Biographical and Genealogical History of Wayne, Fayette, Union and Franklin
Counties, Indiana - 1899: Page 924-926
HENRY P. MATHEWS
This well known citizen of Metamora, Franklin County, Indiana, was born near
this place, in 1838, being a son of John and Phoebe (Pond) Mathews. Both
parents were natives of the state of New York. The father's vocation was
that of a wheelwright, and he also engaged in chairmaking, an occupation in
which he was engaged at the time of his death and several years previously.
He was a light horseman in the war of 1812. In 1835 he came to Indiana and
settled in this village. His children were Samuel; Sarah; Stephen; Emily,
wife of James McKee; Warren V., deceased; Arvilla, wife of James Lanning;
Mary, wife of Henry Lanning; Eliza, wife of Isaac Garan, deceased; and Henry
P., our subject. David Pond, the maternal grandfather of our subject, was a
music-teacher of more than local reputation; Henry Pond, an uncle, conducted
a tannery for several years. He was a leading member of the Christian
Church, or Campbellite Church, as it was called at that time, and was a man
of Godly traits.
Henry P. Mathews began working on a farm when but a lad, first hiring his
service to a farmer near Oak Forest, Butler Township, and receiving monthly
compensation. He then worked for his brother in the same township, until he
enlisted in the army. He enlisted September 23, 1861, and was mustered into
the service October 16, following, as a private in Company G, Thirty-seventh
Indiana Regiment, under Captain James McCoy and Colonel George Hazzard for a
period of three years. He was promoted to the rank of corporal and at
Pumpkin Vine received a musket wound in the left side of the neck, causing
him permanent injury. He was confined in the field hospital at Bacon Creek,
Kentucky, for some weeks and was then sent to Chattanooga. Here he remained
a week, when he was transferred to Nashville, and after three weeks was sent
to New Albany, where he was discharged, as his term had expired, October 27,
1864. He was detailed to go to Russellville to repair the telegraph line
before his discharge. His regiment was a part of Johnson's division of the
fourteenth Army Corps, Army of the Cumberland, and took part in the battle
of Stone River Tennessee. December 31, 1862, and January 2, 1863, in which
the regiment lost one hundred and thirty-one men. They remained in camp
there until the Chattanooga campaign and had an engagement at Dug Gap on
September 11, and at Chickamauga eight days later. The regiment was here
until the following spring and took part in Sherman's Atlanta campaign, the
battle of Resaca, May 13, Dallas, May 27, Chattahoochie and other
engagements, and then started on the famous march to the sea, through the
Carolinas and up to Galveston. After receiving his discharge he returned
home and again worked by the month on a farm during that season.
February 6, 1865, he was married to Miss Henrietta, daughter of Caleb and
Nancy Jones. Caleb Jones spent his early years in Beaver county,
Pennsylvania, and in 1858 came to Butler Township, this county. Seven years
later he moved to Ripley County and later to Lawrence. He was a miller by
trade and followed that business until old age, when he returned to this
county and spent his declining days with his daughter, Mrs. Mathews. He has
rounded out seventy-eight years of a noble manhood. His wife had died at
the age of fifty-two years. They were prominent Methodists and earnest
workers in the cause. Their children were Eliza, deceased; Margaret, wife
of William Timblin; Marie, wife of Charles White; Robert Johnson, deceased;
John, and James, deceased; Henrietta; David; Anderson (the last five sons
were soldiers in the civil war); Mary; Scott; and Josiah, deceased. Mr. and
Mrs. Mathews are zealous workers in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of which
they are members, and have reared their family according to the precepts of
that faith. The children who have come as a blessing to this estimable
couple are Minnie; Florence, wife of Alvin Timblin; Serena, wife of J.W.
Foster; Leora and Pearl. Mr. Mathews is a member of Washburn Post, No. 279,
Grand Army of the Republic, and is one of the most interesting talkers
around the camp-fire, as many of the experiences through which he passed
were of the most thrilling nature and lose none of their interest in his way
of recounting them. He is accounted one of the best farmers in this section
and his farm of ninety-three acres is a model of neatness.
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Copied by Nancee(McMurtrey)Seifert
(Thought someone might be interested in this..)