John G. Matthews House

Duane's take

The way I tell it, I'm going on what the official marker says, so let's see what it has to say about the John G. Matthews House in Williamson County. John G.

Matthews came to Texas with his parents in 1840. Now, he was born in 1824, and Texas in those days was no place for the timid. He joined a Ranger company, and when the Mexican War came around, eighteen forty-six to forty-eight, he was there for it.

Some men come home from a war and go quiet. Matthews came home and built a life. He married Nancy Leanorah Carothers, born in 1838, and together they put down roots in Williamson County.

Then in 1872, John Matthews did something that says everything about the kind of man he was. He built a house. Not just any house.

He cut and shaped native limestone by hand, fitted it together the way a man does when he intends the walls to outlast him. That hand-hewn limestone house stood as the family home until about 1885. Nancy Leanorah passed in 1893, and John followed in 1903.

But the house kept standing. Their son Joseph Neely Matthews, born in 1866, took up the place his father built. Joseph became a teacher and a justice of the peace, and he enlarged that pioneer-style dwelling, adding to what his father had raised from the limestone of the land.

Joseph lived until 1944, and by 1976, the house belonged to his daughter, Myreta Matthews. Three generations, one hand-cut limestone house. That rock John Matthews shaped by hand held the whole story together.

What the marker says

After coming to Texas with his parents in 1840, John G. Matthews (1824-1903) joined a Ranger company and fought in the Mexican War (1846-48). He married Nancy Leanorah Carothers (1838-93) and in 1872 built this hand-hewn native limestone house, which his family occupied until about 1885. Matthews' son, Joseph Neely Matthews (1866-1944), a teacher and justice of the peace, later enlarged the pioneer-style dwelling, now (1976) owned by his daughter, Myreta Matthews. Recorded Texas Historic Landmark - 1976