WILDERNESS WIDOW: When her husband Michael Israel Edmundson died, Matilda, then 36 years old, was left with five children to raise and support. There was no government aid to widows and dependent children in those days. Undaunted Matilda kept the family farm going and held her family together. She supplemented the subsistance from the farm with her spinning and weaving. The children received what education was available from the local Schoolmaster. The girls attended Boarding School, although they had to take it by turns, as there were not enough suitable dresses for all of them to attend at once. Her sons John and Benjamin became Doctors. All of her daughters married well. When Matilda died she was buried in the Old Bluff Cemetery overlooking the Obion River. When the Cemetery began to deteriate near the late 1800's her son Benjamin had her remains disintered and reburied in the Salem Methodist Church Cemetery in nearby Good Luck.
WILDERNESS WIDOW: When her husband Michael Israel Edmundson died, Matilda, then 36 years old, was left with five children to raise and support. There was no government aid to widows and dependent children in those days. Undaunted Matilda kept the family farm going and held her family together. She supplemented the subsistance from the farm with her spinning and weaving. The children received what education was available from the local Schoolmaster. The girls attended Boarding School, although they had to take it by turns, as there were not enough suitable dresses for all of them to attend at once. Her sons John and Benjamin became Doctors. All of her daughters married well. When Matilda died she was buried in the Old Bluff Cemetery overlooking the Obion River. When the Cemetery began to deteriate near the late 1800's her son Benjamin had her remains disintered and reburied in the Salem Methodist Church Cemetery in nearby Good Luck.
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