Matthew Noah Samples (abt. 1810 - abt. 1883)

Born about 1810 in Tennessee

Ancestors

Husband of Agnes Wilburn — married about 1833 in Georgia

Husband of Melinda (unknown) Samples — married 20 Feb 1845 in Cherokee County, Georgia

Descendants

Died about 1883 at about age 73 in Hopkins County, Kentucky

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Ed Anderson [send private message] and Candice Samples [send private message]

Biography

Name: Documents usually show him as Matthew Samples. He was Matthew N. Samples in the 1860 census. Some researchers refer to him as Matthew Noah Samples.

Born: About 1810 in Tennessee. State of birth is from census records. His year of birth in census records ranged from 1807 to 1813. See attached paper "Parents and Siblings of John Samples..." for evidence that his parents were John and Frances Samples.

Property in 1832: Like his brother Zachariah, Matthew won the right to 40 acres of land in Gwinnett County, Georgia in the 1832 "Gold" land lottery. The lottery was a means of distributing former Cherokee land to settlers.^[1]

Possible marriage around 1833: To Agnes Wilburn or Wellborn. According to federal censuses of 1840 and 1850, the oldest child in Matthew's household was probably born around 1834 to 1836, so 1833 is an estimate of when he could have married.^[2][3] The 1915 death record for one of his children, Phoebe A. Samples, identified her parents as Matthew Samples and Agnes Wilburn.^[4]

1840: Matthew was recorded in Forsyth County, Georgia. He and the woman in the household were in their 20's. There was a boy and girl under five and a girl between five and nine.^[2]

Marriage: Matthew Samples and Malinda Hanshard or Hansard were married in Cherokee County, Georgia on 20 February 1845.^[5] In 1842 Matthew's sister Rebecca had married James Hansard in Forsyth County.

1850: Matthew and Melinda were in Forsyth County in 1850. They appeared to have three children of their own, ages one to four, and three children from Matthew's first marriage, ages 10 to 14.^[3] The agricultural census recorded Matthew near his older brothers Jesse and Z.M. Matthew did not own land and had a small number of livestock.^[6]

1860: Matthew and "Belinda" were in Dalton, Whitfield County, Georgia. They had seven children. Matthew was shown as a day laborer. This was the only census that showed North Carolina as his state of birth.^[7] The mayor of Dalton was C.B. Wellborn, who had the same surname as Matthew's likely first wife.^[8] Mayor Wellborn officiated at the 1859 marriage of Matthew's daughter Phoebe.^[9]

1870: The 1870 census recorded "M Samples" and Malinda in Cheatham County, Tennessee, near Nashville. They may have been forced to leave Whitfield County because of severe damage from the Civil War. Their household had six children, including three who were counted in the 1860 census. Two households nearby were headed by men named Samples who may have been Matthew's adult sons.^[10]

Death of wife: A Kentucky death record stated that a "Matilda" Samples died on Sep 15, 1878 because of lung disease.^[11] She was 52 years old and lived in Hopkins County, Kentucky. This was probably Malinda.

Remarriage: To Mary Howell in Hopkins County, Kentucky on 21 Feb 1879.^[12]

1880: At age 70, Matthew was recorded in Hopkins County with new wife Mary, three children, one stepchild, and a grandchild. He stated that his parents were born in Georgia and South Carolina.^[13]

Death: After 1880. Time and place not known.

Research notes

Census records from 1850 to 1880 listed ten apparent children of Matthew and his second wife Melinda Hansard. The 1850 census also listed three children from before Matthew's marriage that must have been from first wife Agnes Wilburn. See Agnes' profile page for two additional children of Matthew and Agnes. It appears that Matthew had 15 children in total. Samples-1044 03:24, 20 March 2020 (UTC)

Sources

1. ↑ Online list of land lottery winners from the website of the Gwinnett Historical Society. See [1]. The society obtained the list from Flanigan's "History of Gwinnett County vol 1" and Mary Warren's "Alphabetical Index to Georgia’s 1832 Gold Lottery."
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} "United States Census, 1840," database with images, FamilySearch [2], Mathew Samples, Davis, Forsyth, Georgia.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} "United States Census, 1850," database with images, FamilySearch [3], Matthew Samples, Forsyth county, Georgia.
4. ↑ "Texas Deaths, 1890-1976," database with images, FamilySearch [4], Phoeba Agness Tapp, 10 Apr 1915; citing certificate number 8373, State Registrar Office, Austin; FHL microfilm 2,051,270.
5. ↑ "Georgia, County Marriages, 1785-1950," database with images, FamilySearch [5], Mathew Samples and Malinda Hanshard, 20 Feb 1845; citing Marriage, Cherokee, Georgia, Georgia Department of Archives and History, FHL microfilm 325,922.
6. ↑ Ancestry.com: U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules, 1850-1880, agricultural schedule.
7. ↑ Ancestry.com: Federal census for 1860, Census Place: Dalton, Whitfield, Georgia.
8. ↑ From "Civil War anniversary: C.B. Wellborn, Mayor of Dalton", a 2012 online article on the website of the "Dalton Daily Citizen" newspaper. See [6].
9. ↑ "Georgia, County Marriages, 1785-1950," database with images, FamilySearch [7], Hugh Tapp and Phebe A. Samples, 26 Jul 1859; citing Marriage, Whitfield, Georgia.
10. ↑ FamilySearch: 1870 federal census for Cheatham County, District 2. See [8].
11. ↑ Ancestry.com: Kentucky, Death Records, 1852-1965.
12. ↑ Ancestry.com: Kentucky, Compiled Marriages, 1851-1900.
13. ↑ "United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch [9], Mathiew Samples, Saint Charles, Hopkins, Kentucky.

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