Date: Sun, 2 Aug 1998 22:26:22 -0500
From: Mickey Matkin

Charlie;
 I got your letter Friday. You have no reason to apologize, I've received
a lot of communications from you since I last made contact.  Perhaps now
that the information highway is here, the distance down I-10 will
shorten.

I do have an email address: poppo1@juno.com

Believe it or not, I am planning to get over to Linden, Marengo County ,
Ala., next week to look around and see if I can locate the old Matkin
place.   If you have already done so or have some helpful information,
please email me before Monday evening.

Thanks again. Good to hear from you. I'll make sure to contact you when I
get back.

Mickey

     Date: 
          Tue, 04 Aug 1998 15:11:07 -0500
     From: 
          Charlie Matkin 
 
       To: 
          Cindy Stiene 

Cindy: I had a call from my cousin Mickey today. He & his wife Martha
are driving to Linden and then on to Huntsville. I told him to call me
again from Linden and I'd see if I could get your phone number for him.

He is the grandson of my father's brother, and the person who told me
about the slaves poisoning the family.

Although we are a generation apart, we share the same name: he is
Charles Michael and I am Charles Douglas.

I know you will enjoy meeting him. I also suggested he go through
Cullman. What is your dad's phone number?


Charlie

 

Date: Tue, 4 Aug 1998 21:00:27 -0500
From: "Cindy Stiene" 
To: "Charlie Matkin" 

Hi, Charlie,

I would love to meet Mickey!  My number is 256-772-1524 (we had an area
code change in Apr.  It becomes final in Sept.)  My dad's number is
256-734-4604 in Cullman.  He may be a bit hard to reach,  he works 3 12-hr
days per week, then he has a little green house business on the side that
he runs around with.  He does have an answering machine, though.  When does
Mickey plan to pass through?  I'll let my dad know to expect a call from
him.

Cindy

Date (?)

Charlie:

Apparently you didn't get my fax .  We went for five days, although Tues
and Saturday were totally driving, so we didn't have enough time.

I spent most of the time in the Courthouse looking for old records in
both Marengo County and  Morgan County (Decatur)

In Marengo County we met a genealogist named Ruth Allen who lives in Old
Spring Hill and who had some information on the Matkins.  Her duaghter
was being treated for cancer, so she didn't have much time for us.

We got the property discription for land owned by Thomas C. & J. M. (James
Mosely, I think)  and for a plantation that he and Marion leased annually
from an estate, and tried to find them on the ground.  I brought  about 3
ox. of dirt from the former as a souvenir, and took some pictures of the
rented one.   I was curious that all the property records in Marengo
County date from 1866, after the war, and disappear about 1871.  I have a
theory that  Thomas Crowe Matkin moved to Linden with his family after
1865.  Lucinda is buried there, but we cound not find the correct
cemetery and Ms. Allen said her stone was illegible, and that she had two
children buried beside her.  The Morgan County records include an
affidavit that in 1862, Lucinda Matkin bore a Child that was sired by one
Sively.   Could it be that, during your great grandfather's absence while
defending the south from Northern invaders, Great Grandma had an
indiscretion, which caused the family to leave Madison and Morgan
Counties after the war?

There is, however another Lucinda Matkin in that time frame, and I have
her husband's name somewhere, so it might have been her.

The biggest shocker to me though was discovering that the old family
cemetery and "Matkin's Mountain" are located on the site of the Redstone
Arsenal, so that must have been the location of the farm or plantation as
I prefer to call it.  It was called the  Matkin McConnell Place, and
there is a McConnell cemetery within a few hundred yards, which is strewn
with dead, toppled trees and broken branches, as if a tornado had touched
down there within the last year.  I could find no trace of a headstone in
the McConnell cemetery, but some depressions in the ground indicating a
old burial sites.  The Matkin Cemetery, like the McConnell, is enclosed
by a newish chainlink fence, however, it is then enclosed by the remains
of a low stone wall, and contains three large monuments, all of which
have been recently vandalized by tumping them over and breaking the
stone.  I could read nothing on them, but think that the writing was
face down and I could not lift them.  I have written the authorities, but
have received no response.

There is too much to tell in this letter, and we ran out of time before
we got to the Madison Co. courthouse. The Morgan Co. Birth and death
records were in a nother location, so we did not get to them either.

I'll send you more later when time permits, and the pictures are developed.

Cuzin Mickey