Submitted by Descendants: Alexander Kent, Jon Karl, Pamela Denise DOKE; Andy Neal, and Neil Doke DUKES; Mable Claire Doke ELLINGTON; Burnell Mitchell and Patricia Dianne McLean SCHUSTER
John Mathews was born 5 May 1800 in Georgia. When he was about 5 years old Indians attacked the family, killing all except John and his younger brother, Frank. The two of them were playing in a haystack away from the house when the attack occurred and thus survived. A family whose surname was Hope took them in. When John was in his teens he moved with the Hope family to Micanopy, Florida. The family name is found spelled Mathews, Mattheus, and Matthews.
John married Margaret Moody and they moved to an area between Lake Butler and Providence in Columbia County, then moving to New River County, now Union County, settling within less than a mile from Ft. Call.
We find John Mathews on the voter registration of October 14 1839 as voter #25, in Columbia County, Fort Call precinct, Territory of Florida. Then in the Florida First Statewide Election, May 26, 1845 he votes in Columbia County, Fort Call precinct, State of Florida.
John died 30 Sept 1884 and is buried in the cemetery at Fort Call, Florida, which is now in Union County.
John Mathews was first established as a Florida Pioneer in 2005