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     Matthew C. Cayce was born April 1, 1866 in Williamson County, Tennessee. He was the oldest child of John Madison and Virginia Irene "Jenny" Cayce.

     At the age of nineteen, the Cayce family moved from their Cayce Springs home near Franklin, to Nashville. They arrived in the city to find only four small congregations of churches of Christ. Matthew's younger brother William Bryce, became a gospel preacher and preached in the Nashville area. Over the next twenty-five years through the work of the Cayce family and number of others, congregations in Nashville grew to fifty in number.

     Matthew married Susan Thomas Smith October 28, 1891 in Madison County, Tennesssee. To this union were born six children: John Smith, born July 28, 1892; William Brice, born August 7, 1893; Ruth, born July 30, 1895; Nonie Bond, born September 4, 1896; Eldred Ambrose, born June 30, 1900; and Dana, born November 18, 1903.

     Brother Cayce became a business man for a time. However it was not long before he, like his younger brother, began preaching in the area himself. In 1910 while preaching for the Highland Avenue church a thirty-one year old man responded to the invitation requesting baptism. He then immersed Andrew Mizell Burton into Christ.

     The following year, his brother William moved his family west. Settling in San Sabo, Texas, he worked to build the church in that state the remainder of his life. Matthew, seeing the great need for evangelism in Mississippi moved to Columbus. His chief support came from A.M. Burton. Upon their arrival, they recognized that no church existed after the ancient order. Work had been done years before in Columbus, but because of the digressions of the churches years earlier, the work had all but disappeared. He began with his family to once again worship after the first century model. Later the family would move to Jackson to find similar circumstances existing there, and with the same commitment, planted the work there once again. In 1914 the work in Ridgeland, Mississippi had been planted by brother Cayce. During one service a young man responded to the invitation by the name of John Roy Vaughn. Later, he would do much work in Mississippi, also being sponsored by A.M. Burton.

     The life of M.C. Cayce came to a sudden end April 19, 1922. He was buried in the Mount Olivet Cemetery in Nashville. Only eternity knows what blessings the Cayce family provided the churches in Tennessee, Texas and Mississippi. Under that umbrella of blessing, just consider the good M.C. provided the work of the Lord through the accomplishments of his sons in the faith, A.M. Burton and J. Roy Vaughn.

The Cayce family plot is locate in the old cemetery at Mount Olivet. He lies among many of the saints who built the church in Nashville, and throughout the land. The cemetery is located at 1101 Lebanon Pike, Southeast of downtown Nashville. Click over to Mt. Olivet for map and location of the grave in the cemetery. His remains rest in Section 17. See pinpointed location on Mount Olivet map here. Section 17, Lot 25