Francis Mathews in America, from 1734 to 1934

MATHEWS, LESTER, HODGES, DAVENPORT, PATTERSON, BOOTH , DODDS, SPRY, ROBERTSON, SMITH

Posted By: Deb (email)
Date: 7/30/2008 at 16:19:07

History of Herman Mathews
Francis Mathews Family In America, from 1734 to 1934
Pages 6-12
By Adolpheous Mathews

Herman Mathews was apprenticed by his father to a mill-wright to learn the mill-wright trade when but seventeen years of age.

Water being the strongest power known to our pioneer ancestors, a man who could go to a stream, take what he found there, build a dam and mill, and make them stay there through high water and floods, was rated a first class workman.

Part of the old dam he built at Lowell, Iowa, in 1840 is still standing today in 1936. The mill was torn down and moved away more than thirty years ago.

No stream that had a quick fall was too small to turn its water wheel in that day. Give our pioneer mothers a couple of stones of the right shape and size and they would convert wheat and corn into a fair quality of breakfast food. A puncheon was never a satisfactory board.

As soon as the dam and water wheel were built, a sash saw was installed to cut lumber to finish the mill. A sash saw was built just like a window sash, only larger. The saw being the middle bar and moved up and down in a frame like a window. It was made of wood and was held together by wooden pins. The mill stones to grind grain into flour were installed when the mill was finished.

I have heard Herman Mathews say that he carried the saw and all the iron used on the first Lowell mill on his horse from Burlington and that it was not much of a pack either.

Soon after Herman Mathews was married, he started West, building those mills you see in pioneer pictures, with big water wheels by the side. He built mills in the territory that is now Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois. He had four children born in that territory.

He reached Iowa in the fall of 1838, locating on a farm near where West Point, Iowa, now stands. He built a saw mill there which was a financial loss as the stream only furnished power for a few weeks work in the spring, and saw milling is a winter job.

In the spring of 1845 he bought a farm near Danville, Iowa, and made that farm his home until he died.
In the fall he bought a pony saw mill. A pony saw mill is a circular saw driven by horse power, and could be moved to any wood lot where there were 50,000 board feet of logs to be cut into building material.

Herman Mathews furnished part of the planks used on the Plank Road between Jimtown and New London, Iowa. One thousand board feet of clear sound oak plank, twelve dollars and fifty cents delivered on the right of way.

At one time Herman Mathews and his boys were operating three pony saw mills, but the War of 1861 came on, and all building stopped, making saw mills unprofitable. They disposed of their mills and took up farming.

Henry, David, and Mary Ann settled near their father in Des Moines County. Francis, Jesse, Edward, Herman, Charles, and Lizzie obtained farms in Henry County.

Now, it seems as if most of our families are farmers and school teachers. These two classes are very essential to their country's welfare, but occupy very few pages in its history.

Herman Mathews built a mill near where Plymouth, Ill., now stands in 1837 while a resident of Hancock County, Ill., and Lee County, Iowa.

Herman Mathews became well acquainted with the seamy side of Mormon life as he was a member of several posses that raided Nauvoo, Ill., and Montrose, Iowa, hunting for criminals.

Herman said that if a crime was committed within a 100 miles of Nauvoo the posses would head direct for Nauvoo. If the criminal could get to Nauvoo the Mormons would protect them and furnish witness that would swear the criminal could not possibly of been where the prosecution claimed he was and the court would turn the criminal free. So much had this became a habit of the Mormons that later when Smith the Prophet of the Mormons was apprehended red handed and lodged in the Carthage jail some one slipped up to the jail in the night time and shot him and sent him to a court where his Brethren could not swear him out.

It was the same way with the Hodges Bro. that were hung at Burlington, Ia.

The Hodges Bro. claimed to be proselyers of the Mormon church, but were arrested a number of times for theft, but managed to furnish an alibi from the Brethren at Nauvoo.

In the murder charge all the evidence the State had was a cap known to belong to the younger Hodges and the statement of a dieing man that it was the Hodges Bro. that killed his father-in-law and caused his death, and two witnesses who had seen the Hodges Bro. in that vicinity the evening of the day before the murder and the positive identification of Hodges by the murdered men's wives.

The Hodges brought a bunch of witnesses from Montrose who swore it was not possible for the Hodges Bro. to have been in that vicinity at the time. But the Prosecuting Attorney was able to make these witnesses acknowledge they knew the Hodges Bro. had been in trouble before and many of the witnesses had been alibi witnesses for the Hodges Bro. before and three of those witnesses were later hung at Rock Island, Ill., for the murder of Col. Davenport which proves the jury at Burlington was right in the summing up.

So it took the jury less than an hour to find the Hodges Bro. guilty of murder.

This turned Burlington into an armed camp as the Mormons vowed the Hodges Bro. would never be hung.

On the day of the hanging the weather was fine and an immense crowd was present including Herman Mathews and his two sons, Francis and Jesse.

When the brothers were brought out they both made speeches, the older one making a serman claiming they were innocent and it was the same crowd of heathen that crucified Jesus.

Herman Mathews said innocent or not the Hodges Bro. needed hanging on their general reputation.

You could not make Herman Mathews or his boys, Francis or Jesse admit there was anything religious about the Mormons.

Herman said the people formed a vigilant committee all around Nauvoo and if a Mormon got out of Nauvoo he was arrested and held for questioning.
So the only thing the Mormons could do was to get out, but it was their fault for if they had tried to live a Christian life, they might have controlled Illinois and Iowa, for they were the predominating church at the time.

Herman Mathews was a friend of the Indians; he could talk with the Indians in their own language and claims he sees little difference between the whites and Indians. They both have their thieves and trouble makers among them but the great majority would trust you far if you would trust them.

There were Indians around every mill he would build and the Indians would protest loudly at him for filling obstruction in the streams so they would have to tote their canoes around, but never tried to stop him or do anything about it.

He had to watch his ax and draw shave, the Indians could use those tools and if they ever got a hold of one of them and got in the brush with it you might as well order a new one as you never see your old tool again.

The Indian squaw did annoy his wife as the squaws were very curious about everything a white woman did and if the squaw got in the house they insisted in taking up the baby, undressing it to see how its clothes were made and the baby's diaper came in for a lot of talk as the Indian squaws couldn't understand why a white mother dressed her baby in the three cornered pants, an Indian mother never did.

There was a Indian village at the Indian spring on Mud Creek just a short distance below Lowell and the Indian children came up nearly every day, and played around the mill.

The government did not remove the Indians from their village until the summer of 1842.

The first mill built at Lowell was more a saw mill than a grist mill, as the demand for lumber to build houses and fences were great, the saw was run both day and day and night and the burr only when some one wanted a grist ground.

Herman Mathews first year in Iowa was a financial failure.
The stream on which he built his mill was too small and did not furnish enough power to do much work.

He raised a nice crop of wheat, got it all harvested and stacked.

Upon rising one morning he found the fire had gone out and the flint and tinder used to start the fire with could not be found. This was before the invention of matches. He gave Francis a shovel and sent him across the field to borrow some fire.

Francis coming back across the wheat stubble must have dropped a coal of fire for when they came out after breakfast the whole stubble and stocks were burning.

All that he had left was about five acres of sod corn and a small patch of buckwheat for his summer work.

On coming to Iowa they unknowingly moved into a house where the children had died with scarlet fever. They had not been in their new home long before David, Henry, and Charles took down with scarlet fever.

Charles never did fully recover from the effects of this scarlet fever, it left him deaf. He could call his older brother by name, but never learned to pronounce the name of his younger brother and sister.

Charles had the best education of any of his brothers and sisters, as he was educated at the State Deaf and Dumb school.

To the relations of the Mathews family greetings one and all. It has been frequently asked when and where the Reunions have been held. Having kept a diary ever since I was eighteen years old I thought I would answer those questions.

The first Mathews Family Reunion was held at the Herman Mathews home near Danville in the fall of 1882 which afforded him much pleasure as all his children, son-in-laws and daughter-in-law and five grand children were present. This is copied from a letter in the Hawk-Eye dated Sept. 22nd, 1882, and signed E.S.B.M., being Aunt Emlie's signature to letter she sent to the papers.

From that time until we formed a permanent organization in the fall of 1898. There was several attempts to hold reunions at different homes there were only partly successful. At one of these meetings held at the Jesse Mathews home in Canaan, it was resolved that the first cousins meet at the Harlen Mathews Studio at Mt. Pleasant Oct. 18, 1890, and have a group picture taken. This was our first family picture. Herman Mathews learned the mill-wright trade when a young man and soon after his marriage he started west, building those log mills with big water wheels at the side as you see in every old pioneer picture. He built mills and farmed in Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa, and had children born in each of those states. Coming to Iowa in the fall of 1838 he took up a farm near West Point, Lee Co. Building the first house in Lowell, Henry Co., in the early winter of 1840, where Mary Ann was born March 9, 1840, being the first white child born in the city of Lowell. The Indians were still at their village at the Indian spring on Mud Creek.

There were eleven children born to Herman Mathews and his wife, Ann Lester. One, Herman, dying in infancy, the other ten living to be over sixty years, before another break of those ten. One never married, one married but had no children. There were fifty-two children born to the other eight. By families, Francis Mathews and Amelia Patterson eleven children were born, Flora, Ida, Cora, Lenard dying in infancy before 1890, Morrow, Emery, Etta, Millie, Harlen, Jennie, and Lulu are in the cousins group picture.

Jesse Mathews and Caroline Patterson,seven children were born, Wilford dying in infancy, Adolpheous, Emerson, Juston, Ella, Fay, and Effa are in the picture.

Henry Mathews and Cyrine Dodds, eight children were born, Mary dying young, Sherman, Howard, Warren, Willie, Grace, Birdie, and Fredrick are in the group.

David Mathews and Emily Booth, five children were born, Wallace, Alfred, Perlee, Ray, and Joseph and in the group.

Edward Mathews and Mary Spry, five children were born, Estella, Mada, Lois, and Olive are in the picture. Frank being killed by the cars in 1887.

Mary Mathews and James Robertson, four children were born, Charles, Henry, Willie, Clara are in the picture.

Herman Mathews and Susanna Spry, six children were born, Willie and Lulu dying in infancy, John, Harlen, Jesse, and Clifford being in the group.

Elizabeth Mathews and George Smith, six children were born, Myra and James dying in infancy, Herman, Marion, Albert, and Noble are in the group of the first cousins picture.