MATTHEWS CEMETERY (Campbellsville Pike 1 mile south of Southport), MAURY COUNTY, TENNESSEE

Newton Harvey Matthews was born on 7 Jul 1810 in N. C. & came early to Maury County. He married Eliza L. Mack and they were parents to at least eight children. 
Three of his sons served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War. The homeplace of Mr. Matthews was prominently located on one of the best roads between Columbia and Alabama (part of what is today Campbellsville's Pike). This made his place very visible during the ebb and flow of the Civil War. Mr. Matthews was a member of the Home Guard during the period when the county was trying to prepare to defend itself and, when Union forces occupied the area, he was much persecuted. Arrested and forced to walk most of the way to Nashville, imprisoned for some months without trial, property confiscated and his life threatened. However Mr. Matthews did not waver in his sympathies toward the South. It was while he was in prison that he contracted an illness that brought on his eventual death. He died on 21 Mar 1886.

Newton Harvey Matthews was born July 7, 1810 in North Carolina. He was a descendant of Samuel Stewart Matthews from Bellymacasheen, Down Co., Ireland. Before his marriage he traveled over thirteen states, mostly as a dealer in clocks. He spent time with a surveying party which was dividing MS into sections among the Indians. In 1835 he settled on a farm about 400 acres near Columbia, Maury Co., TN. He married Eliza Louiza Mack daughter of William Mack and Mary "Polly" Blair Mack on February 2, 1835 in Maury Co., TN. He acted as an overseer of the farm, because he was blind in one eye. He was a hard working, frugal man. In politics he was an old line Whig, and first voted for the Union. However, when Lincoln called up the troops to fight the South, he supported the Confederate cause. His property was taken over by Union Army and they threatened to burn his house down and took him prisoner to Nashville. He was forced to walk to Nashville while one of his former slaves rode his horse. He spent three months in prison without any charges, and was released without trial. During his imprisonment he contracted heart disease from which he never fully recovered. He was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. He died March 21, 1886 and is buried in the Matthews Cemetery in Maury Co., TN.
Patricia Heath