Goldmines, Polygamists, and Missouri Ruffians

I’ve made a major breakthrough, with a big assist from my fellow members at the Washington County, (Ohio) History and Genealogy Facebook page. Allow me to layout the big discovery as it happened this past Sunday. First, I took the advice of a fellow member on that page and decided to seek and request a widow’s pension from the National Archives and Records Administration. I went to the Fold3 web page and registered for a free seven day trial. Years ago, I searched for George Mathews in this same database but did not find anything pertaining to him. Apparently, the database has been updated, or perhaps I simply overlooked his widow’s pension file that I found this time. I was stunned by its contents. I’d been told that a widow’s pension might contain a, “gold mine,” of information. It was true. 

On the Fold3 site, I found an eighty page widow’s certificate document (#102860) that referenced Charlotte Mathews’ (George’s widow) pension application (#10738).

 

With a cup of Costa Rican coffee in hand (Thanks Mom), I settled in for some reading. That’s when it happened . . . another widow’s application (#121912) was referenced in this file as well. 






 The first forty or so pages dealt with this application as filed by a woman named Emeline Mathews (nee’ Watt). I thought I’d made a mistake, but read on anyway.  I began to find similarities between Emeline’s sworn statements and details from my own research. The first was the name of her husband, George J. Mathews. This matched the man I was looking for. The second was his military service. The sworn affidavits supporting Emeline’s case claimed that George served in the 1^st Kansas Battery – Light Artillery.

This also matched my research. Excited? Yes, I was. But having searched for this man so fruitlessly, for so long, I was still skeptical. Plus, I’d never heard of Emeline Mathews. I read on.


Additional affidavits stated that George had died at Ft. Leavenworth on May 5, 1861, another corrected that date to May 17, 1862, and finally a third affidavit corrected the second to May 18, 1862. The third date matched my death date for George precisely. Still, just who was Emeline Mathews? I refilled my coffee cup and continued.  

Just past the halfway point of the document was a third pension application (#268656) filed in 1880, this time for a minor by the name of George W. Mathews. This is the name of my great-great grandfather, and the son of George J. Mathews. Any remaining doubts I might’ve had were eased as the file contained a photograph of George J. Mathews, the very one I’ve posted on this blog. Couldn’t deny it any longer, this was the same man I’ve been searching for; and the document did indeed contain a goldmine of information that has kept me mentally and physically busy over the past seven days. 

Consideration for my fellow human’s boredom level precludes me from explaining all of the details included in the document. Allow me to briefly summarize the basics from what I incredulously read and reread this past week. First, a woman named Emeline Mathews filed a widow’s pension claim on behalf of herself, and two of her four children, Mary and Amanda Mathews.  Second, several details from the sworn affidavits supporting her case match those from my own research including George’s military unit, and death date. Third, the minor’s applicant, and the photograph, although not provided by Emeline, also matches my research. Sworn affidavits supporting the minor’s application filed on behalf of my great-great grandfather, George W. Mathews include statements from two women claiming to be George J. Mathews’ sister Mary Baldwin, niece Martha Wakefield (nee’ Baldwin), and nephew George Baldwin. Finally, an eight dollar a month pension, plus two dollars for each of the two children was awarded to Emeline Mathews about 1867. Conversely, my great-great grandfather’s application for pension was abandoned in 1886 because he could not produce a record documenting his birth to George and Charlotte Mathews. It seems that the record was for a time housed at the Douglas County courthouse in Lawrence, Kansas. But that record, as well as the marriage record for George and Charlotte and countless others, burned in the 1863 raid on Lawrence led by a former schoolteacher and lover of learning William Quantrill.

That, my friends, is a wagonload of information to absorb on a Sunday morning. I have many, many, many thoughts and musings to share, but those deserve and will receive their own blog entries in the coming weeks and months. There is also much research to do as a result, many new paths to follow, many more discoveries to be made.

A tip of the cap to the members and administrator on the Washington County History and Genealogy Facebook page. Collaboration!