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2/1/2010

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Jane Harlan link

2/5/2010 12:00:54 am

Recently I watched a video from 1998 of Floyd and Roy, sons of John Huston MATTHEWS. It was produced by Bill MATTHEWS and Jesse CLAYTON. In it they asked the brothers to recall stories of their childhood.
Floyd told of a trip he and his father took by train to TX about 1915; to visit "Uncle Sam Williams"; Huston's brother-in-law. During the visit Huston became so very ill that a son of Sam's and Floyd set up all night with his father for several nights. Said they played checkers all night.
An interesting tidbit that Floyd shared was that one son of Sam's was a friend of Lyndon Johnson - who later became our 36th President, from 1963 to 1969.
Now why would an aging father;widowed; in failing health; who has lost his wife and his business-embark on a trip with his young son to Texas? Huston had already found a good home with a caring family for son Roy, and his daughters were being cared for by his eldest son John and wife Janie. So why the trip?
Floyd said his father tried to persuade him to stay with the WILLIAMS.
My belief is that Huston was attempting to find a home and better life for his son. He knew Floyd would have a hard, difficult life working as a farm laborer in rural Westpoint TN.
Asked what ever became of the WILLIAMS; Floyd said he thought the family moved north, maybe to the oil fields in OK.
Some Years later the Sam Williams family stopped in Loretto for a quick visit with the MATTHEWS before continuing their journey south on Highway 43. They drove a very nice vehicle; Sam had a car dealership.
The MATTHEWS brothers never saw nor heard from the WILLIAMS FAMILY again.
This is the only story I've heard about them although I knew they existed. The few records I had indicated that Sam moved his family from Limestone AL to Arkansas; not Texas. Jane

Emma

2/9/2010 10:26:25 pm

What interesting information! How neat that a family member was friends with one of the presidents. These are the type of stories that need to be documented. I completely agree with you wholeheartedly that folks need to send in their stories so that we can get everything in writing. Once a person's gone, all of their stories die with them unfortunately; unless of course, they're documented beforehand. The website looks great and you gals keep up the awesome work! My fiance Bill and I thoroughly enjoyed attending our first reunion this past year and are planning on attending this year. I found it inspiring, having done genealogical work myself, seeing so many family members in attendance. The stories that I'm sure they could tell collectively was fascinating to me. I wish I could have heard the stories and learned a bit more about the genealogy while we were there. It was nice to see so many family members I hadn't seen since I was a little girl.

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Hello, I'm Jane Harlan; a descendant of Huston Matthews & Margaret Venable. My obsession in all this is to obtain historical knowledge and family lore about this clan – and hopefully – distinguish between the two. Residing in Lawrenceburg TN; I have access to TN & AL archives & courthouses where our historical documents are maintained. Is there someone in particular you want to read about on this site? I implore you folks to send me your stories! If we don't get it in writing, the stories die with us. This website is Jan's obsession; and our legacy to all Matthews descendants. Let’s leave 'em something to talk about.

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