My GGGGGrandfather was a gunmaker

[Char-Gar]

My wife is deep into Geneology and she has sucked me into that swamp as well. I recently discovered that my GGGGGrandfathere was a riflemaker and gunsmith named Moses M. Mathews (born 1725 in Virginia) . He had a shop in Winsboro North Carolina before the Revolutionary War. He is listed as a "Maker of Fine Rifles". When the Americans decided to split the sheets with the Brits, his shop became the repair shop and gun maker for Gen. Thomas Sumpter's army. The Brits burned it to the ground in 1782 or 83. After the war he was granted a large tract of land in Georgia in payment for $18,000.00 worth of unpaid bills from the Govt. He settled there and became quite well to do.

His son (Moses M. Mathews Jr.) became a Methodist Circuit Riding preacher in N.C. and Georgia.

I guess I had not other choice, if DNA means anything. I am a United Methodist Preacher by vocation and a riflemaker by interest.

[Nueces]

Very interesting history, and fun to learn about, I'm sure. I guess you'll be eyeing the maker's marks on old flinters from now on, huh?

Mark

[waksupi]

Those Brits are some vindictive SOB's, burning him out after the Civil War. THAT, is a stealth attack, worthy of the Asian techniques, of outlasting the enemy, and striking when they are least aware.
Beware! They are probably sneaking up right now, to burn you out! The time frame would be about right!

[Char-Gar]

Actualy the folks who lit the fire were Torries. I should have been more specific. The British Army was defeated at Yorktown in 1781, but the war did not end until 1783 with the Treaty of Paris. Parities of Torries raised hell and gave payback for some time after Yorktown.

OK... now I get it... It was a typo.. It should have read 1782 instead of 1882. Silly me.. how could I have been so foolish. But if I had done it right the first time, you could not have had your fun, now could you.

[sundog]

Good story, Charles.

Some of my grandmother's ancestors were sloop builders on the Hudson River - Collyer. The book, Sloops of the Hudson mentions them. She also had a couple of strange first cousins. Ever hear of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley?

We were talking at work the other day about how guns (bows, spears, swords knives, etc.) make history interesting. My comment was that history is taught all wrong in school, and that's why so many kids never really learn it very well. If they did they would also understand civics and world governments a whole lot better. History lesson, in order to be interesting, need to be tied to something tangible like guns or sloops or something. Or genealogy - what were your ancestors doing when something was going on? It all becomes much more meaningful.

[MT Gianni]

I agree Sundog. One line I read, though I can't recall the author, was of a young man being asked which subject he prefered, history or geography. His response was "they are the same". If kids knew that a countrys borders are generally there because of it's wars they may pay a little more attention.

[Bret4207]

Hey Charles, my wife is a speech therapist and she says she can help with that sssssstuter you have when you try and write grandfather.......

[Scrounger]

Was that a stutter? I thought he was trying to say it was his Great greatgreatgreatgreat grandfather in a shorthanded kind of way.

[onceabull]

Tories Vs.rebels in the Carolina's during Rev.war period one of the great pretty much untouched(at least in American History classes through H.S. and at some university's)stories of that period.. read up on what's available on the events leading up to the Battle of King's Mountain ,and who did most of the dying there. Onceabull

[armoredman]

My family came over in 1824, and settled in Minnesota. Boring farmers, one who built hospitals in France in WWI, and some uncles who occupied Japan at wars end, and one who was a medic in surrounded Bastogne.
History is far more important than any of these kids realize, and someday they may realize it, too late.

[Bret4207]

Pick any period in history and start even a cursory study of said era and you'll likely find the whole period has been misrepresented to one degree or another. Even more irritating is the way our contemporaries gleefully re-write thse historys to fit their preconceived notions.

[Char-Gar]

Bret... Written history often does not give a clear picture of the times for a couple of reasons.

1. Folks who write history do so for a purpose or with an agenda. They cherry pick the events to accomplish their purose of meet their agenda

2. People were as varied and individual then as they are now and it is impossible to capture the scope of history with all it's shades and varities of human beings.

I tend to enjoy history on the small scale..the stories of invididuals not deemed worthy of a chapter or even a paragraph in a book dealing with the sweep of history. Even with the differences of culture and technology, they are amazingly just like us.

[Onlymenotu]

I tend to enjoy history on the small scale..the stories of invididuals not deemed worthy of a chapter or even a paragraph in a book dealing with the sweep of history.

This is the true history and it's being lost at a staggering pace with todays fast pace lifestyles nobody has time for the old!!

My Grandmother past away last year * 9/9/06*... * i got some *information and sucth while she was a live * family tree,stories,old recipes ect ect....... and/ but i still feel cheated/at a lose for what i didn't get.... it's lost for ever..... better get it while you can folks.... when it's gone,,,,,, it's gone forever

[mtgrs737]

We should never forget that history is written by the winners of the conflict for the most part. Their are those who claim the holocast never really happened. Learn form history or you may have to repeat it, it is amazing how fast the general public forgets.

[Char-Gar]

I had the great good fortune of being raised by my Grandparents. He was born in 1887 and she in 1891. They shared with me the rich memories of their parents and grandparents. That gives a "living memory" back to way before the Civil War. I have managed to capture those stories and pass them along to my children. They went through some wild and wooly times!

[BD]

My father has a strong interest in our geneology, and as we have a relatively unusual last name it has been a worthwhile and interesting pursuit for him. Our family were organ builders in England, who left during the reformation for France. They lived in France for several generations before coming to the colonies and there are still 1/2 dozen or so of the organs they built in French cathedrals. We took a family road trip through France last year and I got to see one of them which has been restored, and is played once a year for a festival. A very moving experience.

Of course another branch of the family were Basque, one "Bernardo Segui" who arrived in Florida aboard a ship from Majorca. My father looked up the ships manifest in a museum on Majorca and Bernardo was listed as a crewman. The manifest in the museum in St. Augustine, where he became the first mayor, lists him as "Captain" with no mention of the men who were listed as officers in the original Majorcan manifest.
Makes you wonder.
BD

[PineTreeGreen]

My father told the story of his grandfather paddleing from Digby,Nova Scotia to Portland,Maine with 7 kids and a cook stove in a canoe. The real story was a sail boat,no cookstove and lost 4 kids overboard.
On Sunday mornings,Pa would read the geneology in the paper first. The rest of it was of not much interest.
I still remember some of his tales. They bring a smile to my face :)

[NVcurmudgeon]

Tories Vs.rebels in the Carolina's during Rev.war period one of the great pretty much untouched(at least in American History classes through H.S. and at some university's)stories of that period.. read up on what's available on the events leading up to the Battle of King's Mountain ,and who did most of the dying there. Onceabull

My 8XGGF was a SgtMajor, 2nd Batallion, 4th Virginia Regiment at the battle of Yorktown. It was his particular job to draw maps and keep an account of the battle. He may also have been at Guilford Courthouse and Cowpens, as his regiment was at both places.

Ironically, this information, and too much more for here, was passed on by my Grandmother. She got concerned because she knew that her niece, Fern, was married to an illegal Canadian immigrant and Grandma feared that Fern would be rounded up along with Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor. Grandma got all the information on the family, back to France in 1633, from a cousin in the DAR to show that Fern had good deep American roots.

Sometimes uncovering the heroes brings out the pirate and horsethief stories as well!

[Frank46]

Good story, Charles.

Some of my grandmother's ancestors were sloop builders on the Hudson River - Collyer. The book, Sloops of the Hudson mentions them. She also had a couple of strange first cousins. Ever hear of the Collyer brothers, Homer and Langley?

We were talking at work the other day about how guns (bows, spears, swords knives, etc.) make history interesting. My comment was that history is taught all wrong in school, and that's why so many kids never really learn it very well. If they did they would also understand civics and world governments a whole lot better. History lesson, in order to be interesting, need to be tied to something tangible like guns or sloops or something. Or genealogy - what were your ancestors doing when something was going on? It all becomes much more meaningful.

I seem to remember about the two brothers. Were sequestered in a ny apartment and when the cops came in there were literally mountains of newspapers everywhere. Supossedly one died while being trapped under one mountain of papers. Could this be Homer & Langley??. Frank

[NVcurmudgeon]

I seem to remember about the two brothers. Were sequestered in a ny apartment and when the cops came in there were literally mountains of newspapers everywhere. Supossedly one died while being trapped under one mountain of papers. Could this be Homer & Langley??. Frank

I remember the story of the Collier brothers. IIRC, they were two very wealthy, senile, old men who lived alone in a large mansion in Chicago. One was definitely named Langley. In the late 1940s, the police indeed investigated and found one of them dead under a collapsed pile of newspapers. Much of the house was lined with piles of newspapers. My brother and I were sharing a room and about five and ten years old at the time. I remember the story because my mother called me "Langley" and Jim by the other Collier brother's name, and said that our room was in danger of a similar trash colllapse.

[NVcurmudgeon]

Just did a search on Langley Collier. http.www.theplan.com/dmi/collier_story.htm

It is a fascinating and detailed story, just scroll past the psycho stuff to get to the sad story of Langley and Homer.

[walltube]

There seems to be a very fine line between disposophobia and more than a few loading\casting benches and surrounding area I've witnessed in my time...

Must be contagious I think.

;-)