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LEWIS MATHIAS 1814-1878

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Lewis Mathias was born 10JUN1814 in Fouches, Luxembourg. Fouches is a very small village just west of the town of Arlon. Although today this is in Belgium the Mathiases thought of themselves as Luxembourgers and not Belgium. The oldest family records are to be found in the Catholic Church in the village of Hachy. Although the spelling of Mathias varies from Mathey to Mathai to Matthai, there are rather extensive records of at least four generations prior Lewis. There is a record of Peter Mathai who died in 07JAN1740 in Fouches and was buried in Hachy. It should be noted that the reason the name John, for instance, may appear multiple times in the same family is because the custom in Belgium/Luxembourg was to name the child at baptism after the sponsor or godparent. (It was not an attempt to confuse future generations of genealogist that was left to the spelling skills of clerks recording names at the church or various civil agencies and immigration officials.)

Lewis came to the United States in the summer of 1839 at age 25 with his wife Clara Feck. On August 29, 1839 he purchased 23 arces for $126.00 from Nicholas Perl. Others, namely John Nicholas Mathias (Lewis's brother), John Feck (brother of Clara), and Nicholas Goshe also settled in the immediate vicinity. This small settlement of Luxembergers appeared to the Germans in the area to be French, and they called the area Frenchtown. The name stuck. (Most of modern day Belgium speaks French with a very small portion speaking German, Flemmish or a mix.) Frenchtown, Ohio which is 2 miles west of New Riegel, OH and 2 miles east of Alvada, OH on County Road 6 or the Berwick highway. You will not find the name of Frenchtown on the map but everyone in the area knows where it is located, just ask.

Although there does not seem to be any photographs of Lewis that exist, it is know that he was of "middle height" and always wore a beard. Lewis was a blacksmith by trade and a small scale farmer. Compared to blacksmiths of the day, he "was spare slight of build". He passed down his trade to his son John. He never bothered to learn English yet he was literate and on official documents signed his name "Luis Mathis" in a firm German script. There have been many spellings of Luis's surname. Mattay, Mathai, Mathey, Mathei, Mathais, Mathews and Mathew are some of the spellings. His decendants have all adopted the spelling "Mathias".

On April 4, 1856 Lewis and his neighbor, Nicholas Perl, sold to Bishop Rappe for the sum of $5.00 each a half-acre of adjoining land. Lewis's half acre became the site of St. Nicholas Catholic Church and Perl's was used for the parish house. Later Peter Courtad sold 4 acres directly across the street from the church to the bishop for $120.00. This property become the parish cemetery. Lewis had 3 children with Clara Feck, his first wife. They were Clara (Thom) Mathias, Josephina (Heinen) Mathias and John Mathias. Clara Feck was born 19MAY1814 in Habergy, Luxemburg and died at home on 03FEB1843. Lewis remarried to Josephine Goshe (02MAR1818 - 15JAN1889) on 14NOV1843. They in turn had six children: John Baptist Mathias, Catherine (Mangette) Mathias, Nicholas Mathias, Henry Mathias, a stillborn son, and Anna (Nepper) Mathias. After the death of his brother John in 1854, Lewis and Josepina Goshe raised his son John Mathias Jr. as their own. In fact he received an equal share of inheritance from Lewis's estate. Lewis died 06AUG1878 in his home and the following day was buried in the church cemetery across the street from St. Nicholas Church.

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MATHIAS ANCESTORS CHART (3 pages, each 215k+)

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