Matthews-Laughlin families

 

 


Continuing the story

of James Matthews and Susanna Laughlin:

Some descendants and their spouses

 

David Matthews and Margaret Castner

David Matthews,1788-1829

David was a son of James Matthews and Susanna Laughlin. He was in the War of 1812,. Afterwards, David worked as a shipbuilder, and they lived in Alabama. Below is a photograph of his wife, Margaret "Peggy" Castner.

 

Margaret "Peggy" Castner, 1794-1876

Peggy was a daughter of Jacob and Sarah Castner. According to her application for a pension for her husban'd military service, she married David Matthews in 1809 in Blount County, Tennessee. After his war service, they lived in Alabama. David became a ship builder, died about 1829 or 1830, and is buried near Mobile. After his death, she returned to Tennessee, taking her daughters with her. She remained there the rest of her life.


Sarah "Sallie" Matthews

1820 - 1895

The daughter of David and Peggy Castner Matthew, Sarah "Sallie" Matthews was born in Burrows, Alabama.

She married first to Peter Franklin Anderson in 1839 in McMinn County, Tennessee. Anderson was born October 28, 1819 in Hawkins County, Tennessee.He and Sarah and three daughters, aged 4, 3, and 2, came to Iowa in 1844 in a covered wagon. He had been a teacher in Tennessee, and upon settling in the village of Lowell in Henry County, Iowa, Peter built a two-room building, the front room for a store, and they lived in the back room. When the family got larger, he built a store building two blocks east, near the river, later the old barber shop. During the record high water in 1850, he dived down to investigate the foundations of the store and to get his money from under the counter. He developed pneumonia and died January 22, 1852, at Lowell, Iowa, aged 32 years, 2 months, 24 days. Peter Anderson is buried in Lowell cemetery. They had 5 daughters and 4 sons, the youngest of which was born 15 days after his father's death. Sarah named him Peter Franklin Anderson, Jr., after his deceased father. He died at the age of 8 years, 1 month.

 

Widowed, she married second to John Grubb, in 1854, in Lowell, Iowa.

John Grubb (1827-1876) and Sarah had five children.

 

 

Sarah Matthews Anderson Grubb and a grandchild.

 


Margaret Anderson and Robert Brereton

 

Margaret Anderson (1840-1913) was a daughter of Sarah Matthews and Peter Anderson. The above ambrotype portrait was made of Margaret on her wedding day to Robert Brereton/Britton. In her later years, she was still a pretty lady.

Robert Brereton (1824-1880) was born in Tullamore, King's County, Ireland, the son of Thomas and Betsy Dobson Brereton. He and several siblings came from Ireland to the United States in about 1850. Two brothers also settled in Iowa; one brother and a sister went to Ohio. Other siblings remained in Ireland. In 1858, he married Margaret Anderson at Lowell, Henry County, Iowa. The following year, he filed application papers for citizenship, at Burlington, in Des Moines County, Iowa. Robert owned and farmed land in Henry County, Iowa, in Baltimore Twp. Robert chose to use the name Britton, while his brothers in Iowa retained the spelling Brereton.


George A. Britton and Orel Pearl Williams

 

 

George Albert Newell Britton (1866-1953) was a son of Robert Brereton and Margaret Anderson. He was born and died in Henry County, Iowa. But during his adulthood, he lived for a time in Texas and later in southeastern Missouri. They had left Texas following the Galveston flood, returned to Iowa, then moved to Naylor, Missouri, and later to New London, Iowa.

George married Orel Pearl Williams (1870-1962) in Iowa on the first day of the year of 1889. Born at Burlington, DesMoines County, Iowa, she was the daughter of John Hubbard Bowden Williams and Mary Elizabeth Dickey.

The first picture of the couple was made at the Henry County Fair, July 4, 1888, when they were courting. The individual photos were made in 1928, their 40th wedding anniversary.

G. A. Britton and Pearl had three children--Edna, Edgar, and Forest.


Edna Pearl Britton and Louis L. DeLong

 

Edna Britton (1890-1981 ----Louis L. DeLong (1890-1963)-

Edna Pearl Britton and Louis LeRoy DeLong were married on January 1, 1912, at New London, Henry County, Iowa.

Edna was born December 4, 1890 in Henry County, Iowa. Her parents were G. A. Britton and Pearl Williams. In 1894, when she was 4 years old, the extended family moved to Orchard, Texas. The Galveston hurricane and flood of September 7 and 8, 1900, was responsible for their return to Iowa. Two weeks after the disaster, they were able to leave by train, later sending two young men of the family back to load any salvagable goods on to railroad boxcars for transport to Iowa. Edna graduated from New London High School in 1908. She was the class valedictorian and spoke at commencement and that September enrolled at Iowa Wesleyan College, Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. She became a school teacher.

Louis LeRoy DeLong was born September 5, 1890, near Lowell in Henry County, Iowa. His parents were Robert DeLang and Pauline Altmann, but Louis preferred to use the spelling DeLong to match the common Germanic pronunciation of "Day-Long." As a young man, he attended Howe's Academy in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. He worked through the years as a farmer, grocer, and Mobil Oil truck driver.

In early 1912, just a few weeks after their marriage, Louis and Edna accompanied Edna's parents to Naylor, Missouri, to live and farm. A few months after the birth of their oldest son, Newell, they returned to Henry County, Iowa and farmed land that had been in the Altmann-DeLang family since 1856. From time to time they lived elsewhere in the county or neighboring counties. They had two sons and two daughters.

 


MATTHEWS Family James Matthews, Rev. Soldier Susanna Laughlin's family Beverly's GenTutor Index