Matthew Maher was born in 1875. He was a freight conductor for the Denver and Rio Grande Railroad who brought his family to Grand Junction in 1918. He was married to Bessie Maher.
With Shake Gilman, one-half of a De Beque area couple who dressed like wild-west characters, raised ponies, and used to come into town and buy ice cream for children. They enjoyed getting drunk and shooting their guns, until Mattie accidentally shot and killed Shake. Mattie then went to prison for a year for her crime.
She was born in Missouri, and moved with her husband and children to Las Animas, Colorado in the early 1900’s. She was a seamstress who, according to her daughter Anna Underwood, could make anything.