secured the consent of Congress, and despatched them on their mission of discovery.
In 1790 Richard Maury, son of the Reverend James Maury, married Diana Minor, daughter of Major John Minor, of Topping Castle in Caroline County, Virginia, descended from the settler who had received a grant of land in the reign of Charles II. There were nine children of this marriage; and thus the blood of Protestant England was commingled with that of Huguenot France in the veins of this Virginia family. After their marriage, Richard and Diana Minor Maury first settled in Spottsylvania County, about ten miles west of Fredericksburg. There, on January 14th, 1806, their fourth son, Matthew Fontaine Maury, was born, and was named after his two paternal great grandfathers. When little Matthew was in his fifth year, his father emigrated to Tennessee with his young family. Their worldly goods were transported in large wagons. Little Matthew, when tired of walking and cramped from riding, was frequently carried on the back of his sister Matilda.
The Maury family established themselves near Franklin, Tennessee, a village eighteen miles north of Nashville. Here young Matthew assisted his father and brothers in the labors of the farm, while his mother and sisters spun, wove, knitted, and fashioned the garments they wore. In short, the family lived the lives of early settlers in what was then a new country.
Wyoming was not wilder in 1888 than Tennessee was eighty years previous. There were no steamboats then; no railroads, no turnpikes, and no stage coaches nor stage roads in all the State. Bridle-paths and rough farm roads alone enabled the scattered settlers to meet each other. School houses were few and distant; they, as well as the meeting houses and homes, were mostly built of logs hewn from the surrounding forests. But few of the public buildings were of brick
