Breckinridge County KyArchives History .....History Of Lawson H. Godsey/Ebeneazer Godsey July 6, 2007 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/ky/kyfiles.html ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Dana Brown http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00005.html#0001067 and Wayne Meador July 7, 2007, 6:46 pm Written by: Wayne Meador Clermont, Florida 06 July 2007 ------------------------------------ Lawson H. and Ebeneazer "Naze" Godsey were neighbors living on ajoining farms. After Naze returned from four years of service with the 17 Kentucky Vol Inf (Union) in 1865, he married Jane Eskridge Matthews the widow of Stephen Matthews (my 2-great grandparents), a brother of Lawson H. Matthews, both sons of George Matthews and Elizabeth Moore Matthews. Both Naze and Lawson Matthews had been married previously. Naze Godsey had been married and the father of five children by his first wife Elizabeth Burch, a daughter of Henley Burch and Nancy Matthews, a sister of Stephen and Lawson H., but that marriage ended in divorce in 1861 (Breck Co records). Lawson H. Matthews had been married first to Elizabeth Hall. They were the parents of 10 children before her death. Lawson married second America Pryor, a widow of James Seaton. They were the parents of four children America Emma, Sam, Franklin Sherman and Minnie Mattews Blair. The family story goes that Naze Godseys second wife, Jane Eskridge Matthews, wanted to be buried beside her first husband (buried in Matthews-Burch Cem.), and Lawson did not want to choose between which of his wives he would be buried. They devised a plan in which they agreed that the surviving one of the two would pay for the burial expenses of the one who died first. They further agreed that they would have a stone fence built around their two man cemetery. Lawson died in the 1880's and Naze Godsey finally died in 1892 from the TB disease which he had contacted during his Civil War service. Naze had Lawson buried on a slight rise in a field which lay across the road from Lawson's house. Naze could also view the cemetery from his nearby farmhouse. After the death of Naze in 1892, his widow, Jance Eskridge Matthews Godsey paid the stonecutter at the Green Brothers Mill and Farm to cuts stone and build the wall that you can see standing today 115 years after it was built. Additional Comments: I, Wayne Meador, have a copy of the original check signed by the executor of his estate for the full payment of the construction of wall. File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ky/breckinridge/history/other/historyo235gms.txt This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/kyfiles/