Mathias Homestead

Mathias Homestead. Son in the Service. When the Civil War began in 1861, John and Susanna Mathias lived in this house with their son John Thomas Mathias (age 21) and their daughter Susan Mathias (age 12)., John T. Mathias enlisted in Confederate service in the 1st Regiment Virginia Partisan Rangers in September 1861. He subsequently served in Co. C, 18th Virginia Cavalry, which was organized in December 1862 and assigned to Gen. John D. Imboden's brigade. The brigade saw service principally in western Virginia and the Shenandoah Valley. During the war, Mathias rose to the rank of 1st sergeant. Capt. George W. Stump, a Hampshire County resident, was his company commander. The unit disbanded in April 1865., While their son was away in the army, his family and this house, like many others in the Lost River Valley, experienced the hardships that the war wrought on civilians. Life on a farm was difficult enough in peacetime, but during the conflict it was both harsh and unpredictable. Both Union and Confederate forces swept by on their way to and from the Shenandoah Valley, taking corn, wheat, apples, cattle, hogs, and sheep to feed the soldiers. The house is also said to have served as a Confederate hospital., Howard's Lick Road, to your right, leads to the former Hardy White Sulphur Springs hotel and cabins (present-day Lost River State Park). During the war, valley families often sought shelter there from the armies.