1940 - Matthews

My great-grandfather on my mother's side, George Washington Matthews, died when he was only 48 years old (1888-1936) and didn't make it to being recorded in the 1940 Census. At the time of the 1940 census his widow, Eva Isabell Johnson Matthews was 56 years old and living with her daughter Georgia (who I think my mother always called Peggy...) in Seaboard North Carolina. She worked in a sewing room for the Works Progress Administration earning about $330/year (about $6,270 in today's dollars). She rented her home for $5 a month, about $95 in 2022 dollars. She and her daughter both only had a 4th grade education. Eva was born in Virginia; her daughter in North Carolina. I have only a few photographs of Eva. Some are snaps from some Super 8 videos we have from the Marotto family.

George and Eva Matthews had 5 children: Rose, Hettibelle, Arthur, Rufus and Georgia. Arthur died as an infant. Rose/Rosa is my grandmother and the only child who left the North Carolina area and came north to New York and eventually New Jersey to have a family.

While these are not from the 1940 timeframe, I was able to find a couple of newspaper clippings about Mr. and Mrs. George Matthews (1911 and 1916.)