In Butler district, Wayne county, January 19, 1860, Matthew Thacker and Rebecca A.
Newman were married, and in the ensuing years 10 children have been born to them: John A., January 5, 1861,
died died August 5, 1879; Albert, January 20, 1862; Mary Elizabeth, May 4, 1864; Thomas H., November 5, 1865;
Nevada F., December 10, 1867; Oliva F., June 19, 1870; William L., July 9, 1872; Charles B., November 17, 1874;
Thurman, May 16, 1877; and Jennie B., March 25, 1880. Albert makes his home in Wisconsin, and the other
children are with their parents. Rebecca A., daughter of Peyton and Mary (Cyrus) Newman, was born in Butler
district of Wayne County, September 12, 1841, and her father was born in Stokes county, North Carolina, in
1800, her mother in Cabell county, April 12, 1809. Her father came to this county when 6 years old, and he
died in Butler district on October 8, 1842. Rev. Peyton Newman, grandfather of Mrs. Thacker, was one of the
pioneers of this county and probably the first Baptist minister who proclaimed the Gospel in this part of
Western Virginia. He was pastor of the Big Sandy Baptist Church, probably the first church of that faith
organized in Wayne county. Philip, Mark and Luke Thacker, brothers of Matthew, were Federal soldiers in the
civil war. Philip belonged to the 1st West Virginia Artillery, and the other two served in the 45th Kentucky
Mounted Infantry. Philip and Mark died in the service. Matthew Thacker�s post office address is Whites Creek,
Wayne county, West Virginia.
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Matthew THACKER owns 70 acres of valuable land, with good improvements, situated on
the Big Sandy, 2 miles above Whites Creek, and in addition to the cultivation of his farm conducts an
extensive business in blacksmithing. He was born at Ceredo, Wayne county, June 10, 1839, a son of Charles L.
Thacker, who was born in North Carolina in 1807 and came with his father, Reuben Thacker, to what is now
Wayne county in the earliest days of its settlement. The mother of Matthew Thacker, whose maiden name was
Elizabeth Amos, was born in this county.
Submitted by Marilyn Gouge and extracted from Hardesty's Historical and Geographical
Encyclopedia, Wayne County, WV, Biographies List, 1884.