Word Picture of JOHN WILLIAM MATHEUS

Mr. John William Matheus is about 5’4” and weighs about 130 pounds.  He looks smart in his bank messenger uniform.  On his sleeve he wears nine stripes.  Each stripe means five years service.  Two years were served before he earned his first strip, so that gives him a total of 47 years service for the Union Savings Bank and Trust Company, Steubenville, Ohio.  He also wears a badge which designates him as a deputy sheriff of Jefferson County.

Mr. Matheus lives with his wife at 203 Dock Street.  This moderate sized and comfortable home he has owned for over 40 years.  His first wife died several years ago.  During his first marriage nine children came to them.  In his second marriage one child was born.

His oldest son is John Frederick Matheus.  He is a professor at [Charleston] [HW:  West Virginia] State College Institute.  He was born in Steubenville and graduated from Steubenville High School.  Later he studied in Cleveland and New York.  He speaks six languages fluently and is the author of many published short stories.

Two other sons are employed in the post office, one is a mail carrier and the other is a janitor.  His only daughter is a domestic servant.

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.”