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Below is a family biography included in The History of Franklin County, Tennessee published by Goodspeed Publishing Company in 1886.  These biographies are valuable for genealogy research in discovering missing ancestors or filling in the details of a family tree. Family biographies often include far more information than can be found in a census record or obituary.  Details will vary with each biography but will often include the date and place of birth, parent names including mothers' maiden name, name of wife including maiden name, her parents' names, name of children (including spouses if married), former places of residence, occupation details, military service, church and social organization affiliations, and more.  There are often ancestry details included that cannot be found in any other type of genealogical record.

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CAPT. STEPHEN D. MATHER was born in Penn. in 1842, and is one of a family of five born to Daniel and Roxana (Underwood) Mather. When five years of age he went to Illinois with his parents, who died in 1885 and 1859; father and mother, ninety and sixty years of age, repectively; both of old New England Puritan stock. Our subject remained with his parents until his majority, and graduated at Cornell College, Iowa, receiving the degree of A. B., in 1860, and since, A. M. At the commencement of the war he enlisted in the Nineteenth Iowa Infantry and was orderly sergeant, and afterward captain and quartermaster. He remained until the close, participating in the whole campaign of the Cumberland, once being taken prisoner at Nashville, but soon escaped, walking by night through to the Ohio River. In 1867, he came to Franklin County, Tenn., which place had attracted his attention and admiration during the war, buying at first 866 acres with the expectation of starting a colony for Northern settlers. Owing to the political difficulties which for a time disturbed the South, his first intentions were never carried out, although by his influence this section (around Belvidere) has been settled mainly by thrifty, enterprising Northern farmers, who, by systematic farming, with the use of fertilizers and systematic rotation of crops, have given the place no little fame as being the “garden spot of Tennessee.” In 1866 he married Rebecca Stamper, a native of the county. To this marriage four children have been born, two of whom are still living— Bessie and Nellie. Mr. Mather met with the bereavement of the loss of his wife on June 29, 1880. Politically, Mr. Mather is a stanch Republican, and is a member of the State Republican Executive Committee, and he is a firm believer in the principles of prohibition.

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This family biography is one of 83 biographies included in The History of Franklin County, Tennessee published in 1886.  The History of Franklin County was included within The History of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin & Moore Counties of Tennessee. For the complete description, click here: History of Giles, Lincoln, Franklin , Moore Counties of Tennessee

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