Mr. Matheus attended school in Springfield, W. Va., for four years. When he came to Steubenville he attended night school for two winters. Mr. Dorhman J. Sinclair who founded the Union Savings Bank and Trust Co., employed Mr. Matheus from the beginning and in recognition of his loyal service bequeated to Mr. Matheus a pension of fifty dollars per month.
Mr. Matheus is a member of the office board of the Quinn Memorial A.M.E. He has been an elder of that church for many years and also trustee and treasure. He frequently serves on the jury. He is well known and highly respected in the community.
Sarah Probst, Reporter
Audrey Meighen, Author-Editor
Folklore: Ex-Slaves
Meigs County, District Three
MR. WILLIAM NELSON
Aged 88
"Whar's I bawned? 'Way down Belmont Missouri, jes' cross frum C'lumbus Kentucky on de Mississippi. Oh, I 'lows 'twuz about 1848, caise I wuz fo'teen when Marse Ben done brung me up to de North home with him in 1862."
"My Pappy, he wuz 'Kaintuck', John Nelson an' my mammy wuz Junis Nelson. No suh, I don't know whar dey wuz bawned, first I member 'bout wuz my pappy buildin' railroad in Belmont. Yes suh, I had five sistahs and bruthahs. Der names—lets see—Oh yes—der wuz, John, Jim, George, Suzan and Ida. No, I don't member nothin' 'bout my gran'parents."
"My mammy had her own cabin for hur and us chilluns. De wuz rails stuck through de cracks in de logs fo' beds with straw on top fo' to sleep on."
"What'd I do, down dar on plantashun? I hoed corn, tatahs, garden onions, and hepped take cair de hosses, mules an oxen. Say—I could hoe onions goin' backwards. Yessuh, I cud."
"De first money I see wuz what I got frum sum soljers fo' sellin' dem a bucket of turtl' eggs. Dat wuz de day I run away to see sum Yankee steamboats filled with soljers."