Matilda Patton George - Inn Keeper's Wife

Matilda Patton George was my 1st cousin 4x removed. Her mother was Eleanor Howe Pearis my very Great Aunt who married Thomas Jefferson George. Matilda was born in Tazewell County, Virginia on 22 November 1825 she was one of seven children. She lived in Mercer County, Virginia on a farm with her parents and siblings in 1850. 

In 1856 Matilda, at the age of 30, met Lewis Bledsoe Austin. He was a widower with 4 children still living at home. They married on the 9th of September and moved to his farm near Elk Creek, Grayson County, Virginia. Matilda and her husband had 7 children. 

Lewis Bledsoe Austin

Legend has it that Lewis packed up Matilda and their children into a covered wagon and headed west. In Corrine, Utah they turned north and stopped in Radersburg for a time before moving one more time to Jefferson City. 

On 11 June 1874 there is an article in the Daily Independent Newspaper out of Helena, Montana about Mr. George, that would be Albert Gallatin Pendelton George, (Matilda's brother) Mr. Bratty, Mr. MacFarland, and Mr. Austin (Matilda's Husband) investing, building, and updating a canal from the swamp lands of Crow Creek bringing in enough water to work the mines. Crow Creek flows into the Missouri River south of Helena, Montana and east of Jefferson City.

In 1880 Matilda's husband is mentioned in the Daily Independent again as being the proprietor of a popular hotel, The Emerson Hotel. The 1880 census has them living in Jefferson City, Jefferson County, Montana and Lewis occupation as Inn Keeper. 

                                Jefferson City Montana ca1895. The Emerson Hotel was a two story building.
While at the home of her daughter Lucy Victoria Austin Wilcox in Centerville, Montana on 15 January 1894 Matilda passed. 4 months later Lewis, Matilda's husband also passed.