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
In last
week’s column we were introduced to Willis Twiggs
(1804-1880), the first of the Twiggs family to move to Union County,
Georgia
from Rutherford County, NC by way of Habersham County, GA and then into
the
Choestoe District of Union.
We will trace today some of the life
and times of John Wesley Twiggs, fifth child and first son of Willis
and
Margaret England Twiggs. He was born
January 31, 1846 in the Twiggs’ Choestoe home.
Where the young John Wesley Twiggs
received his education is unknown, except for the one-teacher schools
in the
Choesoe District. But evidently he was a
learned man (no doubt much of it self-taught) for his day.
According to testimony of his children and
grandchildren, they were not allowed to speak incorrect English around
him, nor
even the “hill country lingo” so prevalent in the community. Some believe he was taught by his mother,
Margaret England Twiggs, who came from a well-educated family. Her grandparents had migrated from Maryland
into Virginia and had more education and refinement than most of the
frontier
families in the Rutherford, NC area where she and her husband Willis
Twiggs
lived before moving to Georgia. By
whatever means educated, John Wesley Twiggs made good use of it and
contributed
well to his own community and beyond.
The date of John Wesley Twiggs’
ordination to the gospel ministry is not known.
He did have an active part in churches within Union County,
riding to
his charges on his farm mule or horse.
The Old Salem Church had been organized in the home of his
father,
Willis, where services were conducted for nine years until the first
building
was erected on Self Mountain in 1847 when John Wesley was about one. When this fifth child of Willis Twiggs grew
up and married, first, Sarah Elizabeth Hughes (1847-1885), the family
continued
to attend Old Salem Methodist Church.
Sarah Elizabeth, called Sallie, was from a Methodist family. She was a daughter of the Rev. Thomas M. and
Nancy Bird Hughes. Both her father and
grandfather were Methodist ministers (Her grandfather was the Rev.
Francis
Bird).
To John Wesley and Sarah Elizabeth
Hughes Twiggs were born Edwin Paxton
(1872-1954) who married Mary Elizabeth Dyer; Nancy Elmira
(1874-1953)
who married James Monroe Collins; Emma California (1876-1903) who
married John
L. Gillespie; Mary Frances (1874-1952) who married Milton Newton Nix;
Lovick
Marvin (1880-1962) who married Estelle Middlebrooks; and Nellie
Margaret
(1883-1974) who married John Gordon Allison.
Sarah Elizabeth Twiggs died June 2,
1885 and was buried at the Old Choestoe Cemetery. Her
six children ranged from age 13 to not
quite two years. Her obituary printed in
the Wesleyan Christian Advocate on July 22, 1885 noted that she had
suffered
scarlet fever as a child which had left her lungs weakened. On her deathbed, she called all her family to
her, gave them her last charge, kissed each one and bade them farewell.
The
writer stated: “Her face all aglow with
the refulgent rays of the Great Shepherd of her soul, she began to
repeat the
23rd Psalm, and with the ending of the Psalm God came and
kissed her
happy soul away, and left His ineffable smile on the brow.”
The Rev. John Wesley Twiggs married
Georgia Elizabeth Wesmoreland on February 4, 1886 in White County,
Georgia. To them were born three
children: Kitty (b. & d. Jan.,
1887); Walter Mondwell (1888-1984) who married Claudia Lenora Thompson;
and
Erwin Eugene (1890-1977) who married Alice Emily Wofford.
Two of Rev. John Wesley Twiggs’ sons
became Methodist ministers: Lovick
Marvin and Walter Mondwell.
Farmer, minister, and teacher were the
three occupations followed by the Rev. John Wesley Twiggs.
He kept up with the latest innovations in
farming for his day and shared information of agricultural techniques
with his
neighbors and church members. He was a
teacher at Hood’s Chapel School and at Old Liberty School, and perhaps
at
others in Union County. His ministerial
charges ranged over both Union and White County. Known
as a strict disciplinarian as a father
and a teacher, he believed strongly in bringing up children in the
nurture and
admonition of the Lord. He died July 30,
1917 at his Choestoe home and was laid to rest beside his first wife,
Sarah
Elizabeth, in the Old Choestoe Cemetery.
Quoting from a resolution from Salem church published in the
Union
County paper August 14, 1917: “He was
not only a father to the young but a dispenser of doctrines to the
old…He
always held out the bright side of life to us by his noble example and
worthy
advice. He ingrafted into our lives a
deeper sense of love and a keener sight of right.”
[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.]
Updated September 8, 2008
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