Mattie Wheeler grew up in the Clark Mansion, “Holly Rood,” located at the intersection of Burns Avenue and Beckner Street. Gov. James Clark built the home and was succeeded there by a number of notables, including Dr. J. L. Grigsby, Judge C. S. French, Judge William M. Beckner, and Floyd Day. In 1846, Samuel Wheeler purchased the home and surrounding farm of 462 acres for $30,000. At that time, the farm was on the outskirts of Winchester. The wealthy Wheeler, one of the owners of the Red River Iron Works, had married Caroline Mason, daughter of Col. James Mason of Montgomery County. Martha was their youngest child, born in 1844 and always called “Mattie.” Her father died when Mattie was ten years old.
Mattie Wheeler is best remembered today for the diary she kept during the Civil War. As a sixteen-year-old girl, her attention focused initially on family, friends, and the parties she attended. That changed in 1861, when she wrote, “I never thought that I would live to see war in the United States. But war is inaugurated. The first blood has been shed & the first victory won. God only knows when the bloody war is to cease. I pray that the time may speedily come. The military company is drilling in our front pasture today. Joseph Jackson [her cousin] is joining [Union Gen.] Rosecrans regiment in Louisville.”
Though her three sisters all married Lincoln men, Mattie’s sympathies were with the South. July 20, 1862, she remarked on “a day that will be ever memorable to me. Col. John H. Morgan, with a great many of his men, variously estimated at 1,500 to three thousand passed through Winchester.” That night her mood shifted as Morgan retreated through town after a skirmish at Cynthiana: “I still hear their tramp, tramp on the Richmond Pike. It is a dreadful sound.”
Two months later, during the battle of Richmond, she stated that “we heard the firing of cannon early Saturday morning and heard it until about ten o’clock. Ma called us all in to go to making bandages.”
During Col. Roy S. Cluke’s Kentucky raid the following February, Confederate troops occupied Winchester for several days. On the 28th, Mattie recorded that “we were very much excited this eve by the firing of guns. The rebels fired on the federal pickets stationed near by Judge Simpson’s and had driven them in. The federals then formed in line of battle opposite the National House and stood four or five minutes and then started after the rebels. Most persons in town thought that they were fighting 3 or 4 miles from town. O! this wicked war!”
Cluke, one of Morgan’s commanders, had previously raised a regiment in Clark County. James Simpson lived on North Main Street, and the National House—formerly the Rees House—stood on the site of the Brown-Proctor Hotel.
Mattie’s commentary on the war expanded as the fighting dragged on for the next several years, though she never stopped reporting on the lighter side:
“We danced until nearly one o’clock. I caught a dreadful cold.”
“I never enjoyed a wedding as much in my life.”
“That night we attended the most splendid party that was ever given in this part of the country. We retired at 4 o’clock.”
“We had a delightful time [hunting], killed fourteen squirrels.”
After Lee’s surrender, Mattie made the following entry: “When I wrote last the Southern Confederacy was in a prosperous condition, but now it has fallen!”
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Mattie’s Civil War journal ended with an entry describing the Clark County Fair: “We had a fair here the last three days of August [1865]. I made a great many acquaintances, among the rest was Mr. Leland Hathaway, one of the most interesting and fascinating gentlemen I ever met.”
Leeland Hathaway of Montgomery County joined John Hunt Morgan’s command and served as captain of a cavalry company. Hathaway was captured during Morgan’s Ohio raid and sent to a Federal prison along with Mattie’s brother, Levi “Lee” Wheeler. When Lee showed Hathaway a picture of Mattie, he declared that he would marry her when he got home.
Hathaway eventually bribed his way out of prison and made his way to Abbeyville, South Carolina. Following Lee’s surrender, Captain Hathaway helped Jefferson Davis’ family make their way to Florida. President Davis joined them there and all were captured. Hathaway was placed in solitary confinement at Fort McHenry. His family went to Washington and procured his release from President Andrew Johnson.
At Lee Wheeler’s invitation, Hathaway came to Clark County to attend a reunion of Morgan men. There he met Mattie whom he married the following year. The couple resided at 253 South Main Street. Hathaway established a successful law practice in Winchester. He also served as a master commissioner, helped organize a number of Confederate reunions in Clark County, and maintained an avid interest in foxhunting.
Mattie and Leeland had one child, Caroline Leeland, called “Carrie Lee.” Mattie died in 1895, Leeland in 1909, and Carrie Lee in 1951. All are buried in the Winchester Cemetery.
