Jefferson County AlArchives Biographies.....Mathews, Sam c. 1855 - ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/al/alfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: L. Hanke lhbham@yahoo.com November 16, 2007, 7:54 pm Author: Sam Mathews From Sam Mathew's deposition in a land dispute case, Jefferson County, Alabama entitled: Sim Hall & Mary Foggs) vs )Box 8587, No. 14 (filed in front of box) J. L. Clay ) (Sam Mathews sold his Birmingham land well below its value to J. L. Clay, the Mayor of Selma. His daughter, Mary Foggs, and Sim Hall, his step-son, were contesting the sale - at first because Mary Foggs thought her father was dead, and that it could not have been he who made the transaction. When she and Sim Hall positively identified Sam Mathews as her father at the deposition, it became a question of his mental capacity to transact business. Sam suffered from paranoia, believing a local Justice of the Peace and sons were trying to kill him). Sam was born a slave, around 1855. Deposition taken 25 August 1914 My name is Sam Scott... I was born on old Judge Hunter's place about five miles from Selma, Alabama. I came to Birmingham in 1886. When I came here my name was not Sam Scott. I had a brother by the name of Berry Scott. My father's name was Willis Scott. I did not have a brother by the name of Mathews. I got the name of Sam Mathews after I came here. I wanted to go by my master's name "Hunter" but he didn't want me to so I named myself "Sam Mathews." I spell my name Mathews, some people spell my name Mathis. I am about 58 or 59 years old. I married here in Birmingham, in 1890, I was married on 16th Street and 7th Ally. The name of the preacher that married me was Henry Brown. Off and on I lived with my wife eight or nine years. I lived in Elyton on the road they call the "Boulevard Road." I do not know whether she lived here in the house I bought after I left here or not. My wife and I parted about ten or twelve years before I bought this property, and she never lived on it up to the time I left it and went to Selma. I have heard that she is dead. My daughter's name is Mary Elizabeth and when I lived in Birmingham she lived on Cotton Street in Elyton. I don't know what name she goes by nor whether she is married or not. This daughter is the only child I have. I know Sim Hall. He is the brother of my daughter. Sim Hall is the son of my wife by a former marriage. [He] lived with us when we lived on the Boulevard Road. Sim Hall might have been a chap about 10 or 12 years old when I left my wife on Boulevard road. I bought some property in Johnson village sometime known as Darktown. I don't remember the year. I bought the property of W. P. Ward, ... had the deed recorded in this county. I don't remember the number of the Lot and block. I know the house all right, I lived on the property when I lived here in Birmingham, and I lived on it six or seven years. It took me some five or six years to pay for it and I got the deed when I finished paying for it. I left this place four years ago next coming February and went to Selma, Alabama. Some time afterwards I went to work for Mr. Clay to whom I sold this property. I paid $300.00 for the lot, the building was already on the lot when I bought it. I sold the $300.00 place for $50 because I was obliged to do it as I was down to Selma, and the taxes up here would have eaten it up. ********************** Note: The rest of his deposition related to his paranoia, and he went into detail of whom he believed was trying to kill him (J. of the P.), why (they thought he killed someone), and how (by sprinkling white poison that looked like 'burnt salt' on his food no matter where he was or who cooked and served him the food. He even mentioned his sister's food had it on it. He was told by people that it was quinine, but he didn't believe them) Sam also believed the ones after him were telling people not to hire him, so that he "couldn't get any money to live on and would starve to death." Mr. Clay, Mayor of Selma for past four years, testified that he advanced Sam money to pay the taxes on his Birmingham property, since Sam was trying to sell it. Sam worked for a tenant on Clay's land. When Sam couldn't sell the property, he asked Clay to buy it. Clay said he didn't want the land, but that Sam seemed anxious to sell and anxious to get a little money, Sam stating that it "was the only way he had to pay me the money he already owed me." Mr. Clay also testified that he thought Sam "was all right now, and in his right mind and has been ever since I first saw him except that he has appeared to be mortally afraid to come to Birmingham for fear of being killed, and on this subject he is a great deal worse now than he was when I first tried to get him to come." Additional Comments: ***************** Genealogical information gathered while cleaning and indexing court files for Jefferson Co AL. I am not related to any of the parties. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/al/jefferson/bios/mathews763gbs.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/alfiles/ File size: 5.4 Kb