Download [Page] [Document]
mcc-bc1-107
The People Who Lived on the Land that is Now Redstone Arsenal, page 93
Thomas White owned this tract for only 8 days before selling it to Luke Matthews, of Limestone County, on 20 May 1845 for $12,900 (Deed Record V:255) (the whole being the tract of lands sold to White by Lowe Deed Record V:247). Luke Matthews owned approximately 10,000 acres in Madison County, and became one of the county's most prominent planters (Richard Mathews, personal interview, March 1988, Goldsmith 1985:133). Luke Matthews was born in Campbell County, Virginia on 10 September 1796. He settled in Limestone County, Alabama in 1824. He married Miss Judith E. Peete, also of Campbell County, Virginia, on March 1826 and by her had 8 children. His first wife died and on 26 January 1843 he married Miss Lucy Ann Spotswood by whom he had 8 children. He moved to Madison County from Limestone County in 1846. Luke Matthews acquired approximately 3000 acres north, south and west of the project area [Elko Switch Cemetery] and called it Oakendale Plantation (Deed Record VV:504). It is not known whether or not he resided on this plantation (possibly the Goddard House). (Shogren et al. 1989:235, 238) The Goddard House referred to above is the name given by the Army in later years to the plantation “big house” located on Parcel A-17 thought to be built by Manning and owned by Chaney at the time of land sale to the Army. Luke Matthews cannot be placed directly as living in the plantation house on Parcel A-17. However, an extract from the 1860 census shows Luke Matthews in the southwestern part of the county. He was head of a household of 15 people; the people listed in neighboring households are known to have lived in the immediate area of the plantation. By 1870, the census lists him living in Huntsville's third ward. His occupation is listed as farmer. The value of his real estate and personal property is estimated at $66,200. Luke Matthews' daughter Marie married into the Erskine family. Jewell S. Goldsmith and Helen D. Fulton, local Huntsville residents, in their book, Medicine Bags and Bumpy Roads (1985:133-134) provide an overview of Albert Erskine and his family. From it, we learn that Albert, Luke Matthews' son-in-law, was born on January 17, 1827 in Huntsville. He attended Georgetown College in Washington, D.C. and then to West Point Military Academy. Albert didn't care for the military. He studied under his father, and then at the University of Virginia. Following that he studied at the University of Pennsylvania where he received a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1851. Immediately after receiving his degree, Dr. Albert Erskine returned to Huntsville where he went into practice, and four years after that married Maria. Albert may not have wanted to be a soldier when he was at West Point, but he entered the Confederate Army in 1862 and served in the 5th Tennessee Regular Infantry as a surgeon and medical inspector. Returning from the war, he was very active in professional activities and a 93 - (4126)