1925 Biography - J Mathis
Honorable J. Mathis was a teacher of this county for several years, served as deputy sheriff one term and represented this district in the State Legislature twice. He was assistant cashier of the First National Bank during the World War and was appointed postmaster under President Harding. He was born on a farm in Bloomfield township, 1867 and was the son of Robert D. and Lucinda (Fairless) Mathis. The first one known of this family was John. His son was also named John and was a native of Virginia, but emigrated to Kentucky and while a resident of Trigg County, that state married Brown and came to Randolph County, Ill., in 1846. William Mathis was a son of John, who migrated to Johnson County in 1849, with his wife who was Cinthia Scott and four children. They brought their wordly possessions in a cart drawn by oxen, and took up government land in Bloomfield Township, where he spent the remainder of his life. Their children were Robert D. (2), Elizabth E. (2), John B. (2), Margaret A. (2), Robert D. (2) was born in Kentucky in 1836, being thirteen years old when his parents brought him here. His wife Lucinda, was a daughter of Robert and Mahala (Buchanan) Fairless of Gallatin County, Ill. Their children were John B. (3), George W. (3), Alonzo F. (3) and Lilly J. (3). John P. (3) married Elizabeth Whiteaker and their children are Evelyn (4) and Kathryn (4); George W. (3) is a farmer residing in Bloomfield and married Minnie Morray and their children are Gussie (4), who married Earl Downing, Alvin (4), who served in France with the A. E. F. and is a student of medicine at the Illinois University. Catherine (4) married Guy Davis; Mabel (4) married Lorin Harvick; Archie (4) is a student at the University of Illinois; George (4), Wayne (4), John H. (4), Marjory (4) and Geneva (4). Alonzo F. (3) is a farmer of this county and resides in Vienna. He married Sadie, daughter of C. L. and Catherine Westman. Their children are Ward (4), who married Gladys Shettler and they have Ward J. (5), James J. (5); May (4) married Fred Sloan; Robert (4), Frank (4), Helen (4), Westman (4) and Marshall (4); Lilly (3) married W. A. Elkins, they had James R. (4), Clarence (4) and Robert (4).
Extracted 08 Feb 2017 by Norma Hass from 1925 A History of Johnson County, Illinois, by Mrs. P. T. Chapman, page 405.
