The Death of Mrs. Matt Musgrove

Widow Matthew Mugrove, Mico.
Special to The Times-Democrat.
Mico, Miss., June 5. Mrs. Matt Musgrove, aged about fifty years, dropped dead a few mile south of here while preparing dinner yesterday, from heart disease. No one was expecting her death. Mrs. Musgrove was the wife of Matthew Musgrove, who was killed in Laurel five years ago by G. W. Cowley, in a street fight. She was a devoted Christian and had a multitude of friends. She was buried to-day from Sharon Church.

Mrs. Matt Musgrove was born abt 1840 in Chesterfield County, SC a daughter of Luke Rivers and Mary Selina John. She was the firstborn child to this couple and given the name Flavelia Clarilla Levinia Rivers. In the late 1850s, Luke and Mary Selina moved from Chesterfield County to Jones County, Mississippi joining his two sisters and a brother who had migrated to that area in the 1830s and 1840s.

There Flavella married John Madison “Matt” Musgrove about 1858/59. John Madison and Flavella’s uncle Mark Rivers were close associates and Flavella obviously met Matt through her Uncle Mark Rivers. It also possible she was introduced by her Aunt Millie Rivers or Milly’s husband Moses Holifield.

Matt and Flavella raise a family of 10 children before he was killed on 12 November 1887. Their youngest, another Flavella, was born 12 April 1885. The death of Matt left his widow with 10 children ranging in age from  2 to 27.

Flavella Rivers Musgrove died on 1 June 1896 in Laurel, Jones County, Mississippi and is buried in Sharon Cemetery, Sharon, Jones County, Mississippi.

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[1] The Times-Democrat, New Orleans, Louisiana, 06 Jun 1896, Sat., Page 1

[2] Find A Grave, Inc., Find A Grave, database and digital images, (http://www.findagrave.com : accessed 3 August 2020); Memorial page for Flavelia Clarilla Levinia Rivers Musgrove; (1840–1 June 1896); Find a Grave memorial # 77628528, Citing Sharon Cemetery; Sharon, Jones County, Mississippi.