Mathews, William H.

William H. Mathews was born in Butler Township, Pennsylvania to Edward and Annie Grant Mathews in August 1849, and later served in the United States Colored Troops during the Civil War. Mathews’ parents were originally from Carroll County, Maryland and had moved to Pennsylvania in the early 1840s. After growing up mostly in Adams County, Pennsylvania, Mathews joined Company I of the 127th USCT in September 1864 at age 15. Mathews’ brothers, Samuel and Nelson, also served in the Union army. After the war, Mathews married Mary Jane "Jennie" Walker in 1869. The couple had six children. Mary Jane died in 1890, and Mathews followed her a year later on September 25, 1891. Mathews was originally buried at Yellow Hill Cemetery near Biglerville, but was reinterred at the Lincoln Cemetery in Gettysburg. Jessie Ellen, Mathews’ youngest daughter, married Robert Lee Vann who later became editor and publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier, one the nation's most widely circulated African American newspapers in the early twentieth century. (By Don Sailer)