The Thomas Mathews Family
of Southern Illinois
By
Charles
Willard Mathews (1887-1948)
Charles
Willard Mathews, Jr. (1915-1996)
Thomas
Judson Mathews (1956- )
This family history has been compiled over the years beginning about 1935, first by my grandfather Charles Willard Mathews Sr., later by my father, Charles Willard Mathews Jr., and now finally by me, Thomas Judson Mathews. If you have any questions, comments, additions or revisions, please let me know. If you belong on this report, I’d love to hear from you.
Beginnings
The Mathews family
most likely came to England from Normandy with William the conqueror in 1066.
The name at that time would have been some variant of 'de Mathieu'. At some
point we migrated to Scotland and most likely settled in the lowland regions
near the border with England. We probably crossed over to Ireland around 1610
during the Plantation of Ulster and settled in County Antrim. The Plantation of
Ulster was a colonization program implemented by King James I of England (aka
James VI of Scotland) aimed at pacifying Ireland by importing large numbers of
protestant, mostly Scottish Presbyterian, settlers to displace the
uncooperative Irish.
Thomas Mathews was
born 12 June 1782 in what is now Northern Ireland, in Calheme Townland, off
Kilraghts Road about 2 ½ east of Ballymoney, County Antrim He was the son of
Robert Mathews, born about 1755, the grandson of Thomas Mathews, born about
1730, and the great grandson of Cornelius Mathews, born about 1700. Thomas was
a weaver who raised his own flax. His house had a pond and one of the first memories of his daughter
Jannet was of falling into it and being dragged out more dead
than alive.
Nancy Ross, born
circa 1791, was the daughter of Robert Ross of Knockavallan Townland, Derrykeighan
Parish, near Dervock, County Antrim. Family stories tell that Robert was landed
gentry who employed Thomas’s father as a coachman and that Thomas and Nancy
eloped sometime around 1811 or 1812, prompting Sir Robert to disown her for marrying outside her social class.
This story is nonsense, though, as the Robert Ross family is listed in the Flax
Growers Bounty List of 1796, a list of 52,000 people receiving free spinning
wheels and/or looms for planting flax on their land. In addition, not one of
the eight Derrykeighan Rosses listed in the 1848 Griffith’s Valuation owned any
land.
Nancy bore Thomas
ten children between 1813 and 1834; Nancy, Robert, Thomas, James, William John,
Joseph Braden, Hugh, Adam Thomas, Jannet White and Alexander McClaud.
Several factors
played a hand in bringing about the Mathews Family's emigration to America. In
1834 Thomas and Nancy’s second son, also named Thomas, immigrated to
Philadelphia at age 18 and in 1836 migrated west to Randolph County, Ill. He
wrote home to his family urging them to follow, at first with little success. According
to stories passed down by the family, the elder Thomas had, perhaps in an
attempt to please his noble in-laws, built a home that was much finer than any
other in the parish. It was also more than he could afford. As a result, he
soon found himself at odds with his neighbors who may have considered his
free-spending ways pretentious.
Whether this was
true or not, another event served as a much more compelling reason to emigrate.
We know that Thomas Mathews was a linen weaver. Traditionally, a home-based linen
weaver would grow his own flax in a one-acre field. At harvest time he would
pull the stalks of flax out by the root, tie them in bundles using reeds that
he wore around his waist, and throw them into a pond to soak for a week. The
flax was then taken out of the pond, beaten and drawn through hickles that
stripped off the wooden exterior stalk, leaving only the flax fiber. These
fibers were woven into linen cloth which the weaver would polish by rubbing and
spraying it with a mouthful of sugar water. This process was very labor-intensive
and had a limited return on investment. The Industrial Revolution and the
invention of the steam-powered loom in the early 19th century
radically changed the textile industry and led to a sharp decline in the price
of linen, crippling the economic prospects of most home-based weavers. The
Mathews were just one of several families that gave up the Weaver’s trade and
immigrated to America. The Tweed, Reid, and Smiley families also turned their
backs on weaving to become farmers in Randolph County.
Whatever the
reason, it appears that Thomas made the decision to leave Ireland but lacked
the necessary capital to buy passage to America, Family histories tell the
unlikely story that, one evening while returning home from Ballymoney, he found
a wallet in the road with more than enough funds to finance the voyage and no
identification. It was not until after he had moved his family to America that
he learned through correspondence who the owner was. Thomas and his sons then
made up the amount and sent it back to the man who had lost it. I have no
evidence of this but I suspect that Thomas borrowed the money for the move to
from his in-laws.
Carrying with them
only three boxes, two barrels and their bedding, eight members of the Mathews
family, Thomas, Nancy, James, William, Hugh, Adam, Jannet and Alexander, left
Belfast on Sept 25, 1839, and, after a stopover in Liverpool, boarded the ship
‘Jane Ross’ of Philadelphia, and set sail for New Orleans, arriving in
February, 1840. Four of the Mathews children traveled to America separately as
all were later reunited in Randolph County.
The long voyage
was not without incident. Thomas's 11 year old son Adam enjoyed exploring the
ship and passing time with the sailors, an activity his father disapproved of.
One day when he had slipped away to spend time with the sailors his family
began a search for him. When he could not be found (the sailors had hidden him
so he would not be punished) the conclusion was drawn that he had fallen
overboard and a great wailing went up. Only then did the sailors produce Adam
and personally protect him from punishment.
While awaiting
transportation up the Mississippi, Thomas encountered a vendor selling
tomatoes, something that the Irishman had never seen before. He asked what they
were and, when given the answer, became incensed, thinking that the vendor was
making fun of his accent and saying 'Tom Mathews'.
From New Orleans,
the family travelled by riverboat to Chester, Ill. From there they travelled
overland to Jordon's Grove on what is known as 'Border's Hill', southwest of
Marissa.
Shortly after
arriving at their new home in America, Thomas apparently made the decision to
delete one 't' from the family name, changing it from the more common spelling
‘Matthews’ to Mathews. It has been said that this decision was made at the
suggestion of a Scottish schoolmaster who considered the extra 't' "a
waste of ink." Whatever the reason, there is only one ‘t’ in the Mathews
name on the known headstones of Thomas, Nancy, and all of their children. (My
policy is to use Mathews as a default unless there is clear and compelling
evidence that a descendent went by Matthews throughout his or her life.)
Nancy, often
subject to severe attacks of asthma, died on August 9, 1861. Thomas lived until
October 14, 1874.
In an age when
infant mortality claimed the lives of almost fifty percent of our nation's
children, the Mathews family was indeed fortunate. Of the ten children of
Thomas and Nancy Mathews, all but one grew to adulthood. Even that one death
was due not to illness but rather to a tragic accident. Six-year-old Alexander
was given his first knife and, in his excitement, he ran outside to show it to
his brother Joseph who was just returning home on his horse. The unexpected
sight of the child rushing towards it spooked the spirited animal and it reared
up, kicking Alexander in the chest. Neighbors were summoned and Alexander was
bled, a common treatment of the day, but to no avail. Having suffered severe
internal injuries, the youngest member of the Mathews family weakened and died
within hours. Although we don't know for sure what impact this tragedy had on
Joseph, it is noteworthy that he named his first son Alexander, after his baby
brother.
Of the nine
surviving brothers and sisters, seven lived out their lives in or near Randolph
County. Jannet married Robert Beatty Cathcart, the South Carolina born son of
other Scots Irish immigrants and, in 1868, moved with her family to Winchester,
Kansas, to help found a Reformed Presbyterian congregation there. Soon Adam, her
youngest surviving brother, joined them in Kansas with his family.
In the years following the move to Kansas, it was not uncommon for members of each clan to pay extended visits to the other with the visitors from Illinois often staying for a while and working in the creamery at the north end of Winchester.
The Children of Thomas Mathews & Nancy White Ross
A: Nancy Mathews 02 Feb 1813 28 Jan 1886
B: Robert Meadows Mathews 05 May 1814 04 Dec 1888
C: Thomas Mathews 13 Jul 1816 17 Sep 1856
D: James Mathews 31 Oct 1818 16 Apr 1900
E: William John Mathews 30 Nov 1820 22 Dec 1891
F: Joseph Braden Mathews 27 Apr 1824 20 Jan 1898
G: Hugh Mathews 18 Jun 1826 02 May 1906
H: Adam Thomas Mathews 26 Sep 1828 19 Jan 1887
I: Jannet White Mathews 13 Nov 1831 15 Feb 1915
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