Matthew Teed

Who is Matthew Teed?

Matthew Teed was a member of the Los Angeles, California, Common Council, the governing body of that city, in various time periods between 1870 and 1888.

Teed was born in Budleigh, Devonshire, England, on April 17, 1828, and came to San Francisco when he was about seventeen. He learned the carpentry trade there, then set up shop in Stockton.

There he was burned out, in 1857, losing everything he had but the clothes he wore. . . . He then came to Los Angeles, at that time a town of about 3000 inhabitants, and from here went to the Denver mining districts, just then prominent in the public mind. He had many wild experiences in his travels across the plains, and much of the time was a companion of Louis Simmons, a son-in-law of the famous Kit Carson.

Teed "struck out for the Northwest, visiting various points in Oregon and Washington Territory," then mined in the El Paso Mountains, ending up in Southern California. He worked for the U.S. government in Wilmington, then moved to Los Angeles, where he built a "substantial residence" on Fort Hill, the address being 513 California Street.

In 1887 he was the Los Angeles city auditor.