Henry Matthews Diaries
Scope and Contents
The five-volume set of diaries includes transcriptions of letters written by Matthews to various family members and friends in Ohio; student rosters and progress reports; descriptions of medical services rendered and patients’ progress and conditions; and sermon notes and copies of scriptural passages. The earliest of the diaries traces Matthews’s life on the Fairfield Circuit in Ohio and as a schoolteacher in rural Ohio. In later diary entries, Matthews’s commentary focuses on daily life in Texas, ranging from weather reports to crop and garden progress to community events and news to Texans’ relations with the nearby Native American Indian tribes like the Coshatta Indians.
Dates
- Majority of material found within 1806 - 1844
Conditions Governing Access
The materials are open for research.
Conditions Governing Use
Southwestern University Distinctive Collections and Archives is the owner of the physical materials in the collections and makes available reproductions for research, publication, and other uses. Written permission must be obtained from SU Distinctive Collections and Archives before any publication use. Distinctive Collections does not necessarily hold copyright to all of the materials in the collections. In some cases, permission for use may require seeking additional authorization from the copyright owners. Consult repository for more details.
Biographical / Historical
Henry Matthews (1799-18?) was a Methodist circuit rider, schoolteacher, and practicing physician from Ohio, who made his way from Ohio, through the Illinois Territory, to Texas. Primarily a circuit-riding preacher and schoolteacher in his early days in Ohio, Matthews practiced medicine more formally in the 1830s and 1840s in San Felipe, Texas, where Matthews and his wife Miranda eventually settled. Evident from his later writings, Matthews was well acquainted with some of the founders of Rutersville College, near La Grange, Texas, in 1840, and may have been an active participant in the initial Methodist camp meetings at Rutersville in the late 1830s.
Henry Matthews was the father of Zenas Wells Matthews. Special Collections holds Zenas’ war diary and service papers from the 1846 U.S.-Mexico War.
Extent
5 Volumes
Language of Materials
English
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
Repository Details
Part of the SU Special Collections & Archives Repository