THROUGH
MOUNTAIN MISTS
Early Settlers of
Their
Descendants...Their Stories...Their Achievements
Lifting the
Mists of History on Their Way of Life
By: Ethelene Dyer Jones
A name
carrying distinction in Union County and beyond is that
of Twiggs. Willis Twiggs was the first
of the line to settle in Union County, Georgia.
He was born in Rutherford County, NC
on December 5, 1804 and died at Choestoe, Union County, Georgia
December 11,
1880. He and his wife Margaret England
Twiggs (August 9, 1812-December 10, 1886) were both interred in the Old
Choestoe Cemetery.
Not proven but believed by those who
have traced the Twiggs line, Willis Twiggs was the son of Timothy and
Joice
Willis Twiggs of Rutherford County, NC.
This conjecture seems almost positive by Willis Twiggs’ given
name, a
custom in that day, for a son (second or later) to receive the maiden
name of
his mother. Then Willis himself named
one of his children Joice Minerva Ann, a name which honored the one
believed to
be his mother, Joice Willis Twiggs.
Willis Twiggs migrated to Habersham
County, Georgia where he had been eligible for one draw in the land
lottery of
1832. There he married Margaret England
in either 1833 or 1834. Margaret herself
had been eligible for a land lot in Habersham County due to her
grandfather
Daniel England’s patriotic service in the American Revolution. The ancestry of Margaret England is somewhat
nebulous, like that of Willis Twiggs.
Her father was listed as John Good and her mother Jane England. She was reared as an England and bore that
last name.
Willis and Margaret Twiggs’ first
child, Mary Louise, was born in Habersham County (now White) on March
12,
1835. She was a baby when her
parents
moved over the mountain into the Choestoe District of Union County. There, in the 1838 Tax Rolls of Union County,
he owned land in the 34th District, described as having
“oaks and
hickory trees” and “upland”. In June of
1859 Willis Twiggs added to his acreage by purchasing land in the 16th
District from James M. Henson. It was on
this land that Willis Twiggs built his house, lovingly called “The
Homeplace”
by descendants. The land has been owned
by members of this Twiggs family from the 1830’s to the present.
Willis Twiggs was a very religious
man, following the beliefs of the Methodist Church.
Beginning at least as early as 1838, church
services were held in his home at Choestoe for at least nine years
until the
first Salem Methodist Church building was erected on Self Mountain in
1847. His obituary printed in “The
Wesleyan Advocate” stated that he “professed religion and joined the
Methodist
Church at age 12.” The death notice
cited
that he was “an orphan from an early age and his way in the world was
quite
rough. He learned to trust God for all
good. He lived a faithful Christian
life.”
Shortly after settling in Choestoe, he
made acquaintance with a Methodist missionary of the Holston
Conference, and
with his assistance held sacred meetings at his home for nine years
until the
congregation could build the Salem church house.
In addition to Mary Louise who was
born before Willis and Margaret Twiggs moved from Habersham County, GA,
the
couple had five other children, all born in Union County.
These were Elizabeth Jane (b. March 1837) who
married William C. Hicks on November 4, 1866;
Margaret, born 1839, who died at age 19, unmarried; Joice
Minerva Ann,
born November 27, 1841, who married George W. Bryant on November 29,
1869; John
Wesley born January 31, 1846 who married first Sarah Elizabeth Hughes
on August
20, 1871 and second, Georgia Elizabeth Westmoreland in 1886. This son of Willis and Margaret Twiggs became
a noted itinerant Methodist preacher, a teacher and a farmer. The sixth child of Willis and Margaret was
Harvey Alfonso, called “Bud,” born June 1, 1848.
He married Elizabeth Johnson on July 21,
1876. Mary Louise, their firstborn,
married Spencer Lafayette Curtis on January 25, 1857.
In later columns, we will trace other
descendants of Willis and Margaret Twiggs and note the significant
contributions they made as they remained in Union County or moved to
other
areas to live and work.
c2004 by
Ethelene Dyer
Jones; published September 23, 2004 in The Union Sentinel, Blairsville,
GA. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
[Ethelene Dyer
Jones is a retired educator,
freelance writer, poet, and historian. She may be reached at
e-mail edj0513@windstream.net;
phone 478-453-8751; or
mail 1708 Cedarwood Road, Milledgeville, GA 31061-2411.]
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