This is my great-great-grandmother,
Catharine Evans, who married the Reverend William R. Matthews in Wales
and came with him to America. It is said her forbears had gone from Denmark to the Isle of
Man, where she was born. She was born in 1822, and this photograph was
taken with her daughter, Catharine Matthews Thomas, probably about 1887. Rev. William R. Matthews
was a much-sought-after minister in the county. Fluent in Welsh and
a fine speaker, he was dearly loved throughout the county.
Catharine Matthews married John Thomas.
She died when I was but a little boy, but I have faint memories of her. She was "Toomama,"
a name she acquired from a granddaughter who said she was "Mama, too." The strength
and character in the face are real. A pillar of the church, a woman
widowed young and never remarried, a bulwark of Republicanism, and a person
who raised orphans and cared for those in need. Those who did not help
in such endeavors were given short shrift. I grew up in my teens in the
house which John Thomas bought for them in 1887, shortly before he died.
John Thomas was only about a year and a half old when his parents,
William and Mary (Evans) left Wales. William settled a large farm on
Rattlesnake Creek in Spring Brook Township, Pennsylvania. John was only
about 15 or 16 when he went off to the Civil War. He fell ill at the seige of Peterburg, Virginia, and it was said he died prematurely because of the long-term damage to his body.
After he was discharged, he married Toomama and was variously a lumberman, farmer, and
township constable. He was only 41 when he died.
Jesse and Elizabeth (Crocker) Palmer, my maternal
grandparents. The Palmers came over from Frome, Somersetshire in the west of
England at mid-century and seem to have been miners. Jesse began work in the mines near Scranton, Pennsylvania
as a lad of about eight, picking slate in the breakers. His sons were
to work in the mines as well when they were young. The Crockers were fisherfolk from Penzance
at the tip of Cornwall. The Palmers were extremely tight-laced Methodists.
Grandpa Crocker was a bit merrier and liked his beer, which apparently
displeased Jesse Palmer. My mother, Margaret Allan Palmer, was the first
in either family to go to college. Jesse was an avid learner, taking courses
by mail. He rose to become part-owner of Glen Alden Coal Company, but
lost everything in the Crash of 1929.
William Raymond Betterly and Georgia (Thomas) Betterly, my paternal grandparents. Georgia was obviously the daughter
of John Thomas and Catharine Matthews Thomas. The Betterly line goes way back to Boston where the
son of the first Betterly we know of, Elizabeth, married Elizabeth Alden
in King's Chapel in 1720. After the Revolution, two brothers mustered out - one
went to Vermont, the other to Pennsylvania. William's uncle fought at Gettysburg
and was in Ford's Theater the night Lincoln was shot - and served in Lincoln's
honor guard. Will, my granddad, was a cook and baker. Georgia,of course,
was the daughter of John and Catharine Thomas (above).
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