[SUBMITTED PHOTO]This spoon saved the life of John W. Matheny. Shown with it is his Confederate discharge paper. According to family lore, Matheny found the spoon on the Winchester battlefield and stuck it in his left breast pocket. While the battle raged around him, a Yankee pumpkin ball hit him in the chest bending the lip of the spoon and sending the musket ball into his arm. He lost his arm from the resulting wound. He went on to become Botetourt’s Commissioner of the Revenue from 1875-1883 and Clerk of the Circuit Court from 1888-1908. Matheny’s descendants, Jim Keyser Sr. and Jr., donated these artifacts in 2007. There is more information displayed upstairs in the free Botetourt County Historical Museum in Fincastle.
