There are several stories told of the shooting death of John Matthews. In one version his name is Frank Matthews, but the story is basically that while trying to move their load of supplies on Lake Lindeman, John and his father lost the load in the lake. After losing the load, he either accidently shot himself with a rifle or committed suicide. One version was that he was the former sheriff of Puyallup, but I could find no verification of that. John was born in 1872 in Idaho and had a wife named Jane and some babies. He died in May 1898 and is buried somewhere between Lindeman and Bennett.
Klondike Fever; “Every Trail has a story” by Henderson p 44; Mayer; “Two Years in the Klondike”.