Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1879-03-04
For the SPECTATOR
The Mathews Family.

day life noa0 deserves to be SO designated
how true was it in the first half of tn
last century, when our ancestors bui
j their rude cabins, their stockade fort.
and on the Sabbath, when they Assem-
bled to worship God, carried the rifle q
an adjunct to the prayer-book. Trul
were the incidents of every day lif
then, interspersed With alarms and to
often the incursions of the savage, a his
tory that, could it be unfolded to u
now in the plain, unvarnished truthful
/ ness of its reality, would eclipse in. in
terest the Arabian Nights. How oftel
do we indulge in the regret that tn
chronicler of that day did SO seldom re
gard the stirring incidents of everyday
life worthy of the time it would take tt
preserve them, yet; if disposed, the IA
cilities were wanting. There were nj
mails, no newspapers-the rudest kino
of paper was . rarity-nor was there
1.-THE time. to devote to it. OF the mel
and women who acted a prominent an(
honorable part in that eventful time
may we not nc W preserve the few tracei
and scraps of their history that can b,
gathered up? Many who regard theil
memories with veneration yet live, anG
have an honorable pride in claiming
them as their ancestors. We are in
debted to lady-friend in Greenbriel
county and to. q relative in Hillsboro'
Ohio, for most of the data that has
been preserved of this family. "The
farther back" she remarks, that we
can trace our ancestry is to one Capt.
John Mathews, who came from Mary
land, as we believe, in 1877, to a grant
of land which he had in what is now
Roekbridge county. He married Ann,
the daughter of Sampson Archer, a fell
low emigrant, and had, as we have al
ways supposed, eight sons. But his will,
recently found among my uncle Mason
Mathews's papers, speaks of seven sons
was Gen. George Mathews, Governor o1
Col. Charles, of Alabama, Judge George
Georgia, four sons and Mrs. Gen. Sam.
Black burn, whose husband was, in his
day, one of the leading lawyers of Staun-
ton, who built the brick house at what
he called the Wilderness, and owned q
large landed estate, including Glover
Dale, and died in he brick mansion re-
ferred to, now occupied by r. j. Glen
dy; Mrs. Merriwether, wife of one OF
the Governors of Georgia Mrs. Tel
fair, whose husband was another prom
inent citizen of Georgia, and the mother
of the late DIR. Isaac Telfair of that
State, who married daughter of the
late DR.. VIM. Boys, of Staunton, the
first Superintendent of the w. l.. Asy-
lum. DIR. Telfair resided several years
in StauntOn, removed to Hillsboro',
Ohio, and thence to Clinton county in
this State, where he left q numerous
family, in possession of a fine landed
estate. Margaret, the youngest OF the
eight children, was the first wife of the
late Andrew Barry, Of Hillsboro', Ohio,
who was prominent citizen fer years
of Staunton, and built the store house
of Price & Miller, hardware merchants.
Mrs. Barry and her only child George,
who attained mans estate and died at
the Wilderness, are buried just south OF
the Episcopal church in Staunton. The
secand son Of Capt Jehuss Mathews was
Sampson, father of Jane, wife of the
late Samuel Clarke, of Staunton, and
Nancy, wife of Alexander Nelson, who
resided on Lewis creek, where Jacob
Myers now lives, and reared a large
family, and Sampson Mathews. of Po-
cahontas. This son, Sampson, had three
sons Jacob, who married Nancy ,daugh-
ter of the Rev. John McCue, third Pas
tor of Thinking Spring; Andrew Gate
wood, who married a daughter of Adam
See, of Randolph, his cousin, and the
only survivor of his family, is living
near Newbern, Pulaski county; and
Sampson, who,.narried Miss Edgar, OF
Monroe. There were two daughters
Jane, wife of the late Geo. Woods and
grandmother of Warwick Woods, near
In Il a..
wife of Samuel Miller, son of Samuel
of Messy creek, Augusta county, and
who died in Saline county, Missouri
William, the third son of Capt. John
and had sons, Joseph, John, James
William, Richard, and Archer. The
other names, if eight,gare lost. Then
| all that is remembered of the daughters
| is, that Ann married a Maxwell, OF
Tazewell county, Va, and Jane mar
ried an Otey, of Bedford. Joseph we
suppose to have been the oldest son, was
the father of the late Mason Mathews
Of Lewisburg, and grandfather of the
| present Governor OF West Virginia and
Thos. Mathews, yet living, the late Mrs
Nancy Weirs, and perhaps other chill
dren. John, the second son, married 8
daughter of Gen. Joseph Mcdowell, Of
Burke county, North Carolina, one o1
the heroes of Kings Mountain, and sis.
ter of the late Gen. Joseph J. Mcdowell
of HillsbOrO', the founder of the most
eminent female school of that State
next to the Rev. DR.. Beatty's, of Steu-
benville."
This is all the information we have
been able to collect of this large anC
prominent family, except that one Ohio
historian says he always understood that
there were six of Capt John Matthew's
family with Washington in the Brad
dock campaign. He also mentions that
Gen. Geo. Mathews, after being Gov
ernor of Georgia and losing his wife
married Mrs. Margaret Reed, of Staun.
ton. They lived unhappily. She lef
him, returned to Staunton, and resumed
her widowed name. We will have oc-
casion ts refer to her again.
The late Lyttleton WaddelI, of Staun.
ton, in 1865, wrote some articles fol
your paper, over the signature o
"The Oldest Inhabitant," in which h'
mentions that his father, "the BIint
Preacher" came there in 1862, just L
years after Beverly laid off the town.
That the Indian raid at that time mad,
q great many widows in Staunton. Tha
there were no lawyers, doctors o
preachers there then. The Rev. JohI
Craig, who preached at the Stone church
was often in town. That court day
were grand occasions, when a crowl
from the New River, the Roanoke, ant
the Ohio, met there, making the occa
sion high days and holy days. Thel
the Kings lawyer, Gabriel Jones, from
what is now near Port Republic, an,
George Wythe, from Williamsburg, ant
yo~ng Mr.. Jefferson, as the Bin,
Preacher called him, with many othel
lawyers, attended. In the year 1868, sool
after he came to Staunton, the Indian.
under Cornstalk came into Kerr's creel
and neighborhood, killing many ant
burning their homes. Then it wa
Mrs. Margaret Reed, at the time
young woman, living in low hous
where the Central Bank now stands
mounted a horse and fled across tn
Blue Ridge.
In the year 1862, Sampson Mathews
the father-in-law of Samuel Clarke
Kept an ordinary in the Tremper long
low house, extending from the "Henri
eta Brooks building" in which the Vir
ga''sdn is published, up towards an
near DR.. Waddell's residence. Th
Rates" fixed by the county court, re