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Matkin Cemetery, 37-3 Summary Report, page 7
who married Margaret McDonnell, daughter of Archibald McDonnell, and established the cemetery in what is now Area 37 of the arsenal.
E. W. Matkins was Ezekiel W. Matkins, born about 1816. He was a brother of William, who became Administrator of Ezekiel's will in the late 1860s. Ezekiel had no children living when he died, but he was survived by a widow, Malinda. The brothers of Ezekiel Matkin, along with several sisters, nieces, and nephews, are listed in the records of the Madison County Chancery Court, Record Book AA. Page 198 of that record is shown below, being one of many pages recorded about the dispute of land bought by the Matkins from Nancy Graham Beadle Jordan, the young widow of elderly Abraham Beadle. Nancy had married Abraham in 1849 when he was age 72 and she was 17. He died a few years later (in 1858), and in 1860 Nancy married John Jordan (b. 1830), possibly a grandson of Bartholomew Jordan, patriarch of a family that also owned extensive lands that became part of the arsenal.
Abraham Beadle had specified in his will that his lands were left to his widow Nancy for her use during her lifetime, and then to revert to his nephews, since he had no living children. However, soon after her marriage to John Jordan, Nancy sold portions of the Beadle land to the Matkin brothers, and a lawsuit ensued in the late 1860s. As a result of the lawsuit, the Chancery Court ruled under the terms of the will in favor of the Beadle family complaintants, and the Matkins lost the lands that they had purchased from Nancy. While it no doubt was a traumatic experience for the Matkins, the lawsuit at least caused details of the extensive Matkin relationships to be documented for posterity in the public records - including places of residence for the various Matkin family members during the period.
7 - (1829)