Sunday's Obituary - Mrs. Arthur Matthews

Matthews Obsequies

The funeral of Mrs. Arthur Matthews will be held tomorrow afternoon at 2:30 o'clock, from the home of her daughter, Mrs. Floyd Hunter, of 301 Philadelphia avenue, West Pittston. Services will be held at the home and will be in charge of Rev. A.D. Decker. Interment will be made in the Pittston cemetery.

This week in my Amanuensis Monday posts of my grandfather's auto biography we came to the death of his mother, Ada Merritt Hobbs Matthews.  During the week I have posted her headstone (Tombstone Tuesday) and photos of her (Friday's Faces from the Past) and now we come to her obituary from The Scranton Republican which I found on newspapers.com.

Newspapers.com has been an amazing source of information for me about my grandfather's family and even some of his cousins because they have the local paper from Pittston, PA and others from the area.  Aside from the usual obituaries and marriage announcements, I discovered that my great-uncle Fred Matthews lost a home and business to a fire in 1910 when he was married with two children, that my grandfather's family were victims of a burglary in 1908 when my grandfather was only 7, I found advertisements for my great-grandfather's shoe factory, the "Want Ads" they placed when they were looking for house help and even my grandfather's letter to Santa in 1909 when he was 8 years old! 

Even with a common last name like Matthews, I was able to find all this in part by limiting searches to just their local papers.  Additionally, I soon realized that most articles referenced their street name as in "Arthur Matthews of Nafus street.".  Having this unusual name in my searches was also a help, and once I started using it I found a host of things I wouldn't have found otherwise.

By the way, I am not being paid or compensated in any way for this post, I am just a grateful fan.


Obituary from The Scranton Republican, 3 Sep 1919, Wed, Page 4; Newspapers.com, accessed 12 Feb 2015.

Sunday's Obituary - Arthur W Matthews

Last Monday in my Amuensis Monday post we got to the part in my grandfather's story where his father, Arthur William Matthews, passed away.  Last year I was lucky enough to find his obituaries on Genealogy Bank.

A large concourse of sorrowing friends and relatives were in attendance yesterday afternoon at the funeral of Arthur Matthews, which was held from the family home on Nafus Street.  Services were conducted at the house by Rev. L.E. Van Hoesen, pastor of the M.E. Church.  The services consisted of a prayer, suitable address, the reading of Tennyson's "Crossing the Bar," and the singing of "Abide With Me," by a quartet composed of Fred Fear, Harvey Harris, Mrs. Lillian Daniels and Mrs. Charles B. Smith.  The floral tributes were many and completely covered the casket.  The pall bearers were four sons and two sons-in-law of the deceased.  They were William, John, Leroy and Fred Matthews, Floyd Hunter and William Ahlers.  Interment was in Pittston Cemetery.

I love the melodrama in that opening sentence and of the elements of  service.  I don't mean to make light of his death, though, it changed everything for my grandfather who was the youngest of his eight children and only 14 when Arthur died at 71.  If you're interested, you can read more about that in my Amanuensis Monday posts.

Sunday's Obituary - Mary Ann Codner Smith (1821-1914)

Although I have been working more on the Matthews tree because of recent discoveries, I would still say that the Benjamin Smith family are my primary research interest.  I think I've done all I can from my computer, however, and have been relying on my cousin in Canada to dig up all she can from Ancestry while we wait for information regarding Benjamin and Mary Ann's burials.

The Benjamin Smith Family - Sometime before 1908
Orlando Chauncey, Charlotte "Lottie", George Robert,William Henry
Benjamin, Mary Ann
Emma Amelia

In my very first post I shared Benjamin's death notice and today I share Mary Ann's.

Mrs. Mary M. C. Smith

     Services for Mrs. Mary M. Codner Smith, widow of former Alderman Benjamin Smith, who died yesterday at the home of her daughter, Mrs. James M. Fisk, 1153 Broad street, will be conducted at that address tonight at 8 o'clock.  Rev. William H. Morgan, former pastor of the Central Methodist Episcopal Church, will officiate.  Interment will be made at Basking Ridge at the convenience of the family.  Mrs. Smith was ninety-one years old.  Her death was due to advanced age after a brief illness.  For more than sixty years she has lived in this city and during that time was a member of the Central Chruch.  One daughter and two sons survive her.  One of the latter, George R. Smith, is a member of the Canadian Parliament.