Story of Matthew Rhea

1794-1870

At 23 years of age, Matthew married Mary Looney of a Sullivan County pioneer family which had moved west and settled in Maury County. The Matthew Rheas, shortly after their marriage, also went to Maury County and lived among relatives. This was to be their home from 1820 to 1834. During these years the family grew; ultimately there were thirteen children. Matthew made their living by teaching, farming and surveying and this latter occupation led him to undertake the arduous task of making a new map of Tennessee, based on his own field surveys.

It was an ambitious project, driving many miles from one end of the state to the other, putting countless thousands of miles on his family car --- oops sorry, no cars yet..., must have used a horse. (Just wanted to see who was awake !)

The financial strain of the project was lightened somewhat by his receipt of a legacy from his father's estate, a land warrant for services in the Revolutionary War, but even so, he was often short of money. On January 31, 1829, he wrote his friend, Congressman James K. Polk in Washington that his map was nearing completion, that the expense of mailing large heavy packages to and from distant parts of the state was heavy; might he reasonably and properly ask the federal government for a 12 month exemption from postage? He would not ask this, he added, because he lived in Tennessee, but, "because I am a map-maker."

When at last he published the map in 1832, it was Tennessee's first map based on actual field surveys and by far the most detailed and most accurate. It located mountains, rivers, waterfalls, ferries, counties, towns, Indian villages, mineral deposits, mills, iron works, furnaces and forges. Rhea diligently pursued accuracy of information by means of on-the-spot observation, interviews, visits and voluminous correspondence. The map was indeed, as Eastin Morris called it, large and valuable.

In the years Rhea had been absorbed in his map making, General Andrew Jackson and Governor Isaac Shelby had effected the Chickasaw Purchase, which opened for settlement 7 million fertile acres in West Tennessee and Kentucky. People poured into West Tennessee in enormous numbers. Rhea, one phase of his life completed, felt drawn to this new country to which neighbors and relatives had gone already.

In Somerville, the county seat of Fayette County, a new female academy was being planned. The building was erected in 1833 and Matthew Rhea moved to Somerville to become the president and first teacher. The Academy became the Somerville Female Institution and Matthew Rhea retained connection with the Institute until 1860, when he retired to his farm home near Somerville, where he died in 1870 at the age of 76.

The above is almost a direct quote of a document supplied by Anne Rhea Bruce. She states it was a zerox copy dated July 1, 1971, Knoxville, signed by Mary U. Rothrock. Publication unknown but believed to be a story of Eastin Morris. I'll take credit for the comment about putting thousands of miles on the family car --- Fred Preston.