Person:Matilda Truitt (2)

Matilda and her husband, Crawford Sylvanus Hefner, lived on a farm about 5 miles east of Gilmer. At the start of the civil war, Sarah Ann Truitt, wife of James Andrew Jackson Richey, went to live with Matilda at Lone Mountain, in Upshur County, Texas, along with two of her children. Matilda and Crawford never had any children. She would take in orphans and unwanted children and raise them. Sarah and her kids stayed with Matilda for the whole time their husbands, James Andrew Jackson Richey and Crawford Sylvanus Hefner, were fighting in the Civil War.

After the war, Sarah moved back to Pine Forest and Crawford Hefner came home to Long Mountain. Matilda was out on the back porch churning butter when Crawford came limping up to the house. He apparently was injured in the war.

One of the many children Matilda and Crawford help raise was Mary Josephine Anglin (See 1880 Census). That's how Matilda's nephew, Elijah Truitt Richey, met this woman he later married. When Mary Josephine Anglin Richey died in 1894, Elijah was farming and couldn't or wouldn't raise his youngest child, Andrew Floyd Richey, (born 1892). "Aunt" Mat went to Pine Forest and took Andrew Floyd back home with her to Lone Mountain (see 1900 Census). She raised him until around 1906.

After the death of CS Hefner, "Aunt Mat" married R M Dean. Stories say this man married her for her money. Not long after they were married, "Aunt" Mat was found dead in her home by a neighbor. Her husband, along with all her money and valuables, had disappeared. Nobody ever found him. Interview by Charlie W. RICHEY, May 1995.

Matilda is buried in Gilmer City Cemetery near her first husband, C S Hefner.

1. ↑ Upshur, Texas, United States. 1900 U.S. Census Population Schedule
   159B.

   Crawford S Heffner, Farmer, married 44 years
   Crawford S Heffner, W., M, b. Jan 1830, age, 70, b. N.C.; Matilda Heffner, W. F., age 62, b. June 1837, f. Alabama; Andrew Floyd Ritchie, W. M., b. May 1892, Texas, age 8, living as a "Lodger".

2. ↑ Upshur County Cemetery Index.