John L. Mattson papers, 1916-2009

Dr. John Lyle Mattson (1939- ) served as a forest archaeologist with the U.S. Forest Service in Chugach National Forest in Alaska from 1977-1995. Mattson was involved with various studies in the area and the clean-up of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989. He conducted extensive research into genealogy relating to his ancestors, especially the Livingstons, Ackermans, and Kikendalls, as well as the history of Snohomish county. The Livingstons (one of whom may have written the poem "'Twas the Night Before Christmas") were from Scotland originally and emigrated to Massachussetts in 1675. Frederick Thomas Livingston married Harriet Lettie Kikendall, whose daughter Rhoda Esther Livingston married Wilfred Isaac Ackerman; their daughter, Waneta Ruth Ackerman, married Lyle Arley Mattson, the father of John L. Mattson. John Mattson and his family were from the Snohomish county area, with ties to the Pioneer Girls and Boys Association of Snohomish, and to the local paper mill through his father. A relation through the Livingston family was involved with the Pioneer Girls and Boys Association of Snohomish, which accounts for their inclusion in the John L. Mattson Family Genealogical papers.