| Notes |
- Son of George Matthews and Adelphia Leggitt.
Married Louisa Stafford. Morgan County Indiana Judge.
Hiram Matthews
Middle Name/Initial: D.
Date of Death: 08/18/1876
Birth Date:
Spouse: 1) Louisa Stafford; 2) Mrs. Anne Stuart
Survived By: Daughter, Polly; sons, Seth and Calvin Matthews; grandchildren.
Other: Age 79. Born in Richmond Co., North Carolina on December 15, 1797; son of George and Adelphia Leggitt Matthews. Veteran, War of 1812: served with the Ohio Volunteers. Moved to Morgan County in November 1820. Became Morgan County's first judge. Married his first wife on Nov. 18, 1819. They had six children: Cary (born Oct. 18, 1820), Mary (Polly) (born c1825), Joel (born c1827), Calvin (born 1828), Rachel (born July 12, 1830), and Seth (born 1832). Louisa/Levica died in 1837. Married second wife on Sept. 6, 1838. [Other source information from Journey Through the Past: A Matthews Genealogy, 1741-1985.][From the Diary of Elam Harvey for August 18, 1876: "Hiram Matthews died this morning about ten o'clock. Disease, old age and running off at the bowels. He was formerly a District Judge and did his duty well. Another old settler has fallen."]
Cemetery: Locust Grove/Monical
Obituary Source: Martinsville Republican, Sept. 21, 1876
Source Information: Cemetery index/One Hundred Men, by Noble K. Littell
THE LATE HIRAM MATTHEWS. Hiram Matthews was born in Richmond County, NC December 15, 1797, consequently was one of George Washington's contemporaries, and was 78 years,8 months and three days old when he died. When about three years old his father moved into South Carolina, Mar borough district, which was then a howling wilderness, with more great black bear then school houses and more wolves, panthers, and wildcats than school children. But there Hiram was raised and educated, so far as he was educated. From his childhood he was a mischievous, rude boy. One day he and I went into the woods to feed an old sow that had young pigs, and while the sow was eating he seized me and threw me down , saying ÒTake care John, or the sow will bite you.Ó and immediately the sow sprang onto me and bit me and shook me as she would have served a varmint. Hiram could hardly get me away from her, and I carry the scars of the wounds I received in that encounter to this day. Hiram was a thrifty sprightly, well grown boy, and by the time he was sixteen he had attained the size and strength of an ordinary man. About this time our armies in the North were confronted by a superior force of British and Indians, and Fort Meigs was besieged and likely to be taken. There was a general call made in our parts-every man of the militia was drafted and ordered out. Father ( George Matthews ) was one among the rest. HiramÕs patriotism was aroused and unbounded, and he put at his Father to let him go as a substitute for him. On the day of rendezvous Father took him to the officers and showed him: he bore the inspection, they accepted him and he went. The army went on to a forced march to upper Sandusky. Meanwhile the enemy were not idle. Two thousand of them marched against Fort Lower Sandusky, which was garrisoned by one hundred and fifty men , and commanded by Major Cohhern whose superior officer , knowing the situation, sent a dispatch to him to burn the fort and destroy all the property he could not get away with. But the Major preferred disobeying orders for once, stood his ground, defeated the enemy with great slaughter and held the place. The vanquished troops went back to Fort Meigs, raised the siege and embarked for Canada. They probably heard that Hiram and seven thousand other men were close upon their heels. After this occurrence the troops were disbanded and they all went home. And this ended HiramÕs soldiering. When about twenty-one years old he married :Louisa Stafford, a very worthy women, and after his first son was born came with his father when he moved to Morgan County, in November, 1820. and after being beaten in an eighty-mile race for the Brooklyn mill seat, he looked around , found and bought the place on which he spent the remainder of his days, In February 1821, he moved his little family out and he and I cut logs on our shoulders and built a hut twelve or fourteen feet square-hardly as high as a manÕs head to the eves-in which they lived the first summer, till they all got so sick that one could not carry water to the other. This hut stood near the brink of the hill or bluff at the east side of the farm. Hiram had by some means got to fatherÕs, and I took a wagon and team, and went after the woman and child, and on the way down overset the wagon and tumbled all into a hole where a tree had turned up. I think Hiram shook the hardest with the ague that I ever saw any one, and declared that if ever he got well and able to travel he would go back to Ohio. where he would rather live on dry crusts of bread, than to live there and shake that way, even if he had the best of living.. But he had not been well long until he changed his mind., went to work , got him out a good set of logs and built a good hewed house, soon after which his wife died. This was the greatest loss he ever met with during life. Some years afterwards he married Ann Stewart, and she died about twelve years ago. The remainder of what might be said about him Mr. Moore has well said, and I feel under many obligations to him for it. I never was in favor of long obituary notices or biographical sketches, and I should not have written a word had I not been called on in the way I was. John Matthews. (Hiram was buried in Monical Cemetery north of Brooklyn IN)
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1797 - 1876 (78 years)
