MATTHEWS, James Washington, 26 Oct 1798 - 31 Dec 1880. (prominent farmer, surveyor, teacher & writer of early Maury County events. Kept a dairy from 1831 to 1878 of which only 1844 - 1869 survives. His writings thrive and strongly influence Maury County historians today.)
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MATTHEWS, Surrilda Katherine (Dooley), 16 Oct 1811 - 20 Jun 1876. (wife of James Washington Matthews.)
James Washington Matthews was a prominent farmer, surveyor and school teacher in early Maury County.
He kept a Dairy nearly fifty years from 1831 to 1878, but only the years 1844 thru 1869 were properly preserved. Two other volumes are still missing. All of the copies were lost for several years when the Historical Society disbanded in the early 1900s, dispersed & lost the volumes. In 1965 a volume which included the years from 1858 to 1869 including the Civil War turned up in an attic of an old house in Columbia. Later another section covering 1844 thru 1857 was discovered by the Archives team headed by Bob Duncan of Maury County. If you know of any of these missing volumes including the periods of 1831 thru 1844, and 1869 thru 1878 please contact the Maury County Archives or the Tennessee Archives in Nashville. Several prominent authors of Maury County history have sourced the first volume to turn up including Jill Garrett in several publications, Marise P. Lightfoot & Evelyn B. Shackelford appearing in the book "They Passed This Way". See Historic Maury Page 83-84 for more details & what you can do to gain access to this historic material.
Information and photo by Wayne Austin 25 Apr 2005. Visited there 13 Dec 2004. Updated 20 Sep 2010 from an article that appeared in Historic Maury Vol. XLVI, No 3. Sep 2010. Pages 83 - 92 by John M. Abernathy
