Monday, September 18, 2017

The Matthews side of the tree

After looking at the siblings of my great-grandmother Elisabeth Lois Whitley, I am going to follow up the Matthews line of her mother, Elisabeth Hayden Matthews. As posted back in 2012, her parents were William Matthews and Martha Jane Free.

William Matthews was born on 2 August 1836 in Smith County, Tennessee. He was the son of Allen Matthews and Sarah Davis. William appears in the home of Allen and Sarah in the 1860 US Census in Metcalfe County, Kentucky. William married Martha Jane Free in Metcalfe County on 27 June 1861. By 1870, William and Martha were living in Glasgow, Barren County, Kentucky.

William and Martha had at least the following children:
- Felix Mitchell Matthews, born in 1862, died on 1 May 1948 in Indianapolis
- Martha Belle Matthews, born 24 October 1863, died on 23 September 1958 in Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky
- William Allen Matthews, born 13 July 1867, died 22 December 1942
- Elizabeth Hayden Matthews, born 28 September 1869, died on 14 August 1915 in Barren County
- Lucy Elizabeth Matthews, born 21 October 1871, died on 9 May 1954 in Warren County
- Eliza Ellen Matthews, born 21 October 1871, died on 3 November 1955
- Ora Leona Matthews, born 26 March 1874, died on 27 October 1945 in Louisville
- Alice Story Matthews, born 1 April 1878, died on 18 October 1967 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky

In the 1880 US Census, the family appears in Slick Rock, Barren County, Kentucky. I have been unable to find William in the 1900 or 1910 US Census, but he does appear again in the 1920 US Census in Elk Springs, Warren County, living in the household of his grandson Hilary D. Lawrence, next to daughter Martha Belle and her husband Robert Lawrence. Martha and William were separated, likely before 1900, as Martha was living as head of household in Rocky Hill, Edmonson County, Kentucky in 1900.

While I don't have much further on William, I do have a signed document from William, attested by Allen Mathews, giving his consent for the marriage of daughter Ora Leona to William Thomas Pace on 22 December 1891 in Warren County, Kentucky. She was 17. This is from Ancestry's Kentucky marriages database. I think the Allen Mathews on this document is Ora's brother William Allen, who would have been 24 at the time.

William died on 7 October 1922 in Sonora, Hardin County, Kentucky.

Martha Jane appears in the 1930 US Census, living in the household of her daughter Elizia Ellen and her husband William L. Whitley (son of Morris Whitley, himself a son of my 4th-great-grandparents Richard Wheatley and Nancy Philips). The census was taken on 16 April 1930. Martha Jane Free Matthews died on 26 May 1930 in Warren County, Kentucky.

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