Oral History with Sylvester Matthews regarding Rosedale Negro Church History

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Rosedale Negro Church Histories
Sylvester Matthews
Tape 1 of 2 November 13, 1975 By. Rush Miller & Sammy Cranford
This is an interview with Sylvester Matthews of Rosedale. The interviewers are Rush
Miller and Sammy Cranford on Thursday November 13, 1975.
Interviewer: Duncan Clerk and Builder. The trustees were John Von Nelson Greene, Frank
Edwards, Lij Mason and Louis Robinson.
SM: If I had dreamed of all this I’d been better fixed up than what I am but I didn’t think this
was coming.
Interviewer: How old are you Ethel Mae?
SM: 88
Interviewer: 88
SM: But then don’t remember anything. When I was a child going to school growing up I
suppose I was in and out. I was curiosity stricken. I wanted to know when and why and about
the things and everything. I talked so about slavery with my mother and father. See my mother
and father were slaves.
Interviewer: Where were they here in this area or…?
SM: Well just cross the river here but it’s connected to this. See my mother lived right across
there as a child. But see Rosedale has always been our hometown. See my father came from
over there, which was called Floreyville in the early years. It was just a colony. It belonged to
the Yankees. And so when a number of people ran off and came there during slavery. You see
when they got to get there they were freed. My father was released came down 1969. It was a
colony of 450 families and then you know they had large families then. All colors as it is now. It
was close connected with this town Floreyville, the town over here ( unable to understand). I
don’t have no idea how long but it was in the early years.