Matthew A. Myers (abt. 1845)

Born about 1845 in Rochester, Monroe Co., NY

Husband of Orchestra (Forsyth) Myers — married 13 Jul 1894 in Horr, Park Co., MT

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Biography

Name: Matthew A. Myers.

Born about 1845, Rochester, Monroe Co., NY. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

A story has been passed down the Thomas Myers (b. 1831) family about "Matt Myers, the black sheep of the family." Mary (Pellett) Myers, the wife of Matthew Myers' brother, lived to be about 98 years old, and she suffered from no mind-altering ailments during her lifetime. She stated that Matt Myers rode with the Jesse James Gang. This fanciful story has not been confirmed.

Jesse James was born in 1847 in Missouri and was raised in a slave-owning household. In 1863, Jesse was beaten by Federal troops and his stepfather was unsuccessfully hanged. The next year, Jesse joined "Bloody Bill" Anderson right about the time Anderson split from Quantrill's Raiders. A month after the end of the Civil War, Union cavalrymen shot Jesse while he was trying to surrender. He was badly wounded and was nursed back to health by his cousin Zee Mimms, whom he later married.

James' first armed robbery may have occurred in 1866 at Liberty, MO, although he might have been recovering from the Union shooting of the prior year. He continued his robbing career and joined Cole Younger in 1868 when they robbed a bank in Russellville, KY. James did not gain fame until Dec 1869, when he, and probably his brother Frank, robbed a bank in Gallitin, MO. Jesse shot and killed the cashier, mistakenly believing that he was the man who killed "Bloody Bill" Anderson. The act of revenge and the subsequent amazing escape from the posse put his name in the papers for the first time.

The James-Younger Gang followed up with robberies from Iowa to Texas and Kansas to West Virginia. The Younger portion of the gang was obliterated in 1879 after the Northfield, MN, bank robbery attempt. The James brothers returned to the Nashville area, but Jesse formed another gang in 1879, but it disbursed about 1881, as the only members of the gang he trusted were brothers Bob and Charley Ford, whom ultimately brought him down. Bob Ford shot Jesse James dead in Apr 1882.

Jessie James was clearly a Confederate man working for the Southern cause, but after the Reconstruction area, James gained more of a Robin Hood-like reputation.

Matthew Myers was the youngest of eight brothers. Five of them served in the Union Army. Unless Matthew totally broke from his family's values and allegiances, it seems unlikely that he would have been a follower of an anti-Union outlaw (but with a "black sheep," one never knows how far away from the family the sheep wonders).

Ola (Myers) Eikrem remembers hearing of Matthew Myers, but only that he worked on the Barge Canal.

Could our Matthew Myers be the same person who is found in the 1870 census in Norton, Summit Co., OH:

1870 Census, Norton: 7 Jun 1870.
Akron post office.
Dwelling 32, family 31, all white.
Charles Wingter, 32, male, potter, $60 personal estate, b. France, parents of foreign birth, not a US citizen.
Sarah E. Wingter, 20, female, keeping house, b., OH, parents of foreign birth.
Matthew Myers, 22, male, potter, $1,200 personal estate, b. NY, parents of foreign birth, US citizen.

There is another Matthew Myers, son of Irish immigrants William and Bridget Myers, who appears in the 1860 census in Victory, Cayuga Co., NY. His father was a farm laborer. The 1870 Norton Myers could be the son of William and Bridget.

Sources

1. ↑ Source: #S7284
2. ↑ Source: #S7256 Family group sheet for Thomas Myers
3. ↑ Source: #S11976 Rochester ward 9; p. 398, lines 40-42 and 1-6; dwelling 142, families 137-138; Thomas Myers household; 3 May 2006
4. ↑ Source: #S12042 Rochester ward 1; p. 54/194, lines 23-27; dwelling 394, family 430; Margareth Myers household; 3 May 2006

• Source: S11976 1850 US Federal Census, Monroe Co., NY, pop. sch.; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com); series M432, roll 531.
• Source: S12042 1860 US Federal Census, Monroe Co., NY, pop. sch.; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com); series M653, roll 784.
• Source: S12201 1870 US Federal Census, Summit Co., OH, pop. sch.; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com); series M593, roll 1270.Norton; p. 4/328, lines 18-20; dwelling 32, family 31; Charles Wingter household; 6 July 2007.
• Source: S6026 Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. online [www.Wikipedia.org].http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_James_(outlaw), accessed 6 Jun 2007.
• Source: S7256 Ola Myers Eikrem (1 Roberts Ave, San Rafael, CA 94901).
• Source: S7284 Margaret Myers household, 1865 NYS Census, Sweden, Monroe Co., NY, family 371; New York State Archives NYS census books.