Obituary of Aunt Mary MATHEWSON, Crawford County, Illinois This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by: Jim Admire From the WABASH PEARL -Friday Jan. 14, 1910 transcribed by Barbara Dix Aunt Mary Mathewson released her grasp on this life only a little over seven years short of the century mark. Read the history of her life and you have in a nut-shell the general Pioneer. HISTORY OF CRAWFORD COUNTY Aunt Mary Mathewson died at her home in Palestine last Tuesday morning about 2 o'clock. A few weeks ago she got up to get a drink and fell and was never able to recover from the effects. She had passed far beyond the allotted three score and ten years, being at the time of her death 92 years 10 months and 24 days old. She died in the same house in which she began housekeeping in June 1837. The house in which she died has as shown in the picture is situated on the Main St. in Palestine just north of the school house and is one of the oldest buildings now standing in town. She remembered that few buildings that have stood so long. One of them is the brick house east of school house now owned by Ray Bogard occupied in 1837 by Esq. John Harper, another now is used by Caywood and son for a lumber office and then occupied by Preston Wilson. and a house now occupied by Silas Gross, and the Palestine Hotel, both of which were occupied Jesse K. Dubois a portion of time he was land commissioner here. Her house was built a few years before her marriage by a man named Cousins and was occupied by him as a grocery store and her husband bought it for a home. At that time there were but 2 grocery stores and 2 dry goods stores in town. One of the grocery stores was where Bethel Martin's poultry store was 1 year ago and was owned by Alfred Kitchell father of John Kitchell, one of the dry good stores was on the corner where John Delzellis now located and was run by Findley Paull and a man named Brewer. At that time the present school house park was the public square belonging to the county and was occupied by the court house and the jail both of which were log structures. The court house was burned and afterwards replaced with a two story frame which stood on the southwest corner of the square. She well remembers the circumstance of Mrs. Reed who poisoned her husband Leonard Reed south of town and while confined to the log jail set fire to it. She was rescued and taken to Lawrenceville where she was tried, convicted and hanged. The land office was then located on the present Joseph Loughery corner on Main St. and was in charge of General Smith whose wife was Geretta who was the daughter of Newton Wilson. Jesse K. DuBois later had charge of the office. Mrs. Mathewson was the daughter of Joseph Brimberry and Jane Cunningham Brimberry who were married in KY and came with their family to this country. She was born near Vincennes Feb. 4, 1817. She came with her parents when an infant to what is now known as the Richwoods where she spent the whole of her single life, except a short time that she lived with a family named Schuler, who was the step father of Jesse K. DuBois on the DuBois hill near Vincennes. Her father, a flat boat man and made several trips with produce to New Orleans. He made his last trip from which he never returned when she was a small child. Her mother afterwards married Blauton Brashears son of Ithra Brashears who then owned the Strawther Hawkins farm. While living with her mother and step-father in the Richwoods, her nearest neighbors were Thomas Fuller, Major Stephen Gaines. Joseph Shaw, William Adams and Mr. Truitt grandfather of the present generation. She was married to Daniel Mathewson Feb. 23, 1837 and began housekeeping in Palestine in June following. Her husband was a plasterer by trade, he departed this life in 1853 or 1854 since which time she remarried a widower. She was the last survivor of her father's family and has also outlived all her children but one son, Alonzo Mathewson, now living in KS and has one grandson Alonzo Mohler whom she reared living here. To hear her tell the old story of the frolics, house raisings, and the log rolling, while the men worked out of doors, the women spun flax or wool into thread, wove cloth or cut and sewed the cloth into garments by hand and the happy social times accompanying those occasions we are almost lead to believe that pioneers life was made up of fun and frolic, amusement and enjoyment but it is a woeful mistake. While there was more or less pleasure and happiness among the frontierman with their rude wild life there was much more danger, toil and privation, self denial a lack of comforts of life and many of its necessaries The country was settled under difficulties amid hardships and dangers..But these drew the people closer together and made them more dependent upon each other. All lived lived in a state of comparative social equality. The rich and the poor dressed alike, the men generally wore hunting shirts and buckskin britches and the women attired themselves in coarse clothing produced by their own hands. The cabins were furnished in sample, simple style. Bedsteads were homeade. The pot, kettle, and frying pan were the only articles considered indispensible and a few plates and dishes upon a shelf in one corner was as satisfactory as a cupboard full of china now, while food was as highly relished from a slab table as it is this fast age from the highly polished table with the large carved legs. The credit of subduing the wilderness and planting civilization is not the work of men alone. Women was the helpmate and the guiding spirit of the sterner sex nobly did her part in the work. The accepted life of a women was to marry, bear and rear children, prepare the household food, spin, weave, and make the garments for the family. Mrs. in the 93rd year of her life has seen marvelous changes both in country and society and in the years that have come and gone in quiet succession while the panorama has been unfolding view the verdant race of Crawford County have disappeared and in their places are productive field covered with flocks and herds and peopled with 30,000 civilized intelligent beings. The Indian trail is obliverated by the railway track and the oxteam and the prairie schooner are displaced by the rushing trains and automobiles. The torch light and grease lamp have given place for the electric light. The telephone has bliverated distance between neighbors. In the grand march of civilization and improvement who can tell or dare to predict what the next 90 years may develop. The funeral took place Wednesday at one o'clock p.m. up at Oak Grove Church. It was preached by Rev. Jesse Stoner. Interment was made in the cemetery at that place. Thus has ended almost a century in which she witnessed the marvelous development of a new country. What a century more will bring forth but few, if any, will ever witness, and at the rate of progress now being made in American business and life, will find infants and even those who have crossed the meridan of life, baffled and dazed. However, the out look is bright and as we muse concerning the material progress of the world ,let our hopes , our fears, be set to the tune . " Yet in my dreams, I'll be nearer my God to Thee". ***************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free information on the Internet, data may be used by non-commercial entities, as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may NOT be reproducd in any format for profit or for presentation by other persons or organizations. 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