Up front I want to again thank the Wayne County list and especially Bob Strock, Joy Wengerd, Linda Simons, Joseph E. Hardman and many friends on the York and Cumberland County list who have supported me in my efforts to put this Cumberland County family together. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Emanuel Mater was born in 1830 in East Pennsboro Township, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. His father George was a German speaking weaver from a long line of weavers. He was born October 29, 1795, in Manheim Township, York County, Pennsylvania. (Note Ray Schawartz's objections.) His earliest known ancestor, George Matter, was born about 1630 in Engwiller, an unimportant village west of the Rhine River. At that time it was part of the Holy Roman German Empire - today it is in Alsace, France. His parents put God first in their lives and December 13, 1826, when they were blessed with a son, they named him, Samuel: First Samuel 1:20 - Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, and called his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the LORD. (Samuel is my great-grandfather.) And when there second son arrived in 1830, they named him Emanuel: Isaiah 7:14 Isaiah 7 Isaiah 7:13-15: Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel.7:14 Literally God-With-Us. (His father may have had a brother Immanuel, who died about 1803.) In 1826, before Emanuel was born, the first rails "The Main Line" were laid to connect Philadelphia with Pittsburgh. The birth of Emanuel and his older brother, Samuel, paralleled the birth of the railroad. In 1834 tiny cars hauled by horses on strap-iron tracks arrived in Columbia from Philadelphia. In 1838 the first steam locomotive huffed and chugged into Columbia. Later that year their father allowed the two Mater brothers to cross the Susquehanna River and view one of these fire-eating monsters up close; the lives of these two boys, one eight and the other 12 years of age, was forever changed. To the boys, the sight of Canal-barges/railroad-cars on wheels continuing on the track right into the water was equally amazing. These strange, hybrid cars ran on rails as far as Columbia, but at the Susquehanna River the cars were floated as barges on a canal to Hollidaysburg. There the barges became railcars again as they were pulled up inclines operated by the Allegheny Portage Railroad. After a short run on top of the forbidding mountain ranges of Pennsylvania the railcars were lowered down the western slopes on inclines. At Johnstown the railcars where again converted to barges so they could follow a canal to Pittsburgh. As a very young-teenager this train and barge operation fascinated Emanuel. His older brother, Samuel, soon left home to work on the inclines of the Portage Railroad. For a few years, Samuel was content to remain in Cumberland county. He even married and living on his father-in-law's farm tried to be a farmer - later he too followed the Pennsylvania Railroad into Ohio, but that is another story. For several years young Emanuel worked on the canals as a "gofer" and by the time he was fifteen years-old he was experienced enough at manual laborer to follow the Pennsylvania Railroad, laying rail into northern Ohio. When he and the Pennsylvania Railroad arrived in Wooster, it was already a very important railroad town. Emanuel was 16 when he met a daughter of Samuel and Magdalena Graber, in Paint Township, Wayne County, Ohio. Their son Emanuel was born in 1847.(1) Emanuel's bride died soon after he was born and the father left his infant son in the care of the boy's maternal grandparents.(2) Wooster is already becoming an important railroad time, and the twenty-year-old widower, Emanuel, goes there living in the Eagle boarding house while seeking railroad work.(3) He either died or moved on west. After 1850 he is no longer to be found in Ohio records. The orphaned son, Emanuel, grew up in the household of his grandparents, Samuel and Magdalena Graber. Their son, Philip Graber, a good friend of Emanuel's, married Pauline Guerne who lived in the household of his next door neighbor, Abraham and Marianne Voirol Guerne. The Guerne's were French speaking having arrived from Tavannes, Switzerland, in 1844. Emanuel continued to live with the Grabers until 1873.(4) In that year, Emanuel Matter, in Mt. Eaton, Ohio, February 13, 1873, married a granddaughter of the Guerne's, Julie Matilde Nicot.(5) She was the daughter of Felix and Marianne Guerne Nicot.(6) Their son, Edward Emanuel, was born February 16, 1874.(7) His mother, Julie Matilde Nicot Matter, died five days later, February 21, 1874.(7A) Like his own father, Emanuel was also widowed after the birth of a son. The widowed Emanuel Matter was heart broken and even though he had an infant son to care for he grieved three years before he again married. He was a carpenter with reasonable prospects, and on April 14, 1877, he married Eugenie Rudolf of Wayne County.(8) They continued to live in Paint Township. They had three sons, Charles E. born 1878, Harvey R. born 1884 and Arthur, born 1886.(9) Eugenie Matter died 1926 and Edward Emanuel died 1943. They are buried in West Lawn Cemetery, Paint Township, Mt. Eaton. (From Wayne County Burial Records.) Edward Emanuel married Emma Malinda Blosser, January 6, 1898 in Apple Creek, Wayne County, Ohio . She was born November 27, 1873, in East Union, Wayne County, Ohio. She died May 22, 1946, and is buried in Crown Hill Cemetery, Orrville, Ohio. Father: John W. Blosser. Mother: Elsie Jane Smedley, born, May 10, 1842, in Wayne County, Ohio. And so ends our sad little tale of one of the men who brought the rails to Ohio - and some of his descendants. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~  (1)We have found neither the marriage record nor the Baptismal record of his son, Emanuel, who was born in 1847. We have long suspected that Emanuel and his parents were Brethren or members of some other denomination who believed that keeping records was prideful and therefore a sin. (2)Emanuel's first wife died before the 1850 census was taken. Emanuel Matter, three years old born in Ohio is listed in the Graber household in the 1850 Census, page 102. (3)In the 1850 Census, page 452, Emanuel Mateer is a single man, reportedly unemployed, but living among railroad workmen. He reports that he was born in Pennsylvania. A discussion of these different surname spellings requires more space than is warranted here. In this example we do not think they signify different families. (4)1870 Census. Emanuel Matter, age 22, carpenter, born Switzerland, and living with the family of Phillip & Pauline Guerne Graber. - the place of birth is in error. Courtesy of Bob Strock. (5) From "Index to Wayne County Marriages" A publication of the Wayne County Genealogical Society. Courtesy of Bob Strock. (6)From Guerne records in the Wayne County, Ohio, library. Courtesy of Joy Wengerd a descendant of the Abraham Guerne family of Paint Township (7)"Birth Records from The Wayne County, Ohio Probate Court 1867-1908"by Richard Smith. A publication of the Wayne County Genealogical Society. Courtesy of Bob Strock (7A)From the St. Paul's Reformed Church, Mt. Eaton, OH records (originally written in French): "Matilde Matter, born Nicod, wife of Emanuel Matter. b. 12 Jan 1853, d. aged 21-1-9, 21 Feb. 1874."Courtesy of Joy Wengerd. (8)From "Index to Wayne County Marriages." Volume 9, page 27. A publication of the Wayne County Genealogical Society. Courtesy of Bob Strock. (9) "Birth Records from The Wayne County, Ohio Probate Court 1867-1908"by Richard Smith. A publication of the Wayne County Genealogical Society. Courtesy of Bob Strock. Note: Ray Schwartz has recently proposed that this George Matter/Motter born October 29, 1795, is the father of an entirely different line - and he may be correct.)