My Genealogy Hound

William C. Matheny, retired farmer and ex-county judge, was born in Roane County, Tenn., September 9, 1824, his parents being Samuel and Sytha (Grimsley) Matheny. The former, whose birth occurred in Virginia, June 18, 1796, was a son of Elijah and Mary (Davis) Matheny, natives of Virginia, the Mathenys being of French descent. His parents moved in 1799 to East Tennessee, where he was raised and where Samuel died (in Overton county) in 1881. The latter was a farmer, although he served an apprenticeship at the cabinet trade. His wife Sytha Matheny, was born in Washington County, Tenn., in 1793, and died in Roane County, that State, in 1838. Her parents were natives of Culpeper County, Va., and moved to Tennessee in an early day. She was the mother of twelve children. Eleven grew to maturity and married, and five are now living, all in Tennessee, except our subject, who also has two half sisters and one half brother by his father’s second marriage. His parents being poor, William C. received but a common school education, and that in Tennessee, where he was raised. December 13, 1849, he married Miss Louisa F. Terry, who has born in what is now Putnam County, Tenn., November 9, 1831. She is a daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Terry, the father having died in Tennessee, where the mother is still living, though blind. The family of our subject consists of seven children — Allison B., born September 30, 1850; Sarah E., born January 14, 1853, wife of James W. Smith, of Sharp County; Mary A., born November 15, 1855, wife of Milton T. Ofield, of Izard County; Columbus D., born January 14, 1858; Elijah, born July 23, 1861; Grimsley H., born April 7, 1866, and Ira J., born August 24, 1868. In May, 1847, Mr. Matheny enlisted in Capt. Huddleston’s Company, Fourteenth Regiment, United States Infantry, in Overton, Tenn., and served in the Mexican War, being with Gen. Scott at the taking of the City of Mexico, participating also in the battles of Contreras, Cherubusco, Melina Delva, Castle of Chapultepec, and at the gates of the city, being discharged as second sergeant at New Orleans July 25, 1848. He now draws a pension of $8 a month. In 1861 he organized a company in Sharp County, and was mustered into the Confederate service in September of the same year, and served as captain until May 8, 1862, when he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Twenty-first Arkansas Regiment of Infantry, which position he held until the close of the war. May 17, 1863, he was captured at Vicksburg and taken prisoner to Sandusky Bay, Ohio, and kept there till exchanged, March 3, 1865, at Richmond, Va. At the battle of Corinth, Miss., October 3, 1862, he received a bullet wound in the left forearm, breaking the bone. In 1866 he was elected representative of Lawrence County (which then included Sharp), and served one term. In 1872 he was again elected to represent Sharp County, serving one term. In 1880 he was elected county and probate judge of Sharp County, and served for three consecutive terms, and is one of Sharp County’s most influential citizens. Politically, he is a Democrat, and himself and wife are members of the Primitive Baptist Church. He has a farm of 160 acres, about 70 of which are cultivated.