A detailed obituary: [36]

Elder Mathias Mount Vancleave, well known divine of the Old School Baptist church, died Tuesday morning about 4 o'clock at his home on south Walnut street. He had been in failing health for many months, but only during tbe last few weeks had he been bedfast. The funeral occurred on Thursday morning at 10:30 o'clock at the Old School linptist church, on
south Walnut street.
…
Rev. Mathias Mount Vancleave was one of the old settlers of this section and had a life full of adventure and experience. He was born nine miles from Shelbyville, on Bull Creekt, Ky, March 26, 1810.
…
Mathias started out in life for himself upon eighty acres of land given him by his father, and then e was married. … After one year upon the farm Mr. Vancleave came out upon the prairie and entered two hundred acres near Linden, and then bought out the heirs of his father-in-law and moved upon that farm, where he continued for five years.
At this time Mathias laid out the village of Brown's Valley, in Brown township, on land that he had bought from his father. At that time John Milligan had laid out the town of Waveland, and it was decided to have a meeting to decide which the most desirable spot upon which to lay out a town. Still another man named Helminson had laid out a town, but when the vote was taken it was decided that the location of Mr. Vancleave's land was the best for the town center. This was in 1836 and that year Mathias traded the old homestead for a stock of goods at Delphi, and there he continued for one year. At that time a canal was being built there, and he secured the right to make a waterpower upon the creek north of Crawfordsville. Here he erected a frontier mill. including a carding-mill and a hominy machine, and in 1933 he secured a tract of land here and made this his home. At this place he had a fine spring, and this made it a desirable place of residence.
Here he continued for twenty-two fears, engaged in the furniture business, which he carried on with success. The mill power which contributed so much to his suceess in life was for a twenty-foot over-shot wheel and he secured the first engine that was ever erected in Crawfordsville. For six years he lived upon a farm in Fredericksburg, but in 1865 be returned to this city and lived here until his death. In 1832 he was licensed to preach and dilled the Union church at Waveland, Swentsburg, Indian Creek and Crawfordsville, and was ordained in 1850 as a minister in the Baptist church. His ministrations were always welcome, as he was a good and able expounder,and he never asked a cent of pay.
In his political opinions, he was formerly a Whig, but of late years voted with the Democratic party. …
The first couple married by Elder Vancleave was in 1847, when he united Thomas Doyle and Mary Davis. He performed about eight bundred marriage services, many more than any one else in the county and probably in the State.


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A long obituary shared in [39]:
*** "The Gospel Messenger", Vol. 20, No. 1, Williamston, N.C.,
*** January, 1898
Elder Matthias Mount Vancleave
Dear Brother Hassell:--With Grief and sorrow, mingled, I trust, with resignation to God's holy will, I write you of the death of our precious, venerable brother, Elder M. M. Vancleave, of this place. This dear servant of God and friend of man fell asleep to awaken no more on earth at 4 a.m., October 26th. He died full of years and full of the marks of the blessed Lord Jesus, and with stricken, sorrowing hearts he was tenderly consigned to earth's last resting place, the quiet tomb. His friends are not to be counted. Had the community been asked to select its most affectionate, kindest-hearted man, its most faithful and devoted believer in God, "Uncle Mattie Vancleave" would have been the choice. He was known far and wide and a vast multitude was present at the funeral service. O! it is well to mark the career of such a man. His life was a blessing, his end was peace. Not a murmuring word or impatient look was manifested during his long illness. As he lived so he died, a spectacle of faith, and trust, and resignation, and mingled with our tears is the hope, yes, the sweet assurance, of his eternal joy. He died so peacefully and calmly that his last breath was scarcely known. He lived beyond life's usual limit, being within one month of eighty-seven years, so it was fulfilled to him that he should come to his grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn cometh in his season. Yes, in his season, these closing October days, when the leaves were falling to the earth, the flowers fading, and when, too, the ripened fruit was being gathered for the Master's use. He fought the good fight, he kept the faith, he ran with patience the race God gave him; but the race is ended, the silver cord is loosened, the golden bowl broken, the pitcher broken at the fountain, but thanks be to Israel's God, the spirit has returned to Him who gave it. The Lord has taken His own, and we must be still and know that He is God.
Elder Vancleave was born in Shelby county, Ky., November 26th, 1810. He came with his parents to this county, then almost a wilderness, in 1824, and so has given the community the proof of a long life that he was a good man. He joined Union church in 1828, and was ordained to the ministry nearly fifty years ago, and continued a faithful and devoted minister of the Gospel through life. As a nurse cherisheth her children, so did he live and labor and pray for the welfare of Zion. Each sorrowing member of our little church may say with David as he mourned for Jonathan, "Very pleasant hast thou been unto me; thy love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women."
Elder Vancleave was three times married during his long life, the first occurring at the age of twenty. His last marriage was in 1865 to Mrs. Mary Walker, who was also a devoted member of the church and who testified her affection for our departed brother by the most untiring and tender care, and who, with six affectionate sons and daughters, mourn the loss of their best earthly friend.
Elder Oliphant preached to us from the consoling words: "Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from henceforth; yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors and their works do follow them."
More than once as the weary hours of his sickness went by, brother Vancleave, when asked if he wanted anything, would say, "I want rest." So it was sweet to contemplate that to the weary, patient sufferer the everlasting rest had come. We mourn, and yet we rejoice.
Sister Vancleave says that the world is very dark to her. Every wakeful moment is one of sorrow. She finds nothing short of her trust in God, nothing below heaven that can give relief. May He that comforteth those that are cast down, be near each widowed heart and quiet each mourning soul.
It was a strange coincidence that brother Vancleave should, in the same month with your sainted mother, enter that undiscovered country that was so long the hope and joy of their hearts. We think of them--of dear brother Respess--of the men and women of God who are being gathered home to an eternal rest--as making heaven desirable to us. Dear saints of God, who mourn for what death has done, has not Jesus said, "Let not your hearts be troubled"? Death, after all, is not our enemy. By it we lay up our treasures where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves cannot steal, and where, in God's own time, we shall find them again clothed in immortality and unfading glory! Remember the mighty decree: "I will say to the north, give up; and to the south, keep not back; bring My sons from far, and My daughters from the ends of the earth." All these--the blest warrior, the mother in Israel, the feeblest lamb of the fold--are with Him in paradise, and their sleeping dust shall meet the coming Lord when God's last trumpet sounds; for them that sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. "Mark the perfect man and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."
With sorrowing heart, ever your brother, S. B. Luckett
Crawfordsville, Ind., Nov. 2, 1897

MPW: 06.10.25, after a quick search, I have not been able to find a well-documented connection between Matthias Mount Vancleave and his alleged grandfather, Benjamin Vancleave. This does not mean that Benjamin was definitley not Matthias Mount’s grandfather, just that more research needs to be done to confirm this hypothesis.