Martha Matilda’s father George Riches immigrated to the
United States from England in 1853 when he 18 years old "to find his fortune in the Americas." Her mother Jane Wilkens was born in New York
State in April 1838; Jane’s parents had also emigrated from England. My mother said that her grandmother always said they were of Scots descent - not Scotch - that was the liquor.
Mattie, as she was known, was born in New York State on
February 17, 1863. She had two older sisters, Elizabeth born in 1857 and Anna
Jane born July 9, 1861.
Sometime after 1863, the Riches family moved from New York and
was living in Waterville, Pepin, Wisconsin where sister Olive was born in 1867/68. Edward
Thomas Riches was born July 28, 1872. There was also another brother George Bell born in 1875 who died just before he was three years old.
Mattie married H. (Henry) Pember Taylor on February 13, 1879
in Pierce County, Wisconsin when she was just 16 years old and he was 26.
Pember was very well to do and owned a number of Gay 90’s type bars and
gambling establishments. Their son Louis Pember Taylor was born in late December
1879. Their second child LaVina died when she was just two years old. Mattie
wore fabulous gowns and furs – and danced (which she remembered in her
later, religious years with dismay.) In 1880 they were living in Maiden Rock,
Pierce, Wisconsin.
Mattie found out that Pember was sleeping with the dance
hall girls, something she would not tolerate, so she took their son Louis and left
filing for divorce. She received a settlement and opened up a dressmaking shop.
Mattie then met Jefferson Thomas Graves who was five years
younger than she.
On December 12, 1895 in Eau Claire, Wisconsin she married
Jefferson Thomas Graves, the eldest son of James Americ Graves and Effa
Beaubier. JT was very kind and gentle (and someone she could boss!) Mattie made
the money decisions and ran everything – she definitely ruled the roost. They had two children - Effa Belle Graves born December 25, 1896 and James Vernon
Graves born May 27, 1899.
Martha Matilda and Jefferson Thomas
JT and Mattie followed his father James out to Washington
State and settled in the Jackson Prairie/Mary’s Corner area of Lewis County on
a farm in 1903. James helped them clear the land and build their house.
The Riches family also moved to Washington State from
Wisconsin. Edward settled in Everett, Washington while her sister Olive’s
family and her sister Anna Jane’s and family settled in Elma, Washington.
Mattie’s sister Olive died after the birth of her third
child, daughter Ada Patton and then sadly, Ada Patton Temple died after the
birth of her first child, daughter Erma (later spelled Irma) in 1910. JT and
Mattie took Erma and raised her for her father Veness Lewis Temple.
Erma and Effa
November 28, 1911
Louie and Fern
In 1912 Louis moved from Wisconsin to Saskatchewan to farm
with his wife Fern and their three children.
JT- Mattie-Effa
Irma-Vern
Fall of 1927 after Effa moved back home after the death of her husband Alva
Rosalie, Mattie with Vina, Effa, Stella, and Arnold
JT never learned to drive, but Mattie did (which was unusual
for the time) and she liked having a car. My Aunt Stella remembered her
grandmother deciding it was time for a new car (sometime between 1922 and 1928)
so she went to the dealership, found a brand new Durant Star she liked and
pulled out cash from her money belt on her waist (she didn’t trust banks) and
paid for it in full. She was the only woman to have a car in the area and the
only one to drive.
Stella also related a story to me about Mattie getting stuck
on the railroad tracks with a train coming and all of the kids were screaming
(Stella, Arnold, Rosalie, and Vina.) JT just quietly said, “Now listen kids,
quiet down, your grandma always knows what she is doing.” Grandma Mattie was
praying loudly, the car started and the train barely missed them. Her daughter Effa was very upset and declared
that, “They were never riding with Grandma again!”
In spite of being somewhat indifferent to her own daughter
Effa (Mattie definitely favored Vern and Irma), Mattie gave her two oldest granddaughters all the love that was missing
from their mother. Along with their brother Arnold, they adored their
grandmother even though she could be strict and stern. They all had very fond memories of her.
You have to expect the unexpected when doing genealogy
research and that is what I found. I did a search in NewspaperArchives.com and
found something in the October 10, 1930 issue of the local paper that I don’t
think that my aunt Stella who was almost 14 at the time, my uncle Arnold who
was almost 12 or my mother Rosalie who was 8 knew about. It appears that my
great grandfather had a filed for separation from Mattie. According to the separation
filing in the article I found, that “the defendant (Mattie) has lost all love
for him, has treated him in a cruel and abusive manner, and that when angry
with him Mattie struck him with an ‘ax, crowbar, clubs, dishes and other
instruments.’” (So now I know why when my grandmother Effa would get mad – she
would start throwing the dishes – she learned it from her mother.)
JT also
stated that “a few year ago defendant joined a religious organization with
which she had since been prominent, and has pronounced him ‘unfit and unclean
and filled with evil spirits’, and refused to cook his meals or take care of
his clothing; that he is 62 years of age and is compelled to work away from his
farm to get necessities for himself. The
defendant had for the past 10 or 15 years banked the receipts from milk and
eggs, which he thinks is now about $4000, but she will not tell him how much,
nor give him access to any of it.” I imagine that things were quite chilly in
the Graves household for some time after that but they did remain married.
It took me awhile to determine that there were two Mattie
Graves in Lewis County born at about the same time – my Mattie M. Graves who
lived at Jackson Prairie/South Chehalis area and Mattie N. Graves who lived in
Centralia and had been born in Oregon.
Some things just didn’t add up so I just keep looking as many places as
I could. It didn’t help that newspapers are notoriously inaccurate at times
with names and sometimes it was Mattie K., Mattie V., or Mattie X.
I believe that my Mattie may have also been involved in the
W.C.T.U. (the Women’s Christian Temperance Union) from the comment made in JT’s
separation filing and because she had seen the evils of drink – up close - during
her first marriage and she worried about her baby brother’s soul because he
drank wine. She was very, very religious in her later years.
July 27, 1934 at Mt Rainier
Duke La Mere (Irma's 2nd husband), Mattie, Vina, JT
A holiday favorite was an old family recipe for an English
Pudding. Unfortunately, Mattie and Effa did not share the recipe and it was
lost when they died. There was another family recipe that was shared – The
Family Fudge recipe. It is different than any other fudge that I have every
tried and it remains a favorite treat when the cousins get together. All the
daughters made it for their families when we were growing up. (And my cousin is
making it for me Sunday afternoon when I go to her house for dinner and
genealogy!)
Combine:
3 cups sugar
3 heaping tablespoons of cocoa
½ cube of butter
¼ teaspoon salt
1¼ cups milk
½ cup corn syrup
Cook until a soft ball – at a nice full boil
(that can be stirred down).
Remove from heat. Add:
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cube butter
1 tablespoon of peanut butter (if desired)
Let cool for 10 minutes, then beat it (with
mixer) until it starts turning dull. Then
beat by hand a few minutes as it starts to set. Pour onto a large buttered plate.
Mattie and JT approximately 1936
The Homestead at Jackson Prairie
May 23, 1937
JT and Mattie Graves 1939
Mattie died on Thursday, March 21, 1940 at 9:15 am of
cardiac failure at age 77. She had been in horrible, horrible pain from the
severe arthritis that she suffered from for a number of years. She was buried
in Chehalis, Washington at the Claquato Cemetery on Saturday, March 23rd.
