellen Conner, of Steubenville, Ohio. They have one son, Charles W.
In politics Mr. Riley is a Democrat, and has been active in public affairs in the county. In the spring of 1908 he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the office of prothonotary of Lawrence County. He is a thirty-second degree Mason, belonging to the Pittsburg Consistory, and belongs also to Fostoria Lodge No. 86, Knights of Pythias, of Fostoria, Ohio, and to the Elks, at Beaver Falls, Pa. In 1889 he entered the Sixteenth Regiment, Ohio National Guard, as a private, and served until 1897, filling the various grades of non-commissioned officers, and when he removed from the State he held the rank of lieutenant. Mr. Riley is one of the directors of the Ellwood City Board of Trade.
20th Century History of New Castle and Lawrence County Pennsylvania and Representative Citizens Hon. Aaron L. Hazen Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, Chicago, Ill., 1908
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