Alisha Sanders
This profile was published in “Grand Review Times: A Call for the Descendants of USCT Troops from Camp William Penn 1863 to the Harrisburg Grand Review, 1865,” a supplement that appeared in the March 22, 2010 issue of ShowcaseNow! Magazine. ““Grand Review Times” is avalible for download as a PDF file here. (Adobe Reader must be installed on your computer in order to read this document.)
Alisha Sanders was born in Gettysburg and grew up there developing an interest in genealogy when she was in the ninth grade.
“At the time,” she said recently from her home telephone, “Gettysburg College was offering a special program with my high school and I enrolled. “And I have been bitten by the history bug ever since,” she confesses.
Ms. Saunders’ great-great grandfather William H. Matthews was a son of Edward Matthews, a known Underground Railroad operator. William lied about his age, she tells in recalling the story of his life, and enlisted with Company I of the 127th Pennsylvania in September, 1864. It is assumed he signed up for the Army at Camp William Penn in Philadelphia. He was mustered out at Bravos Santiago, Texas on September 8, 1865.
The Matthews family lived in the Yellow Hill community near Gettysburg, Ms. Saunders said, and “we know from Edward’s pension records that he suffered from pulmonary disease.” He was with the Army of the James, she said, at Deep Bottom, Virginia, among other places. Two of his brothers, she added, Samuel and Nelson F., also served as members of USCT corps.
Cyrus Griest, who was another conductor working with Edward Matthews on the UGRR in Quaker Valley. I am just now learning more about him and enjoyed reading about your ancestor.
I live in Roxbury, MA–a section of Boston.
I meant to say that Cyrus is my GGG grandfather.