Matthew Langford
Submitted by Mitzi P. Freeman
Newspaper: Putnam County Herald
Date: 11/21/1912
Volume: X
Number: 47
Page: 2
"Uncle Matthew" Langford, the oldest peace officer in Tennessee and in all probability in the United States died at his home in this city Sunday afternoon. He was in his eighty-fourth year. In the last August election "Uncle Matthew" led the ticket for re-election as Constable for Cookeville, or First District. He was first elected Constable of this district in 1851 and in November, 1852 -- sixty years ago -- he was the officer who held the regular election in this district in which election Franklin Pearce was elected President of the United States. He served for thirty-six yars (sic) as Constable for Deputy Sheriff and was one of the best civil officers this country has ever had. Few men in the Upper Cumberland section were more widely known and none more highly esteemed than "Uncle Matthew". For sixty-five years he had been a devoted member of the Primitive Baptist Church. He served gallantly in the Confederate army throughout the civil war and never tired of relating his experiences as a soldier. Until two months ago, when he was taken ill with a severe carbuncle on the back of his neck, he was a vigorous, both physically and mentally, as most men of sixty. His faculties were unimpaired until his last illness. He was married four times and is survived by his last wife and four grown children. He was personally acquainted with practically every man in this county and was familiarly known by everyone as "Uncle Matthew." His interment took place Monday afternoon at the Spring Creek Cemetery, ten miles north of this city, in the neighborhood in which he was reared and in the yard of the church of which he had been a member for almost seventy years.
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