Continuing the story:

Susanna Laughlin, wife of James Matthews

1759-1841

The name LAUGHLIN should be pronounced Loflin, not Laugh-lin. I first found it spelled Lathland, and it wasn't until I found a 1935 news clipping which mentioned kid with the name Laughlin that I began to make progress with researching Susanna's family. Research by Eber Allen reported that the name was originally McLaughlin, changed either prior to or at entry into this county or soon thereafter.

Susanna was a daughter of Hugh Laughlin and Mary Harlan; her grandfather was James Laughlin. He was born about 1692, in Northern Ireland, but of Scottish descent. James' wife Elizabeth was born about 1697 in Ireland. Their children were also born in Ireland from about 1715 until 1722; their names: Hugh, Elizabeth, Mary, Margaret, and William. When James and his family came to America in about 1740, they settled on 197 acres in Chester County, Pennsylvania, on the west side of the Susquehana River. James' first appearance is in the tax list of Kennett township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, in 1748. His will was made there, dated 8 March 1759, and proved 12 June 1759.

Hugh Laughlin was born about 1715 in Northern Ireland and was about 25 years old when he came with his parents and younger brothers and sisters to America. Hugh married Mary Harlan Evans, daughter of Aaron Harlan and Sarah Heald, born about 1718 in Kennett Township, Chester, Pennsylvania. at Holy Trinity Old Swedes Episcopal Church of Wilmington, Delaware, 23 October 1748. They were not married Quaker style but rather by a Swedish speaking Protestant Minister. Records show that the Harlan family was Quaker in England, Ireland, and Pennsylvania. She first married Owen Evans, a farmer in Chester County, Pennsylvania, who died in 1747; their three children were Aaron, Owen who died young, and Sarah.

It was probably in the spring of 1751 when Hugh and Mary left Chester County, Pennsylvania for eastern North Carolina. They went with two other families to the Cane Creek Valley in old Anson County which became Orange County, now Alamance. The three families were Henry Holliday and his wife Mary Fayle Holliday, and Thomas Lindley and his wife Ruth Hadley Lindley and their nine children, and Hugh and Mary Evans Laughlin, with two surviving children from Mary's first marriage and baby Elizabeth by her marriage to Hugh.

In 1753 Hugh Laughlin received a land grant from King Charles II of England for 640 acres in Orange Co. North Carolina. [See Margaret Goddard, Annals of an Allen Family, Vol. 1, 1985.] In the early records of Hillsborough, Orange County, North Carolina is this statement: "Hugh Laughlin, Planter, on the one part, and Thomas Lindley, Planter, on the other, have agreed to become partners and in joint company to erect and build a water grist mill on Cane Creek, on the south side of Haw River. The water to be taken out of that part of land owned by Hugh Laughlin and the mill to be built on that part owned by Thomas Lindley 3.75 acres. Sept. Court 1755."

Hugh LAUGHLIN left a will. It names his wife Mary and children--Elizabeth, Mary, Rebecca, Charity, Joannah, and Susanna. It also names his brother William Laughlin. The will was written on 26 February, 1765. [Page 39, Will Book A, Orange County Courthouse, Hillsborough, North Carolina.]

Susanna married James Matthews in 1771 at Greensborough, North Carolina. According to family legends, the Matthews lived in or near a town which no longer exists--Poole, North Carolina.

Above left photo is a side view of Lindley's Mill. It gave its name to a Revolutionary War battle.

Susanna Laughlin Matthews was compassionate and concerned for individuals when during and following the Battle of Lindley's Mill on 13 September 1781 she and her sisters had to scrape their linens for bandages and pack the wounds of injured soldiers with lint. Her home was used as a hospital, as were other homes in the community along with the nearby Spring Friends Meeting House. The Laughlin sisters, along with Friends of the community assumed the task of burying the dead and caring for the wounded, whether they were Whigs or Loyalists. One account tells that they helped an aged man bury thirty soldiers in a single grave. [Marjorie Morgan, 1996]

Many years after the death of Hugh LAUGHLIN, probably around 1790, Hugh's widow Mary went with three of her daughters and their husbands to Tennessee, locating near "Friendsville Station" in Blount County, Tennessee. The nucleus of a Friends colony was founded by John Hackney and wife Rebecca, James Allen and wife Elizabeth, and James Matthews and wife Susanna. Joanne Allen, daughter of James and Elizabeth Laughlin Allen, and her husband Samuel Jones joined them soon after. Susanna's other sisters--Joanna, Mary, and Charity--stayed in North Carolina.

The community of Friendsville (near Maryville, Tennessee) had its official beginning the same year Tennessee became a state, 1796. Its name suggests its original purpose: to be a community of brotherly love. One reason the Friends moved from North Carolina was the Ordinance of 1787 by which the northern territory was declared a land where slavery was prohibited. During these migrations, groups often traveled together in covered wagons, helping each other over steep hills and mountains, leaving behind them an empty meeting house and a lonely cemetery.

At first they joined the Green County Quaker meeting. Soon they set up a plan to establish their own Quaker meeting. In 1801, Lost Creek Monthly Meeting granted Friendsville the privilege of holding First Day meetings, and in 1804, Friendsville Meeting, then known as Newberry Preparative, was established, but it is not known in what month the Monthly Meeting was organized. The first Meetinghouse was a log building with dirt floor and a fire box built in the center, with the smoke spiraling upward toward a hole in the roof. A deed for the church lot was issued in 1822, but the cemetery has been in use since the death of James Matthews in 1802, the first adult to be buried there.

James and Susanna had a large family, the older children born back in North Carolina, and the four youngest in Tennessee.

1. Jonathan MATTHEWS (1778-1805) Married Mary Allen, 11-23-1800
2. Mary MATTHEWS (1779-1862) Married William Griffiths, 6-15-1799
3. Elizabeth MATTHEWS (1782-1785) died at age of three years
4. George A. MATTHEWS (1784-1849) Married Mary Ann Fields,12 Sep 1811
5. John MATTHEWS (1786-1869) Married Nancy McCalister, abt 1807
6. David MATTHEWS (1788-1829) Married Margaret Castner, 22 Sep 1809
7. Ezekiel MATTHEWS (1790- ) died in infancy
8. Elizabeth MATTHEWS II (1790-1869) Married Joseph Jones, abt 1808
9. Joanna MATTHEWS (1792-1876) Married Samuel Bond
10. Harland MATTHEWS (1794- ) died in infancy
11. Aaron MATTHEWS (1794-1836) Married Mary Sands
12. Harlan MATTHEWS (1797-1876) Married Nancy McCaslin

Susanna, a widow for many years, died 23 Apr 1841 in Friendsville, Tennessee, and is buried at the Friends Burying Ground there.

Beverly Whitaker visited the Friendsville Cemetery in 1996.

The photo on the right is of Susanna's grave.