KINFOLK
SQUIRES – MATHEWS / MATTHEWS – KNAGGS – BRADY
NEXT - "Old Laurel Fork" Cemetery
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John Robert Knaggs, born 9-29-1850, in Winchester, Va. Died 9-30-1927 in Junior, W. Va. Buried in Mt. View Cemetery on the hill above that town. His
wife was Mary Jane Mathews. | |
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| | Mary Jane (Matthews) Knaggs, born 7-9-1857 , died 4-10-1939. Born in Phillipi and died in Douglas, W. Va. Buried in Mt. View Cemetery, Junior, W. Va |
Mary Jane (Matthews) Knaggs and her mother, Sarah Celestia (Squires) Matthews 
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I. Mary Jane Matthews, who married John Robert Knaggs, was the daughter of Benjamin Mathews and Sarah Celestia Squires (Mathews).
I have not been able to learn very much about the Matthews branch of the family. It seems that the progenitor came from Wales and settled in Barbour County, West Virginia. Troy R. Brady remembers his great-grandmother, Sarah Celestia Squires Mathews,
who was an old lady when he was a small boy. He remembers her as a very old lady who sat by the fireplace in his grandmother's home and smoked her corn cob pipe. He never forgot that she held the bowl of the pipe in the palm of her hand, with her
elbow against her body and the stem in her mouth as she smoked. She never spoke except to answer questions Evidently this habit of smoking caused her very painful death at the age of 78 years. She thought someone had hid her tobacco and she was
searching for it in the cupboard above the fireplace, when she lost her footing and fell into the fire. She died three days later. As far as we have been able to learn she and Benjamin Mathews were the parents of six children, three sons and three
daughters. They were:
II. 1. Nettie Mathews, who married
John Wm. Poling and moved to Indiana. They had three children
III. Ralph Poling, Alma Poling and Esther Poling (m. Hinkle).
2. Asa Lorenzo Mathews, who married
Ode Williams and after her death he married her sister,
Lou Williams. All his children were by his first wife. They were:
III. 1. Frank A. Mathews, who married
Pearl Brady, who was Troy's father's sister
(Their descendents listed under the Brady genealogy.)
(Asa Matthews and his son, Frank, ran a general store in Junior for many years in the early 1900's. Asa sold the store to Frank later and moved to Clarksburg, W. Va. The store was sold after Frank was killed in an auto accident)
2. Mary Mathews (unmarried)
3. Vent Mathews, who married
Earl Zinn,
4. Ruth Mathews, who married
Gail Lambert,
3. Andrew Jackson Mathews, married a
Beavers. Daughter Dom (perhaps other children)
4. James Allen Mathews, m.
Alice Dillingham and moved to Indiana
5. Mary Jane Mathews, who married
John Robert Knaggs
6. Elizabeth Mathews, m.
John Wesley Stretchberry. They had six children:
IV. 1. Joseph Stretchberry
2. Edna Stretchberry (m. Hawkins)
3.
Bergia Stretchberry (m. Tatterson)
4. Ethel Stretchberry
5. Mary Stretchberry (m. Derrah)
6. Harold Stretchberry
This new page added August 27, 1980.
We visited with Richard R. Tatterson and his wife at their home in Point Pleasant, W. Va., Aug. 2, 1980. We were paying Mrs. Harry Miller a short visit, and had taken her to Pt. Pleasant for lunch. He is
the son of Bergie Stretchberry Tatterson, who passed away in 1979. His mother was named for Troy Brady's mother, but they ended her name with an "e" instead of an "a."
Richard gave us the names of his uncles and aunts, and the correct order of their births. Since they were not in our direct line of ancestors we did not try to get any other information on them. He was going to a Stretchberry reunion the next day,
in Fairmont, and said he would try to find out where Sarah Celestia Squires Mathews and her husband, Benjamin Mathews are buried. A few days later we had a letter from him. I will transcribe it below.
2010 Maxwell Rd.
Pt Pleasant, W. Va. 15550
17 Aug. 1980
Dear Troy,
We were happy to meet you and Mrs. Brady. I remember my mother telling about her cousin, who was a minister, and she was quite proud.
I visited with Aunt Mary Darrah and she remembered when her grandmother, Sarah Matthew [sic] lived with them & died when Aunt Mary was quite young. She evidently died of burn injuries
resulting from her falling backward into an open fireplace. She died three days later and was buried in Maple Grove Cemetery in East Fairmont.
I visited the cemetery while in Fairmont. The cemetery lots contain the grave of Allen Matthew, (Oct 10, 1868 - Dec. 15, 1900) A son of Sarah Matthew and the graves of Sarah Matthew (1836 -
1913) and of Grandmother & Grandfather J. W. Stretchberry.
Aunt Mary wasn't sure where Benj. Matthew was buried, but she thinks it was either in Grafton or Junior.
I hope you are back in our area again and will call on us. I hope the information is useful & that you are successful in obtaining the other data that you need.
Sincerely Yours,
Richard Tatterson |
Almost all the information on the Squires branch of our family which follows was contained in a letter to us from Joy L. Gilchrist, of West Lafayette, Ohio, in June of 1984. She was anxious to secure
information on the Knaggs branch of the family, so it was a good exchange for both of us, I hope.
I have tried to arrange her research for my records in my usual form, beginning with Roman numeral, I, for the progenitor of the family in America and designating each succeeding generation with the Roman numerals which follow.
I. Thomas Squires-died late in 1779 or early 1780
(A tobacco plantation owner, Loudoun County, Va., near Goose Creek) He married
Anne Toelle and Nehemiah Squires was a son, with perhaps siblings.
ADDENDUM - 5-15-2003 RMB Source:
http://members.tripod.com/~ThorenTM/gen4.html
Compiled by Thoren Tolle Meyers
ANN/NANCY TOLLE4 (Roger3;
Tobias2; Roger1)
She was called Ann Squires in her father's will. She
was born approximately 1740 in St Mary's County, Maryland. She and
Thomas Squires were married about 1768. Thomas died, and she married
John Piles sometime before 1783. Her death occurred before 1800,
probably in Loudoun County, Virginia.
The Children of Ann (Tolle) and Thomas Squires were:
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NEHEMIAH SQUIRES5 born ca 1769; married
Sarah Poland/Polen about 1792 in Loudoun County. He moved to
Preston County, Virginia (now West Virginia) where he drowned near
Morgantown about 1828. He and Sarah had nine children. The data I
have on this family follows the direct line down to Marion Jean
(Waters) Challendar. Marian was a Squires Family researcher who
passed away on 8 Oct 1997.
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REUBEN SQUIRES5 born Jan 1775; married
Eleanor Dawson
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ELIZABETH SQUIRES5 born before 1780 (no
further information)
II. Nehemiah Squires, married
Sarah Poland. Her death record give her parents as John and Nancy Poland. (Poling/Polen)
ADDENDUM
- 5-15-2003 RMB
Squires,
Nehemiah (~1769 - 1827) - male
b. ABT. 1769 in Shelbourne Parish, Loudoun, VA, USA
d. 1827 in Morgantown, Monongalia, WV, USA
spouse: Polen, Sarah (~1766 - 1857)
- m. in Loudoun, VA, USA
----------child: Squires, John (~1793 - 1869) m. Mary Fortney
----------child: Squires, Thomas (~1795 - )
----------child: Squires, Samuel Dudley (1797 - 1864) m. Elizabeth
Fortney
----------child: Squires, William (1798 - )
----------child: Squires, Harriet (>1800 - )
----------child: Squires, Elizabeth (~1804 - )
(Above info found at
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/8035/Search/wga36.html )
They had, at least four sons and two daughters, namely: John, who is the ancestor of Troy Robert Brady; Thomas, who is the ancestor of Joy T. Gilchrist; Wesley,
the ancestor of Marion Challender, (mother amateur genealogist who lives in Montana); and Samuel Dudley, (John and Samuel married sisters, Mary and Elizabeth Fortney.)
(In a message board posting by Francis M. Squires. I found at
http://www.rootsweb.com/~valoudou/1998.htm was the following info: Subject: Nehemiah Squires. We are looking for information on
Nehemiah Squires, born in Loudoun County, Virginia about 1767-1769. He married Sarah Elizabeth Polen who was born September 1764 in NJ. They moved to Monongalia County, Va (WV) He died in 1827 and she died September
30, 1857 in Preston County WV. Any help and information you could give us on this couple and their children, particularly their daughter Margaret would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Francis M. Squires 5-4-2003 RmB)
III. John Squires, b. 4-3-1793 d. 7-12-1869 m.
Mary Fortney
Records search at www.rootsweb.com/~wvmarsha/garlow.txt
shows the ancestors of Mary Fortney as:
1. Christopher GARLOW, b: 1721 in Prussia, Germany d: 1796 in Monongalia Co., (West) Virginia
m. Ann SNIVELY, d: 1819 in Monongalia, Virginia (WVa)
2. Christeen (Tina) GARLOW b: 1780 in Frederick, Maryland, d: 1851 in Monongalia Co., West Virginia
m. John FORTNEY b: 1781 in Pennsylvania m: 1804 in Monongalia Co., West Virginia
3. Mary Fortney, b: 1819 in Monongalia Co., West Virginia,
(The Squires and Fortney families moved to Preston County, W. Va., (then Virginia) together around 1795, and lived adjacent to each other. Mary's parents were Daniel and Barbara (Pickenpaugh) Fortney. John
and Mary were the parents of 13 children (Troy R. Brady's great-grandmother was the 9th child.)
4-25-2003 - I found the birth record of Sarah which
shows her birth as 1835.
DATE FATHER MOTHER PLACE/NOTES/CONTACT
Squires, Sarah "Sally" ca 1835 John Squires Mary Fortney Cove District? FK
Source: Barbour County Births at: http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvbarbou/barbirs.htm (FK = Fred H. Knapp)
5-15-2003 - Dau. Death record: Sarah Squires Mathews,
died 12-31-1872, Barbour County, WV
Source:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvbarbou/bardedm.htm
Information below is from research of Elizabeth Thrash Brady:
IV. Sarah Celestia Squires, b. 1836 d. 1913 Her husband was
Benjamin Matthews.
(This information is on her grave marker in Maple Grove Cemetery, Fairmont, W. Va. This information was sent to us by Richard Tatterson, of Pt. Pleasant, W.Va., in 1980. Her husband is probably buried in
Junior or Grafton, it is thought by his relatives.)
4-25-2003 - Barbour Co. Marriage records shows c.1853 in Barbour County Source: Barbour County Marriages at:
http://www.rootsweb.com/~wvbarbou/barmars.htm (FK = Fred H. Knapp)
Their children were:
V. 1. Nettie
2. Am Lorenzo
3. Andrew Jackson
4. James Allen
5. Mary Jane
6. Elizabeth.
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