“THE MARCH OF TIME”

By

Betty Ann Mattley

1941

 

 

Betty Ann Mattley – 1^st on Left

 

 

Chapter I

My Ancestors

 

The Mattleys

 

       My great grandfather Mattley wove sail-cloth in England and because he was such an excellent weaver the English government would not let him immigrate to America, but great grandfather's determination was so strong he watched every chance to steal away to America and finally he was successful in the early 1800's.  However it was three years before he could get his wife and children to the new land. 

 

       One thing that always impresses me is that they brought a rose bush from England, set it out in New York, later brought it to Indiana, and thence to Missouri where it lives on the old Mattley Home place and is known as the "Mattley Rose."

 

       His son, my grandfather, Aaron Mattley, was born September fifteenth, 1822, in Orange County, New York.  Later the family moved to Indiana where he married Eliza Mc Caslin of Kentucky.  We have an old letter of hers 100 years old.  It was sent without a stamp or an envelope and the postage was twelve cents.  They had three children.  He was ordained as a Baptist Minister July 1st, 1854, in Jefferson County, Indiana. 

 

       To this couple were born two sons and a daughter, Scott, "Dett", and Lizzie.  My father has lost all trace of their descendants. 

 

       He taught in the rural schools during the week and preached on Sunday. 

 

       The next move was to Missouri where he homesteaded in Scotland County.  When the Civil War broke out he became Captain of Company D., Cavalry Regiment, Missouri Home Guards, but he was discharged in November of the same year because he had been disabled by a bullet wound.  He died from this wound at sixty seven.  He is buried at Black Oak Cemetery near Granger, Missouri.

 

The Combs

 

 

       Sarah Elizabeth Combs Mattley was born October 9, 1845, in Scotland County, Missouri.  Her mother, Elizabeth Scott, came directly from Scotland and her father, James Loren Combs, was a descendant of an old Kentucky family.

 

       My grandmother's and grandfather's marriage was a second one for both of them.  My grandmother's first marriage was to Jack Noe.  They had three children before Mr. Noe died.  To their union was added three children, Katherine, Jess, and Hilda.  Grandmother died at the age of 83.  [Photo to the left is of Sarah E. (Combs) Noe Mattley]

 

 

The Morrisons

 

       My great grandfather, David R. Morrison was born in New York of Scotch-Irish ancestors, May 25, 1824.  While yet a young man he moved to Illinois and at the age of 25 he married Virginia Angelina Hart, whose Scotch-Welsh and Dutch ancestors first settled in Virginia, Kentucky, and later Illinois.  She was only fifteen years old when she married great grandfather.  My own grandfather, Francis J. Morrison was the oldest of their nine children and was a good sized boy when they moved to Scotland County, Missouri.  They were married sixty six years when great grandmother died twelve hours previously to great grandfather.  They had a double funeral service and a double grave.  They left six living children, forty grandchildren, and sixteen great grandchildren.  They are buried in Hickory Grove Cemetery near Granger, Missouri. 

 

       Grandfather Morrison was born August 25, 1852, in Girard County, Illinois, but later moved to Scotland County, Missouri.  On May 27, 1877, he married my grandmother, Alcinda Ann Loren, in Scotland County, Missouri.  In 1910 he homesteaded in Montana and lived there until his death, August 28, 1927.  He is buried in the little cemetery at Carter, Montana.  [Photo to the right is of Francis J. & Alcinda Ann (Loren) Morrison]

 

 

The Lorens

 

       My great grandfather, Peter W. Loren, was born June 19, 1825 in New York of Scotch Welsh parentage.  While young he moved to the state of Ohio where he met my great grandmother, Elizabeth Ann Persy, whose English ancestors (Smiths) first settled in Virginia but later moved to Ohio.  After great grandmother's and great grandfather's marriage they moved to Scotland County, Missouri.  In the covered wagon train that came from Ohio were great, great grandmother Perry, her two sons and many of the Smith relatives, thus forming a closely related community. 

 

       My grandmother, Alcinda Ann Loren, was the second of the eight children in the above family.  She was born February 6, 1855, and went through the country schools of Scotland County.  Then she went back to her father's people to an Ohio Academy where she spent one year.  She returned to Missouri where she taught school until she married my grandfather, Francis J. Morrison.  They moved to Audrain County after a few years.  It was about 100 miles and the trip was made by sled in February of 1883.  They had three children then and the baby was less than a year old.  They had five more children later my mother being the fifth child out of the eight.  Grandmother died from measles on May 19, 1904 and is buried in Salt River Cemetery, Audrain County, Missouri.

 

My Father

 

       My father, Aaron Jesse Mattley, was born February 26, 1882, in Clark County Missouri.  He spent his boyhood on a farm where his mother and father had lived during their married life and attended Elm Prairie rural School.  In my photographic collection is a group of Elm Prairie Rural School Pupils.  Two of my keepsakes are his first slate and a story book given him for regular attendance at Sunday School.  [Photo to the left is Elm Prairie School.  Aaron Jesse Mattley is top row second in]

 

       His father died when Daddy was seven and soon a great deal of the farm work fell on him because the older half brothers were grown and gone.  Many times he was forced to stay away from school to work.  After he was through rural school it was decided he should go to La Grange Baptist College because there was no near by high school.  His trunk was packed but at the last minute Daddy decided to stay with grandmother to help her.

 

       In the spring of 1906 he shipped an emigrant car to Cheyenne Wells, Colorado and filed a homestead near Ascalon on the farm lately vacated by Fred Hadley.  In the fall of 1908 he contracted typhoid fever and because his heart could not stand the higher altitudes of Denver he was taken to a hospital in Kansas City, Missouri.  After eight weeks he was released from the hospital but returned to the farm where his mother still lived and stayed with her until the spring of 1913 when he again returned to Cheyenne Wells.  [Photo to the right is of Aaron Jesse Mattley]

 

       During this period of time he met my mother and on May 6, 1914, they were married at the home of my mother's uncle and aunt, Mr. and Mrs. T. R. Combs, Centralia, Missouri. 

 

My Mother

 

       My mother was born December 25, 1886, near the store and post office of Gant, in Audrain County, Missouri.  She was named Mary because she was born on Christmas Day.  She was the fifth child.  She had three brothers and one sister older and three brothers younger.

 

       Her first Christmas she can remember was when she was four years old.  She went to the Sunday School program with the neighbors because her mother was sick.  Her big brother carried her sister and her to the sled because the snow was so deep they could not walk.  She can remember yet Santa Claus calling her name for a doll and her standing and shouting, "Here I am, Santa!"

 

       She always loved dolls and when she was a little girl she didn't have many so she "made" one.  She took her brothers' boot jack and wrapped in her mother's shawl.  Her brothers looked every where that night but the boot jack was not to be found anywhere.  Finally they asked her if she knew where it was.

 

       "Of course I do," she answered and ran upstairs and got it out of the bureaw drawer.  Soon after this the family gang learned of the joke and an older cousin gave her doll to mother who still has it - a beautiful, old fashioned china doll nearly sixty years old now.

 

       In the winter, when the sorghum was stiff, their father would send them to the smoke house to get sorghum.  There was a lose board in the smoke house floor"  --- [the story ends at the word floor - feel there must be more ??  ---  vlww.]    

[The above photo is Aaron Jesse and Mary (Morrison) Mattley]

 

Chapter II

A Family Incident

 

       Toward the latter part of the eighteenth century a young father and mother were living in New York.  They were my great great great grandparents, my maternal ancestors, the Lorens.  I am a descendant of their son, Jeremiah.

 

       It was summer time, with men working about the farm and the young wife busy preparing the noon meal while her little children played about.

 

       The men returned from their work but found only the children at the house.  Noticing the water pail was missing, the men supposed she had gone to a near by spring for water, so they waited a while for her return.

 

       At length they became uneasy and started to see what kept her so long.  As they went thru the orchard they saw her sunbonnet lying in the path.  This alarmed the men for they knew even at that time the terrors of the occasional Indian raiders.

 

       The frantic men rushed on to the spring and then to a neighbors, who joined in a wide search of the surrounding timbered land.  Too well did they know what had become of her when several days later they found out Indians had been in the vicinity.

 

       The cunning savages however had evaded the searching parties and never did the family know what became of great great great grandmother Lorens of New York.

 

Chapter III

My Birthplace

 

       I was born at six o'clock Wednesday morning, January 25, 1928 in Cheyenne Wells, Colorado.  The same house on Second Street where the Mattleys have lived since New Year's Day, 1920, was my birthplace.  

 

       My attending physician was Dr. H.C. Homer and my nurse was Mrs. Lillie Williams who stayed for two weeks. 

 

       My weight was ten pounds, my length was twenty-one inches, and my eyes and hair were brown.  I was given the middle name of each grandmother, Betty Ann, and I wish everyone would continue to call me my whole name. 

 

       My one brother, Jesse, was past nine and a deceased sister, Mary Helen, would have been nearly eight. 

 

       I had just one living grandparent, my grandmother Mattley, but she died the next year.  I often think children who have grandparents to visit and love are fortunate.  I have never been able to do this. 

 

       I have sixteen own cousins, three own aunts, and five own uncles besides the uncles and aunts by marriage.  They are scattered from the Atlantic coast on the east to the Pacific on the west, and from Little Rock on the south to Tacoma on the north.  I am much younger than any of my cousins, many of whom I do not know.

 

 

Cheyenne Wells, Cheyenne County, Colorado

 

 

 

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