John Twigs -
Alternate Surname: Twiggs
Parents were Henry Twiggs (1791–1860) & Ellender "Nelly" Twiggs (1807–1878).
THE TWIGGS FAMILY OF BURKE AND MITCHELL COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA AND CARTER COUNTY, TENNESSEE
"John Twiggs, the first member of the Twiggs family to live in Mitchell County, was a farmer whose life changed greatly during the Civil War. The war separated him from his wife and children and led him to move the family from North Carolina to Tennessee after the surrender. It also separated him from his brother William who fought for the Confederacy. Injuries sustained during the war hurt his health and caused a long battle with the federal government over pension benefits. Twenty years after the war John returned to North Carolina and settled in Mitchell County, leaving his older children married and established in Tennessee. He finally won the government’s recognition of his war-related disability after a special board of inquiry; but upon his death in 1898 his second wife was unable to establish her eligibility for a widow’s pension.
John’s injuries and subsequent battle with the federal government - surely a major irritant in his life - was a boon for his descendants because it built up a thick file of depositions and other documents now residing in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. That file, plus U.S. census records from 1840 to 1910, is the source for all the information we have about him.
According to John’s enlistment papers he was born in Rutherford County, N.C. in 1825 or 1826. His first enumeration in the U.S. census is in 1850 in the family of Henry and Ellender (Nelly) Twiggs, residing in “Burke County on the south side of the Catawba River and west side of the North Fork.” John was twenty-four years old and unmarried at the time. The Henry Twiggs household was also listed in Burke County ten years earlier in the 1840 census, but that census only showed the number, sex and approximate ages of the family members - it did not record their names. However the approximate ages of the male children in the 1840 household match the expected ages for John and his known brother, William. This is strong evidence that John and William were also part of this household when they were teenagers and that therefore, a parental relationship existed with Henry and Nelly Twiggs. In addition the pension file proves that Mary Twiggs, who lived in the same household in 1850, and was 16 years old at the time, was John’s sister.
In 1850 the household consisted of Henry Twiggs (born about 1790), Ellender (1807), John (1826), Timothy (1829), Mary (1834), Jane (1839) and Amanda (1843), all of whom were born in North Carolina. William Twiggs (born about 1825), who is clearly shown by the pension file to be John’s brother, lived nearby in Burke County with his wife, the former Elizabeth Garrison. Eventually two other children were born to Henry and Ellender; they were Asbury (1855) and Ellen (1860). It is possible that Nelly was Henry’s second wife because N.C. marriage records show that a Henry Twigs married a Mary Mauney on 23 December 1815 in Lincoln Co., which is right next door to Burke Co. This marriage record plus the difference in age between Henry and Nelly (she was 17 years younger) seem to support the theory of a second marriage. There is no mention of Henry and Nelly’s marriage bonds in N.C. records.
Around 1853 or 1854 John married Jane Brown and settled down “6 or 7 miles N.E. of Morganton, Burke Co., N.C.” Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Jane gave birth to three sons and a daughter in North Carolina. After the war, two more sons and another daughter were added to the family. The children were Daniel (1855), Timothy (1857), Jason (1859), Mary (1861), Henry (1866), Sarah Elizabeth (1868) and Elkanah (1870).
When the war started in April 1861, John and William managed to stay out of the Army for several years. Although the Confederacy adopted conscription in April 1862, John (then 37 years old) and William (38 years) were exempted from the draft because it only applied to white males between 18 and 35 years of age.
Conscription was deeply resented in the mountains of North Carolina which had already sent most of its younger men off to war. In 1863 the South adopted two more laws that deepened the antipathy of the mountain people. The first required farmers to give one tenth of all their produce as a tithe to the Confederate authorities. The second permitted the Confederate Army to impress livestock, slaves, provisions, and wagons for its use at prices set by the Army. To the mountaineers, these two laws made the conflict a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” By the end of 1863 the mountains of North Carolina were infested with bands of Confederate deserters, draft dodgers, and small groups of Union loyalists.
John remained in North Carolina until November 1863 when he left his family in Burke County and travelled to Carter County, Tennessee. It’s not certain why John went to Tennessee, but Union forces had established control over eastern Tennessee and it’s probable he planned to join the Union Army. On November 9, 1863 he enlisted as a private in Company “G” of the 13th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry. He signed up at Crab Orchard, Tennessee and received a $25 bounty for enlisting. At the time he was thirty-eight years old, stood five feet, six inches tall and had blue eyes, black hair and a light complexion.
Although the 13th Tennessee Cavalry began organizing in the fall of 1863, it was not mustered into the Union Army until April 13, 1864 at Nashville. In the meantime it appears John spent at least part of that winter with the family of James Julian on Heaton Creek near Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Mr. Julian’s son, Henry, also served in the 13th Regiment. There is no evidence John knew the Julian family before the war.
The 13th Regiment tasted its first action in late August 1864 at Rogersville, Tennessee where it killed thirty-six and captured fifty-nine Confederate soldiers. Its most notable successes came on September 3rd and 4th, 1864 at Park’s Gap near Greenville, Tennessee where it surprised and killed General John Hunt Morgan (the famous Confederate cavalry raider). The 13th also fought at Panther Springs and Bulls Gap, Tennessee and led the charge against Confederate breastworks at Saltville, Virginia on December 20, 1864. The unit’s final exploit of the war was participation in an expedition toward Asheville, North Carolina in an attempt to capture Jefferson Davis.
It’s not known how many of these actions John saw, but it’s certain he was with the unit the night it marched from Bulls Gap to Greenville in pursuit of General Morgan, for on that night occurred the accident on which John was to base his subsequent claims for disability. Here is how he told the story to the government thirty years later:
“The night before General John Morgan was killed my regiment started on a raid from Bulls Gap, Tenn to Greenville, Tenn. I think it was in the fall of the year 1864. I remember Gordon grapes were ripe. My company left about night on the march and that night was very dark and cloudy, and it was lightning, and about Warrensboro my horse stumbled and fell and pitched me off before him in what I thought to be a gully. I could not see and could only feel my way. It scared me so badly that I could not tell whether I hurt my side on horn of saddle or whether the horse struck me in side with his hoof. I scrambled back on to my horse without any help and went on with my company to Greenville that night, reaching that point next morning about day.”
According to John the accident resulted in permanent damage to his left side and limited his working ability from then on.
He also contracted diarrhea in the army and in May of 1865 spent a month in the Union Army hospital at Knoxville, Tennessee nursing his ailments. Severe diarrhea was a common complaint among soldiers on both sides during the war. It was caused by the unsanitary conditions of camp life and by the forced reliance on water of doubtful purity.
While John was in the hospital the Civil War ended. His unit was mustered out of the Army in September 1865 and John immediately returned to his family near Morganton, N.C. There he was reunited with his brother William Twiggs who had served in the Confederate forces, Company D, 6th North Carolina Infantry. William joined the unit on October 6, 1865 and was with it on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House when it was surrendered by General Lee.
John did not remain in Morganton, N.C., but returned to Heaton Creek in Carter County, Tennessee in April 1866. His family joined him at Heaton Creek by the end of 1866 after the birth of his son Henry. The family stayed at Heaton Creek for almost twenty years, where John apparently worked for James Julian. He lived in the “Gregg House”, and for twelve or thirteen years on the property of Mr. N.D. Shell, a merchant in Carter County.
In Tennessee, Jane Twiggs gave birth to Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1868) who died somewhere between 1870 and 1880. Her last child, a son named Elkanah, was also born in Tennessee on June 12, 1870. He was known in later life as Cain Twiggs.
Jane Twiggs died on July 26, 1879 at Heaton Creek. She was forty-five years old, had borne seven children and lived through the worst war yet fought in North America. The war claimed her husband for two years and left her with the children. Afterwards her family was uprooted from Morganton, N.C. to the mountains of Tennessee where she continued to hold them together. It’s unfortunate we know so little about her life.
John Twiggs began his long battle with the U.S. Government in March of 1879 by filing his first compensation claim for injuries sustained in the war. This claim was not settled until 1891, twelve years later. He subsequently won retroactive payments back to 1865, after a special inquiry in 1896 accepted his claim that his chronic diarrhea was service-connected. The special inquiry took depositions from former military comrades, from neighbors in North Carolina and Tennessee, from relatives, and from several doctors. One doctor declared that John had “the worst case of diarrhea that I ever saw.”
Also in 1879 he remarried. His second wife’s maiden name was Catherine Woods. She’d been born in 1830 in North Carolina and was previously married to Henry Miller who, according to Catherine, had been conscripted into the Confederate forces on 26 August 1864 and died in service on 10 October 1864. Catherine was also known as Kate or Katie.
In 1883 an event occurred that must have had a major effect on John and his family. He was charged with murder and jailed in Rutherford County, N.C. The alleged crime probably took place around 10 November 1883 when he was jailed. The first trial took place on 3 December 1883 but the jury could not reach a verdict. On 2 June 1884 a second jury acquitted John of the crime. A courthouse fire in 1907 burned the records of these trials. Nothing is known now about the details of the case.
In 1885, shortly after this event, John and Catherine moved from Carter County, Tennessee to Mitchell County, N.C. The reason for the move is unknown, but we do know that John’s older children remained in Tennessee. Only Elkanah (Cain) and Henry, who were fifteen years and nineteen years old, respectively, appear to have gone with their parents. Eventually his son Timothy also moved to Mitchell County. The family resided near Bakersville where John farmed some land.
When John died on 20 August 1898 in Bakersville, N.C., Catherine claimed a widow’s pension but it was denied because she was unable to prove that her first husband, Henry Miller, was dead. Her only property upon John’s death was a “dower interest in a tract of hilly land containing about 100 acres.” She returned to Heaton Creek and lived out her days with Elijah and Isabelle Macaster. It appears Isabelle may have been her daughter by Catherine’s previous marriage with Henry Miller, but this is not certain. Catherine died sometime after June 1900, probably in Carter County near Roan Mountain, Tennessee.
At a minimum, John was survived by his brother William and his sister Amanda. In 1900 William still lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his nephew Henry Garrison. His sister Amanda, who married Solomon A. Icehower on 15 August 1867 in Burke Co. N.C., resided in 1900 with her husband in Carter Co., Tenn.
The whereabouts of John’s remaining brothers and sisters in 1900 is unknown. His brother Timothy is last known to have resided in 1870 in Carter Co, Tenn, with his wife Elizabeth; he may have died there before 1880, or he may have moved elsewhere. Mary married Thomas McNeeley and is last seen in the census of 1880 residing in Burke Co., N.C. Sister Jane is not seen after the 1850 census; she either married or died before 1860. Asbury lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his sister Mary in 1870, but disappears from North Carolina census records thereafter. Ellen, the baby of the family, is only found in the 1860 census when she was 6 months old; she may have died in Burke Co., N.C. before 1870.
John’s parents--Henry and Ellender--are last seen in 1860 in Burke Co., N.C.; they probably died there before 1870.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ABOUT JOHN TWIGGS
From a genealogical viewpoint, the most important questions to be answered about John Twiggs are: Who were his grandparents, where did they come from, and what was their relationship to the other branches of the Twiggs family in America in 1790? From a human interest viewpoint, the circumstances of John's murder trials are the most fascinating. Answers to each of these questions will require more research, and interested members of the Twiggs family are invited to help.
A possible candidate for John’s grandfather is the Timothy Twiggs who lived in Rutherford Co., N.C. from at least 1793 to 1810. He married Joicy Wilass on 8 April 1793, and his household appears in Rutherford County in the 1800 and 1810 census. Timothy appears to have had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Marriage records for Burke and Lincoln counties suggest that three of those four sons may have been Henry, William, and David. Two women, Cary and Joyse Twigs, are likely candidates for two of Timothy’s three daughters. These girls married John H. Mashburn and Elisha Masborn (probably brothers) in Burke Co. in 1821. A search of Rutherford Co.’s courthouse records has turned up nothing about the family of Timothy Twigs. The next step needed is a search of courthouse records, especially property transactions, in Burke and Lincoln counties. Another important source of information could be cemetery and church records in Rutherford, Burke, and Lincoln counties. If this also turns up nothing, then our research must concentrate on discovering other people researching the Twiggs family who may be able to supply the missing data.
Answers to the important questions about John Twiggs’ murder trial must be sought in local newspapers from November 1883 to June 1884, because a courthouse fire in 1907 destroyed the official records. The story may have been covered in both North Carolina and Tennessee newspapers. Therefore, our research should concentrate on both States with particular attention paid to papers covering local news in Rutherford Co., N.C. and Carter Co., Tenn."
(TUCKERALV originally shared the following on 30 Apr 2012)
Alternate Surname: Twiggs
Parents were Henry Twiggs (1791–1860) & Ellender "Nelly" Twiggs (1807–1878).
THE TWIGGS FAMILY OF BURKE AND MITCHELL COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA AND CARTER COUNTY, TENNESSEE
"John Twiggs, the first member of the Twiggs family to live in Mitchell County, was a farmer whose life changed greatly during the Civil War. The war separated him from his wife and children and led him to move the family from North Carolina to Tennessee after the surrender. It also separated him from his brother William who fought for the Confederacy. Injuries sustained during the war hurt his health and caused a long battle with the federal government over pension benefits. Twenty years after the war John returned to North Carolina and settled in Mitchell County, leaving his older children married and established in Tennessee. He finally won the government’s recognition of his war-related disability after a special board of inquiry; but upon his death in 1898 his second wife was unable to establish her eligibility for a widow’s pension.
John’s injuries and subsequent battle with the federal government - surely a major irritant in his life - was a boon for his descendants because it built up a thick file of depositions and other documents now residing in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. That file, plus U.S. census records from 1840 to 1910, is the source for all the information we have about him.
According to John’s enlistment papers he was born in Rutherford County, N.C. in 1825 or 1826. His first enumeration in the U.S. census is in 1850 in the family of Henry and Ellender (Nelly) Twiggs, residing in “Burke County on the south side of the Catawba River and west side of the North Fork.” John was twenty-four years old and unmarried at the time. The Henry Twiggs household was also listed in Burke County ten years earlier in the 1840 census, but that census only showed the number, sex and approximate ages of the family members - it did not record their names. However the approximate ages of the male children in the 1840 household match the expected ages for John and his known brother, William. This is strong evidence that John and William were also part of this household when they were teenagers and that therefore, a parental relationship existed with Henry and Nelly Twiggs. In addition the pension file proves that Mary Twiggs, who lived in the same household in 1850, and was 16 years old at the time, was John’s sister.
In 1850 the household consisted of Henry Twiggs (born about 1790), Ellender (1807), John (1826), Timothy (1829), Mary (1834), Jane (1839) and Amanda (1843), all of whom were born in North Carolina. William Twiggs (born about 1825), who is clearly shown by the pension file to be John’s brother, lived nearby in Burke County with his wife, the former Elizabeth Garrison. Eventually two other children were born to Henry and Ellender; they were Asbury (1855) and Ellen (1860). It is possible that Nelly was Henry’s second wife because N.C. marriage records show that a Henry Twigs married a Mary Mauney on 23 December 1815 in Lincoln Co., which is right next door to Burke Co. This marriage record plus the difference in age between Henry and Nelly (she was 17 years younger) seem to support the theory of a second marriage. There is no mention of Henry and Nelly’s marriage bonds in N.C. records.
Around 1853 or 1854 John married Jane Brown and settled down “6 or 7 miles N.E. of Morganton, Burke Co., N.C.” Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Jane gave birth to three sons and a daughter in North Carolina. After the war, two more sons and another daughter were added to the family. The children were Daniel (1855), Timothy (1857), Jason (1859), Mary (1861), Henry (1866), Sarah Elizabeth (1868) and Elkanah (1870).
When the war started in April 1861, John and William managed to stay out of the Army for several years. Although the Confederacy adopted conscription in April 1862, John (then 37 years old) and William (38 years) were exempted from the draft because it only applied to white males between 18 and 35 years of age.
Conscription was deeply resented in the mountains of North Carolina which had already sent most of its younger men off to war. In 1863 the South adopted two more laws that deepened the antipathy of the mountain people. The first required farmers to give one tenth of all their produce as a tithe to the Confederate authorities. The second permitted the Confederate Army to impress livestock, slaves, provisions, and wagons for its use at prices set by the Army. To the mountaineers, these two laws made the conflict a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” By the end of 1863 the mountains of North Carolina were infested with bands of Confederate deserters, draft dodgers, and small groups of Union loyalists.
John remained in North Carolina until November 1863 when he left his family in Burke County and travelled to Carter County, Tennessee. It’s not certain why John went to Tennessee, but Union forces had established control over eastern Tennessee and it’s probable he planned to join the Union Army. On November 9, 1863 he enlisted as a private in Company “G” of the 13th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry. He signed up at Crab Orchard, Tennessee and received a $25 bounty for enlisting. At the time he was thirty-eight years old, stood five feet, six inches tall and had blue eyes, black hair and a light complexion.
Although the 13th Tennessee Cavalry began organizing in the fall of 1863, it was not mustered into the Union Army until April 13, 1864 at Nashville. In the meantime it appears John spent at least part of that winter with the family of James Julian on Heaton Creek near Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Mr. Julian’s son, Henry, also served in the 13th Regiment. There is no evidence John knew the Julian family before the war.
The 13th Regiment tasted its first action in late August 1864 at Rogersville, Tennessee where it killed thirty-six and captured fifty-nine Confederate soldiers. Its most notable successes came on September 3rd and 4th, 1864 at Park’s Gap near Greenville, Tennessee where it surprised and killed General John Hunt Morgan (the famous Confederate cavalry raider). The 13th also fought at Panther Springs and Bulls Gap, Tennessee and led the charge against Confederate breastworks at Saltville, Virginia on December 20, 1864. The unit’s final exploit of the war was participation in an expedition toward Asheville, North Carolina in an attempt to capture Jefferson Davis.
It’s not known how many of these actions John saw, but it’s certain he was with the unit the night it marched from Bulls Gap to Greenville in pursuit of General Morgan, for on that night occurred the accident on which John was to base his subsequent claims for disability. Here is how he told the story to the government thirty years later:
“The night before General John Morgan was killed my regiment started on a raid from Bulls Gap, Tenn to Greenville, Tenn. I think it was in the fall of the year 1864. I remember Gordon grapes were ripe. My company left about night on the march and that night was very dark and cloudy, and it was lightning, and about Warrensboro my horse stumbled and fell and pitched me off before him in what I thought to be a gully. I could not see and could only feel my way. It scared me so badly that I could not tell whether I hurt my side on horn of saddle or whether the horse struck me in side with his hoof. I scrambled back on to my horse without any help and went on with my company to Greenville that night, reaching that point next morning about day.”
According to John the accident resulted in permanent damage to his left side and limited his working ability from then on.
He also contracted diarrhea in the army and in May of 1865 spent a month in the Union Army hospital at Knoxville, Tennessee nursing his ailments. Severe diarrhea was a common complaint among soldiers on both sides during the war. It was caused by the unsanitary conditions of camp life and by the forced reliance on water of doubtful purity.
While John was in the hospital the Civil War ended. His unit was mustered out of the Army in September 1865 and John immediately returned to his family near Morganton, N.C. There he was reunited with his brother William Twiggs who had served in the Confederate forces, Company D, 6th North Carolina Infantry. William joined the unit on October 6, 1865 and was with it on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House when it was surrendered by General Lee.
John did not remain in Morganton, N.C., but returned to Heaton Creek in Carter County, Tennessee in April 1866. His family joined him at Heaton Creek by the end of 1866 after the birth of his son Henry. The family stayed at Heaton Creek for almost twenty years, where John apparently worked for James Julian. He lived in the “Gregg House”, and for twelve or thirteen years on the property of Mr. N.D. Shell, a merchant in Carter County.
In Tennessee, Jane Twiggs gave birth to Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1868) who died somewhere between 1870 and 1880. Her last child, a son named Elkanah, was also born in Tennessee on June 12, 1870. He was known in later life as Cain Twiggs.
Jane Twiggs died on July 26, 1879 at Heaton Creek. She was forty-five years old, had borne seven children and lived through the worst war yet fought in North America. The war claimed her husband for two years and left her with the children. Afterwards her family was uprooted from Morganton, N.C. to the mountains of Tennessee where she continued to hold them together. It’s unfortunate we know so little about her life.
John Twiggs began his long battle with the U.S. Government in March of 1879 by filing his first compensation claim for injuries sustained in the war. This claim was not settled until 1891, twelve years later. He subsequently won retroactive payments back to 1865, after a special inquiry in 1896 accepted his claim that his chronic diarrhea was service-connected. The special inquiry took depositions from former military comrades, from neighbors in North Carolina and Tennessee, from relatives, and from several doctors. One doctor declared that John had “the worst case of diarrhea that I ever saw.”
Also in 1879 he remarried. His second wife’s maiden name was Catherine Woods. She’d been born in 1830 in North Carolina and was previously married to Henry Miller who, according to Catherine, had been conscripted into the Confederate forces on 26 August 1864 and died in service on 10 October 1864. Catherine was also known as Kate or Katie.
In 1883 an event occurred that must have had a major effect on John and his family. He was charged with murder and jailed in Rutherford County, N.C. The alleged crime probably took place around 10 November 1883 when he was jailed. The first trial took place on 3 December 1883 but the jury could not reach a verdict. On 2 June 1884 a second jury acquitted John of the crime. A courthouse fire in 1907 burned the records of these trials. Nothing is known now about the details of the case.
In 1885, shortly after this event, John and Catherine moved from Carter County, Tennessee to Mitchell County, N.C. The reason for the move is unknown, but we do know that John’s older children remained in Tennessee. Only Elkanah (Cain) and Henry, who were fifteen years and nineteen years old, respectively, appear to have gone with their parents. Eventually his son Timothy also moved to Mitchell County. The family resided near Bakersville where John farmed some land.
When John died on 20 August 1898 in Bakersville, N.C., Catherine claimed a widow’s pension but it was denied because she was unable to prove that her first husband, Henry Miller, was dead. Her only property upon John’s death was a “dower interest in a tract of hilly land containing about 100 acres.” She returned to Heaton Creek and lived out her days with Elijah and Isabelle Macaster. It appears Isabelle may have been her daughter by Catherine’s previous marriage with Henry Miller, but this is not certain. Catherine died sometime after June 1900, probably in Carter County near Roan Mountain, Tennessee.
At a minimum, John was survived by his brother William and his sister Amanda. In 1900 William still lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his nephew Henry Garrison. His sister Amanda, who married Solomon A. Icehower on 15 August 1867 in Burke Co. N.C., resided in 1900 with her husband in Carter Co., Tenn.
The whereabouts of John’s remaining brothers and sisters in 1900 is unknown. His brother Timothy is last known to have resided in 1870 in Carter Co, Tenn, with his wife Elizabeth; he may have died there before 1880, or he may have moved elsewhere. Mary married Thomas McNeeley and is last seen in the census of 1880 residing in Burke Co., N.C. Sister Jane is not seen after the 1850 census; she either married or died before 1860. Asbury lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his sister Mary in 1870, but disappears from North Carolina census records thereafter. Ellen, the baby of the family, is only found in the 1860 census when she was 6 months old; she may have died in Burke Co., N.C. before 1870.
John’s parents--Henry and Ellender--are last seen in 1860 in Burke Co., N.C.; they probably died there before 1870.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ABOUT JOHN TWIGGS
From a genealogical viewpoint, the most important questions to be answered about John Twiggs are: Who were his grandparents, where did they come from, and what was their relationship to the other branches of the Twiggs family in America in 1790? From a human interest viewpoint, the circumstances of John's murder trials are the most fascinating. Answers to each of these questions will require more research, and interested members of the Twiggs family are invited to help.
A possible candidate for John’s grandfather is the Timothy Twiggs who lived in Rutherford Co., N.C. from at least 1793 to 1810. He married Joicy Wilass on 8 April 1793, and his household appears in Rutherford County in the 1800 and 1810 census. Timothy appears to have had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Marriage records for Burke and Lincoln counties suggest that three of those four sons may have been Henry, William, and David. Two women, Cary and Joyse Twigs, are likely candidates for two of Timothy’s three daughters. These girls married John H. Mashburn and Elisha Masborn (probably brothers) in Burke Co. in 1821. A search of Rutherford Co.’s courthouse records has turned up nothing about the family of Timothy Twigs. The next step needed is a search of courthouse records, especially property transactions, in Burke and Lincoln counties. Another important source of information could be cemetery and church records in Rutherford, Burke, and Lincoln counties. If this also turns up nothing, then our research must concentrate on discovering other people researching the Twiggs family who may be able to supply the missing data.
Answers to the important questions about John Twiggs’ murder trial must be sought in local newspapers from November 1883 to June 1884, because a courthouse fire in 1907 destroyed the official records. The story may have been covered in both North Carolina and Tennessee newspapers. Therefore, our research should concentrate on both States with particular attention paid to papers covering local news in Rutherford Co., N.C. and Carter Co., Tenn."
(TUCKERALV originally shared the following on 30 Apr 2012)
John Twigs -
Alternate Surname: Twiggs
Parents were Henry Twiggs (1791–1860) & Ellender "Nelly" Twiggs (1807–1878).
THE TWIGGS FAMILY OF BURKE AND MITCHELL COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA AND CARTER COUNTY, TENNESSEE
"John Twiggs, the first member of the Twiggs family to live in Mitchell County, was a farmer whose life changed greatly during the Civil War. The war separated him from his wife and children and led him to move the family from North Carolina to Tennessee after the surrender. It also separated him from his brother William who fought for the Confederacy. Injuries sustained during the war hurt his health and caused a long battle with the federal government over pension benefits. Twenty years after the war John returned to North Carolina and settled in Mitchell County, leaving his older children married and established in Tennessee. He finally won the government’s recognition of his war-related disability after a special board of inquiry; but upon his death in 1898 his second wife was unable to establish her eligibility for a widow’s pension.
John’s injuries and subsequent battle with the federal government - surely a major irritant in his life - was a boon for his descendants because it built up a thick file of depositions and other documents now residing in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. That file, plus U.S. census records from 1840 to 1910, is the source for all the information we have about him.
According to John’s enlistment papers he was born in Rutherford County, N.C. in 1825 or 1826. His first enumeration in the U.S. census is in 1850 in the family of Henry and Ellender (Nelly) Twiggs, residing in “Burke County on the south side of the Catawba River and west side of the North Fork.” John was twenty-four years old and unmarried at the time. The Henry Twiggs household was also listed in Burke County ten years earlier in the 1840 census, but that census only showed the number, sex and approximate ages of the family members - it did not record their names. However the approximate ages of the male children in the 1840 household match the expected ages for John and his known brother, William. This is strong evidence that John and William were also part of this household when they were teenagers and that therefore, a parental relationship existed with Henry and Nelly Twiggs. In addition the pension file proves that Mary Twiggs, who lived in the same household in 1850, and was 16 years old at the time, was John’s sister.
In 1850 the household consisted of Henry Twiggs (born about 1790), Ellender (1807), John (1826), Timothy (1829), Mary (1834), Jane (1839) and Amanda (1843), all of whom were born in North Carolina. William Twiggs (born about 1825), who is clearly shown by the pension file to be John’s brother, lived nearby in Burke County with his wife, the former Elizabeth Garrison. Eventually two other children were born to Henry and Ellender; they were Asbury (1855) and Ellen (1860). It is possible that Nelly was Henry’s second wife because N.C. marriage records show that a Henry Twigs married a Mary Mauney on 23 December 1815 in Lincoln Co., which is right next door to Burke Co. This marriage record plus the difference in age between Henry and Nelly (she was 17 years younger) seem to support the theory of a second marriage. There is no mention of Henry and Nelly’s marriage bonds in N.C. records.
Around 1853 or 1854 John married Jane Brown and settled down “6 or 7 miles N.E. of Morganton, Burke Co., N.C.” Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Jane gave birth to three sons and a daughter in North Carolina. After the war, two more sons and another daughter were added to the family. The children were Daniel (1855), Timothy (1857), Jason (1859), Mary (1861), Henry (1866), Sarah Elizabeth (1868) and Elkanah (1870).
When the war started in April 1861, John and William managed to stay out of the Army for several years. Although the Confederacy adopted conscription in April 1862, John (then 37 years old) and William (38 years) were exempted from the draft because it only applied to white males between 18 and 35 years of age.
Conscription was deeply resented in the mountains of North Carolina which had already sent most of its younger men off to war. In 1863 the South adopted two more laws that deepened the antipathy of the mountain people. The first required farmers to give one tenth of all their produce as a tithe to the Confederate authorities. The second permitted the Confederate Army to impress livestock, slaves, provisions, and wagons for its use at prices set by the Army. To the mountaineers, these two laws made the conflict a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” By the end of 1863 the mountains of North Carolina were infested with bands of Confederate deserters, draft dodgers, and small groups of Union loyalists.
John remained in North Carolina until November 1863 when he left his family in Burke County and travelled to Carter County, Tennessee. It’s not certain why John went to Tennessee, but Union forces had established control over eastern Tennessee and it’s probable he planned to join the Union Army. On November 9, 1863 he enlisted as a private in Company “G” of the 13th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry. He signed up at Crab Orchard, Tennessee and received a $25 bounty for enlisting. At the time he was thirty-eight years old, stood five feet, six inches tall and had blue eyes, black hair and a light complexion.
Although the 13th Tennessee Cavalry began organizing in the fall of 1863, it was not mustered into the Union Army until April 13, 1864 at Nashville. In the meantime it appears John spent at least part of that winter with the family of James Julian on Heaton Creek near Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Mr. Julian’s son, Henry, also served in the 13th Regiment. There is no evidence John knew the Julian family before the war.
The 13th Regiment tasted its first action in late August 1864 at Rogersville, Tennessee where it killed thirty-six and captured fifty-nine Confederate soldiers. Its most notable successes came on September 3rd and 4th, 1864 at Park’s Gap near Greenville, Tennessee where it surprised and killed General John Hunt Morgan (the famous Confederate cavalry raider). The 13th also fought at Panther Springs and Bulls Gap, Tennessee and led the charge against Confederate breastworks at Saltville, Virginia on December 20, 1864. The unit’s final exploit of the war was participation in an expedition toward Asheville, North Carolina in an attempt to capture Jefferson Davis.
It’s not known how many of these actions John saw, but it’s certain he was with the unit the night it marched from Bulls Gap to Greenville in pursuit of General Morgan, for on that night occurred the accident on which John was to base his subsequent claims for disability. Here is how he told the story to the government thirty years later:
“The night before General John Morgan was killed my regiment started on a raid from Bulls Gap, Tenn to Greenville, Tenn. I think it was in the fall of the year 1864. I remember Gordon grapes were ripe. My company left about night on the march and that night was very dark and cloudy, and it was lightning, and about Warrensboro my horse stumbled and fell and pitched me off before him in what I thought to be a gully. I could not see and could only feel my way. It scared me so badly that I could not tell whether I hurt my side on horn of saddle or whether the horse struck me in side with his hoof. I scrambled back on to my horse without any help and went on with my company to Greenville that night, reaching that point next morning about day.”
According to John the accident resulted in permanent damage to his left side and limited his working ability from then on.
He also contracted diarrhea in the army and in May of 1865 spent a month in the Union Army hospital at Knoxville, Tennessee nursing his ailments. Severe diarrhea was a common complaint among soldiers on both sides during the war. It was caused by the unsanitary conditions of camp life and by the forced reliance on water of doubtful purity.
While John was in the hospital the Civil War ended. His unit was mustered out of the Army in September 1865 and John immediately returned to his family near Morganton, N.C. There he was reunited with his brother William Twiggs who had served in the Confederate forces, Company D, 6th North Carolina Infantry. William joined the unit on October 6, 1865 and was with it on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House when it was surrendered by General Lee.
John did not remain in Morganton, N.C., but returned to Heaton Creek in Carter County, Tennessee in April 1866. His family joined him at Heaton Creek by the end of 1866 after the birth of his son Henry. The family stayed at Heaton Creek for almost twenty years, where John apparently worked for James Julian. He lived in the “Gregg House”, and for twelve or thirteen years on the property of Mr. N.D. Shell, a merchant in Carter County.
In Tennessee, Jane Twiggs gave birth to Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1868) who died somewhere between 1870 and 1880. Her last child, a son named Elkanah, was also born in Tennessee on June 12, 1870. He was known in later life as Cain Twiggs.
Jane Twiggs died on July 26, 1879 at Heaton Creek. She was forty-five years old, had borne seven children and lived through the worst war yet fought in North America. The war claimed her husband for two years and left her with the children. Afterwards her family was uprooted from Morganton, N.C. to the mountains of Tennessee where she continued to hold them together. It’s unfortunate we know so little about her life.
John Twiggs began his long battle with the U.S. Government in March of 1879 by filing his first compensation claim for injuries sustained in the war. This claim was not settled until 1891, twelve years later. He subsequently won retroactive payments back to 1865, after a special inquiry in 1896 accepted his claim that his chronic diarrhea was service-connected. The special inquiry took depositions from former military comrades, from neighbors in North Carolina and Tennessee, from relatives, and from several doctors. One doctor declared that John had “the worst case of diarrhea that I ever saw.”
Also in 1879 he remarried. His second wife’s maiden name was Catherine Woods. She’d been born in 1830 in North Carolina and was previously married to Henry Miller who, according to Catherine, had been conscripted into the Confederate forces on 26 August 1864 and died in service on 10 October 1864. Catherine was also known as Kate or Katie.
In 1883 an event occurred that must have had a major effect on John and his family. He was charged with murder and jailed in Rutherford County, N.C. The alleged crime probably took place around 10 November 1883 when he was jailed. The first trial took place on 3 December 1883 but the jury could not reach a verdict. On 2 June 1884 a second jury acquitted John of the crime. A courthouse fire in 1907 burned the records of these trials. Nothing is known now about the details of the case.
In 1885, shortly after this event, John and Catherine moved from Carter County, Tennessee to Mitchell County, N.C. The reason for the move is unknown, but we do know that John’s older children remained in Tennessee. Only Elkanah (Cain) and Henry, who were fifteen years and nineteen years old, respectively, appear to have gone with their parents. Eventually his son Timothy also moved to Mitchell County. The family resided near Bakersville where John farmed some land.
When John died on 20 August 1898 in Bakersville, N.C., Catherine claimed a widow’s pension but it was denied because she was unable to prove that her first husband, Henry Miller, was dead. Her only property upon John’s death was a “dower interest in a tract of hilly land containing about 100 acres.” She returned to Heaton Creek and lived out her days with Elijah and Isabelle Macaster. It appears Isabelle may have been her daughter by Catherine’s previous marriage with Henry Miller, but this is not certain. Catherine died sometime after June 1900, probably in Carter County near Roan Mountain, Tennessee.
At a minimum, John was survived by his brother William and his sister Amanda. In 1900 William still lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his nephew Henry Garrison. His sister Amanda, who married Solomon A. Icehower on 15 August 1867 in Burke Co. N.C., resided in 1900 with her husband in Carter Co., Tenn.
The whereabouts of John’s remaining brothers and sisters in 1900 is unknown. His brother Timothy is last known to have resided in 1870 in Carter Co, Tenn, with his wife Elizabeth; he may have died there before 1880, or he may have moved elsewhere. Mary married Thomas McNeeley and is last seen in the census of 1880 residing in Burke Co., N.C. Sister Jane is not seen after the 1850 census; she either married or died before 1860. Asbury lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his sister Mary in 1870, but disappears from North Carolina census records thereafter. Ellen, the baby of the family, is only found in the 1860 census when she was 6 months old; she may have died in Burke Co., N.C. before 1870.
John’s parents--Henry and Ellender--are last seen in 1860 in Burke Co., N.C.; they probably died there before 1870.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ABOUT JOHN TWIGGS
From a genealogical viewpoint, the most important questions to be answered about John Twiggs are: Who were his grandparents, where did they come from, and what was their relationship to the other branches of the Twiggs family in America in 1790? From a human interest viewpoint, the circumstances of John's murder trials are the most fascinating. Answers to each of these questions will require more research, and interested members of the Twiggs family are invited to help.
A possible candidate for John’s grandfather is the Timothy Twiggs who lived in Rutherford Co., N.C. from at least 1793 to 1810. He married Joicy Wilass on 8 April 1793, and his household appears in Rutherford County in the 1800 and 1810 census. Timothy appears to have had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Marriage records for Burke and Lincoln counties suggest that three of those four sons may have been Henry, William, and David. Two women, Cary and Joyse Twigs, are likely candidates for two of Timothy’s three daughters. These girls married John H. Mashburn and Elisha Masborn (probably brothers) in Burke Co. in 1821. A search of Rutherford Co.’s courthouse records has turned up nothing about the family of Timothy Twigs. The next step needed is a search of courthouse records, especially property transactions, in Burke and Lincoln counties. Another important source of information could be cemetery and church records in Rutherford, Burke, and Lincoln counties. If this also turns up nothing, then our research must concentrate on discovering other people researching the Twiggs family who may be able to supply the missing data.
Answers to the important questions about John Twiggs’ murder trial must be sought in local newspapers from November 1883 to June 1884, because a courthouse fire in 1907 destroyed the official records. The story may have been covered in both North Carolina and Tennessee newspapers. Therefore, our research should concentrate on both States with particular attention paid to papers covering local news in Rutherford Co., N.C. and Carter Co., Tenn."
(TUCKERALV originally shared the following on 30 Apr 2012)
Alternate Surname: Twiggs
Parents were Henry Twiggs (1791–1860) & Ellender "Nelly" Twiggs (1807–1878).
THE TWIGGS FAMILY OF BURKE AND MITCHELL COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA AND CARTER COUNTY, TENNESSEE
"John Twiggs, the first member of the Twiggs family to live in Mitchell County, was a farmer whose life changed greatly during the Civil War. The war separated him from his wife and children and led him to move the family from North Carolina to Tennessee after the surrender. It also separated him from his brother William who fought for the Confederacy. Injuries sustained during the war hurt his health and caused a long battle with the federal government over pension benefits. Twenty years after the war John returned to North Carolina and settled in Mitchell County, leaving his older children married and established in Tennessee. He finally won the government’s recognition of his war-related disability after a special board of inquiry; but upon his death in 1898 his second wife was unable to establish her eligibility for a widow’s pension.
John’s injuries and subsequent battle with the federal government - surely a major irritant in his life - was a boon for his descendants because it built up a thick file of depositions and other documents now residing in the National Archives in Washington, D.C. That file, plus U.S. census records from 1840 to 1910, is the source for all the information we have about him.
According to John’s enlistment papers he was born in Rutherford County, N.C. in 1825 or 1826. His first enumeration in the U.S. census is in 1850 in the family of Henry and Ellender (Nelly) Twiggs, residing in “Burke County on the south side of the Catawba River and west side of the North Fork.” John was twenty-four years old and unmarried at the time. The Henry Twiggs household was also listed in Burke County ten years earlier in the 1840 census, but that census only showed the number, sex and approximate ages of the family members - it did not record their names. However the approximate ages of the male children in the 1840 household match the expected ages for John and his known brother, William. This is strong evidence that John and William were also part of this household when they were teenagers and that therefore, a parental relationship existed with Henry and Nelly Twiggs. In addition the pension file proves that Mary Twiggs, who lived in the same household in 1850, and was 16 years old at the time, was John’s sister.
In 1850 the household consisted of Henry Twiggs (born about 1790), Ellender (1807), John (1826), Timothy (1829), Mary (1834), Jane (1839) and Amanda (1843), all of whom were born in North Carolina. William Twiggs (born about 1825), who is clearly shown by the pension file to be John’s brother, lived nearby in Burke County with his wife, the former Elizabeth Garrison. Eventually two other children were born to Henry and Ellender; they were Asbury (1855) and Ellen (1860). It is possible that Nelly was Henry’s second wife because N.C. marriage records show that a Henry Twigs married a Mary Mauney on 23 December 1815 in Lincoln Co., which is right next door to Burke Co. This marriage record plus the difference in age between Henry and Nelly (she was 17 years younger) seem to support the theory of a second marriage. There is no mention of Henry and Nelly’s marriage bonds in N.C. records.
Around 1853 or 1854 John married Jane Brown and settled down “6 or 7 miles N.E. of Morganton, Burke Co., N.C.” Before the outbreak of the Civil War, Jane gave birth to three sons and a daughter in North Carolina. After the war, two more sons and another daughter were added to the family. The children were Daniel (1855), Timothy (1857), Jason (1859), Mary (1861), Henry (1866), Sarah Elizabeth (1868) and Elkanah (1870).
When the war started in April 1861, John and William managed to stay out of the Army for several years. Although the Confederacy adopted conscription in April 1862, John (then 37 years old) and William (38 years) were exempted from the draft because it only applied to white males between 18 and 35 years of age.
Conscription was deeply resented in the mountains of North Carolina which had already sent most of its younger men off to war. In 1863 the South adopted two more laws that deepened the antipathy of the mountain people. The first required farmers to give one tenth of all their produce as a tithe to the Confederate authorities. The second permitted the Confederate Army to impress livestock, slaves, provisions, and wagons for its use at prices set by the Army. To the mountaineers, these two laws made the conflict a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight.” By the end of 1863 the mountains of North Carolina were infested with bands of Confederate deserters, draft dodgers, and small groups of Union loyalists.
John remained in North Carolina until November 1863 when he left his family in Burke County and travelled to Carter County, Tennessee. It’s not certain why John went to Tennessee, but Union forces had established control over eastern Tennessee and it’s probable he planned to join the Union Army. On November 9, 1863 he enlisted as a private in Company “G” of the 13th Regiment, Tennessee Cavalry. He signed up at Crab Orchard, Tennessee and received a $25 bounty for enlisting. At the time he was thirty-eight years old, stood five feet, six inches tall and had blue eyes, black hair and a light complexion.
Although the 13th Tennessee Cavalry began organizing in the fall of 1863, it was not mustered into the Union Army until April 13, 1864 at Nashville. In the meantime it appears John spent at least part of that winter with the family of James Julian on Heaton Creek near Roan Mountain, Tennessee. Mr. Julian’s son, Henry, also served in the 13th Regiment. There is no evidence John knew the Julian family before the war.
The 13th Regiment tasted its first action in late August 1864 at Rogersville, Tennessee where it killed thirty-six and captured fifty-nine Confederate soldiers. Its most notable successes came on September 3rd and 4th, 1864 at Park’s Gap near Greenville, Tennessee where it surprised and killed General John Hunt Morgan (the famous Confederate cavalry raider). The 13th also fought at Panther Springs and Bulls Gap, Tennessee and led the charge against Confederate breastworks at Saltville, Virginia on December 20, 1864. The unit’s final exploit of the war was participation in an expedition toward Asheville, North Carolina in an attempt to capture Jefferson Davis.
It’s not known how many of these actions John saw, but it’s certain he was with the unit the night it marched from Bulls Gap to Greenville in pursuit of General Morgan, for on that night occurred the accident on which John was to base his subsequent claims for disability. Here is how he told the story to the government thirty years later:
“The night before General John Morgan was killed my regiment started on a raid from Bulls Gap, Tenn to Greenville, Tenn. I think it was in the fall of the year 1864. I remember Gordon grapes were ripe. My company left about night on the march and that night was very dark and cloudy, and it was lightning, and about Warrensboro my horse stumbled and fell and pitched me off before him in what I thought to be a gully. I could not see and could only feel my way. It scared me so badly that I could not tell whether I hurt my side on horn of saddle or whether the horse struck me in side with his hoof. I scrambled back on to my horse without any help and went on with my company to Greenville that night, reaching that point next morning about day.”
According to John the accident resulted in permanent damage to his left side and limited his working ability from then on.
He also contracted diarrhea in the army and in May of 1865 spent a month in the Union Army hospital at Knoxville, Tennessee nursing his ailments. Severe diarrhea was a common complaint among soldiers on both sides during the war. It was caused by the unsanitary conditions of camp life and by the forced reliance on water of doubtful purity.
While John was in the hospital the Civil War ended. His unit was mustered out of the Army in September 1865 and John immediately returned to his family near Morganton, N.C. There he was reunited with his brother William Twiggs who had served in the Confederate forces, Company D, 6th North Carolina Infantry. William joined the unit on October 6, 1865 and was with it on April 9, 1865 at Appomattox Court House when it was surrendered by General Lee.
John did not remain in Morganton, N.C., but returned to Heaton Creek in Carter County, Tennessee in April 1866. His family joined him at Heaton Creek by the end of 1866 after the birth of his son Henry. The family stayed at Heaton Creek for almost twenty years, where John apparently worked for James Julian. He lived in the “Gregg House”, and for twelve or thirteen years on the property of Mr. N.D. Shell, a merchant in Carter County.
In Tennessee, Jane Twiggs gave birth to Sarah Elizabeth (b. 1868) who died somewhere between 1870 and 1880. Her last child, a son named Elkanah, was also born in Tennessee on June 12, 1870. He was known in later life as Cain Twiggs.
Jane Twiggs died on July 26, 1879 at Heaton Creek. She was forty-five years old, had borne seven children and lived through the worst war yet fought in North America. The war claimed her husband for two years and left her with the children. Afterwards her family was uprooted from Morganton, N.C. to the mountains of Tennessee where she continued to hold them together. It’s unfortunate we know so little about her life.
John Twiggs began his long battle with the U.S. Government in March of 1879 by filing his first compensation claim for injuries sustained in the war. This claim was not settled until 1891, twelve years later. He subsequently won retroactive payments back to 1865, after a special inquiry in 1896 accepted his claim that his chronic diarrhea was service-connected. The special inquiry took depositions from former military comrades, from neighbors in North Carolina and Tennessee, from relatives, and from several doctors. One doctor declared that John had “the worst case of diarrhea that I ever saw.”
Also in 1879 he remarried. His second wife’s maiden name was Catherine Woods. She’d been born in 1830 in North Carolina and was previously married to Henry Miller who, according to Catherine, had been conscripted into the Confederate forces on 26 August 1864 and died in service on 10 October 1864. Catherine was also known as Kate or Katie.
In 1883 an event occurred that must have had a major effect on John and his family. He was charged with murder and jailed in Rutherford County, N.C. The alleged crime probably took place around 10 November 1883 when he was jailed. The first trial took place on 3 December 1883 but the jury could not reach a verdict. On 2 June 1884 a second jury acquitted John of the crime. A courthouse fire in 1907 burned the records of these trials. Nothing is known now about the details of the case.
In 1885, shortly after this event, John and Catherine moved from Carter County, Tennessee to Mitchell County, N.C. The reason for the move is unknown, but we do know that John’s older children remained in Tennessee. Only Elkanah (Cain) and Henry, who were fifteen years and nineteen years old, respectively, appear to have gone with their parents. Eventually his son Timothy also moved to Mitchell County. The family resided near Bakersville where John farmed some land.
When John died on 20 August 1898 in Bakersville, N.C., Catherine claimed a widow’s pension but it was denied because she was unable to prove that her first husband, Henry Miller, was dead. Her only property upon John’s death was a “dower interest in a tract of hilly land containing about 100 acres.” She returned to Heaton Creek and lived out her days with Elijah and Isabelle Macaster. It appears Isabelle may have been her daughter by Catherine’s previous marriage with Henry Miller, but this is not certain. Catherine died sometime after June 1900, probably in Carter County near Roan Mountain, Tennessee.
At a minimum, John was survived by his brother William and his sister Amanda. In 1900 William still lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his nephew Henry Garrison. His sister Amanda, who married Solomon A. Icehower on 15 August 1867 in Burke Co. N.C., resided in 1900 with her husband in Carter Co., Tenn.
The whereabouts of John’s remaining brothers and sisters in 1900 is unknown. His brother Timothy is last known to have resided in 1870 in Carter Co, Tenn, with his wife Elizabeth; he may have died there before 1880, or he may have moved elsewhere. Mary married Thomas McNeeley and is last seen in the census of 1880 residing in Burke Co., N.C. Sister Jane is not seen after the 1850 census; she either married or died before 1860. Asbury lived in Burke Co., N.C. with his sister Mary in 1870, but disappears from North Carolina census records thereafter. Ellen, the baby of the family, is only found in the 1860 census when she was 6 months old; she may have died in Burke Co., N.C. before 1870.
John’s parents--Henry and Ellender--are last seen in 1860 in Burke Co., N.C.; they probably died there before 1870.
OPPORTUNITIES FOR FURTHER RESEARCH ABOUT JOHN TWIGGS
From a genealogical viewpoint, the most important questions to be answered about John Twiggs are: Who were his grandparents, where did they come from, and what was their relationship to the other branches of the Twiggs family in America in 1790? From a human interest viewpoint, the circumstances of John's murder trials are the most fascinating. Answers to each of these questions will require more research, and interested members of the Twiggs family are invited to help.
A possible candidate for John’s grandfather is the Timothy Twiggs who lived in Rutherford Co., N.C. from at least 1793 to 1810. He married Joicy Wilass on 8 April 1793, and his household appears in Rutherford County in the 1800 and 1810 census. Timothy appears to have had 4 sons and 3 daughters. Marriage records for Burke and Lincoln counties suggest that three of those four sons may have been Henry, William, and David. Two women, Cary and Joyse Twigs, are likely candidates for two of Timothy’s three daughters. These girls married John H. Mashburn and Elisha Masborn (probably brothers) in Burke Co. in 1821. A search of Rutherford Co.’s courthouse records has turned up nothing about the family of Timothy Twigs. The next step needed is a search of courthouse records, especially property transactions, in Burke and Lincoln counties. Another important source of information could be cemetery and church records in Rutherford, Burke, and Lincoln counties. If this also turns up nothing, then our research must concentrate on discovering other people researching the Twiggs family who may be able to supply the missing data.
Answers to the important questions about John Twiggs’ murder trial must be sought in local newspapers from November 1883 to June 1884, because a courthouse fire in 1907 destroyed the official records. The story may have been covered in both North Carolina and Tennessee newspapers. Therefore, our research should concentrate on both States with particular attention paid to papers covering local news in Rutherford Co., N.C. and Carter Co., Tenn."
(TUCKERALV originally shared the following on 30 Apr 2012)
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