Letter to the Editor

Your view: Read the book

Monday, November 7, 2005

It was with great interest that I read Matthews - The Historic Adventures of a Pioneer Family. Ned Matthews is to be commended for going beyond the encyclopedia format of most family histories. His book encourages a deeper level of study of southeast Missouri and provides the seeds for doing so. It is a challenge and hard work to convey in word the complexities of an individual, such as C. D. Matthews and his sons and to provide a context for that person's life. This book succeeds in meeting that challenge.

Ned Matthews wrote on the Little River Drainage District. Current generations fail to understand the importance of this master work to southeast Missouri. The drainage district is, in many people's opinions, what makes the Missouri Bootheel so unique.

Mr. Matthews also touched on the Cleo Wright lynching in Sikeston with great detail, as well as the 1939 Sharecropper Roadside Strike. I commend him for his research and dedication to factual history and the courage to address these sensitive issues.

Few of us have the many primary sources that the Matthews Family has at their disposal. I encourage Ned Matthews to discuss with his family the possibility of donating the priceless primary resources, which touch the lives of so many families in the Bootheel, to Southeast Missouri State University's Special Collections and Archives. His book encourages a deeper level of study of southeast Missouri and having much of the sources available would be a most generous gift to the region. Society is indebted to Archivists and Librarians worldwide for acquiring, preserving and making assessable research materials that document society's collective histories. But first they must receive the materials.

Everyone in the region is encouraged to read Ned Matthews' entertaining and educational book, MATTHEWS - The Historic Adventures of a Pioneer Family. You will be glad you took the time to read this worthwhile book.

Very truly yours, Margaret Cline Harmon