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
Margaret M. Twiggs (August 2, 1871-May
28, 1949) married Mancil Pruitt Dyer, a son of Choestoe’s inventor of
the
“Apparatus for Navigating the Air,” Micajah Clark Dyer and his wife,
Morena
Ownbey Dyer. Mancil Pruitt had the
nickname “Mant”. He and Margaret had
seven children: Nellie Naomi who married
Dallas Nix; Herbert Carter who married Pearl Duckworth; Patrick Henry
Lee Dyer
who married Cleo Hix; Celia Wilhemina “Minnie” Dyer who married
Marshall J.
Nix; Harriet who died at nine years of age; and Chartiers McMillan Dyer
who
married Pearl Parker and Sibyl Franks.
When Margaret died in 1949, she was at the home of her daughter,
Mrs.
Marshall Nix, in Waverly, Colorado where she had lived during a period
of ill
health. Her body was returned for burial
at Pine Top Cemetery, Choestoe, where her husband was buried in 1916.
Bud and Lizzie Twiggs’ second child
was James Willis Twiggs (June 15, 1879 – February 1, 1966) known as
Jim, this
son had a distinctive career as a teacher, public servant, educator and
benefactor. He married on December 28,
1910 to Helen Cordelia Collins (March 1, 1886-December 10, 1981),
daughter of
Dallas and Rosannah Souther Collins. The
Rev. Charlie Rich performed their wedding ceremony at the home of the
bride’s
parents near New Liberty Baptist Church.
They had one daughter, Clarice Lorraine Twiggs who married
Thomas
Jefferson Stephens. Helen Collins was a
teacher when she and Jim Twiggs married.
During the first years of their marriage both taught school at
Talmo,
Georgia (Jackson County) for three years, then to South Georgia for
three
years, and northward to Gwinnett County for three more years. Then they returned to Union County. In 1920 Jim Twiggs was elected County School
Superintendent in Union County where he served two four-year terms
(1920-1928). He next was with the sales
tax unit of the Department of Revenue.
He was elected state senator from the ninth congressional
district for
one term. Following that service he was
a supervisor with the Georgia Department of Education until his
retirement at
age 72. Jim and Helen Twiggs were known
for their Christian compassion and community spirit.
I personally will ever be grateful to Mr.
Jim Twiggs for loaning me the money to complete my AA degree at Truett
McConnell College in 1948-1949 at a time when my father had a
not-so-good crop
year and did not have the money, even with my working at a campus job,
to pay
my college tuition. Mr. Jim Twiggs came
to my rescue with a loan which I repaid during my first year of
teaching.
Bud and Lizzie Twiggs’ third child was
John Milford Twiggs (June 9, 1881-September 5, 1960).
John married Celia Sarah “Sallie” Collins
(October 8, 1884 – October 4, 1972), daughter of Ivan Kimsey and Martha
J.
Hunter Collins on March 1, 1908. John
was a farmer on Choestoe, tilling the land settled by his grandfather
Willis
Twiggs and passed on to him by his father Bud Twiggs.
John and Sallie had two sons, Roy Willis
Twiggs (1909-1987) and Mercer Franklin Twiggs (1912-1990).
Educated at Young Harris and North Georgia
Colleges and Oglethorpe University, Roy taught school for several
years. Roy
became director of Union County’s Department of Family and Children’s
Services
(then called the Welfare Department) in 1938.
World War II came and he served for four years in the U. S. Army. Following military service, he again assumed
directorship of the Department of Family and Children’s Services from
1946
through his retirement in 1971. He was
named to the Georgia Welfare Hall of Fame in 1985.
Quiet, efficient and unassuming, Roy Twiggs
is remembered as a compassionate social worker who sincerely had the
welfare of
his clients uppermost as he sought to help those who really needed aid. Mercer Twiggs had a career of thirty-seven
years with the Georgia Highway Department.
He married Ruby June Little in 1942 and they had one child,
Sarah
Rebecca Twiggs who married James Matthew Thompson.
John and Sallie Twiggs were buried in the Old
Choestoe Cemetery and Roy Twiggs and Mercer Twiggs in the New Choestoe
Baptist
Church Cemetery.
Fourth child of Bud and Lizzie Twiggs
was Naomi Belle Twiggs (May 17, 1886-August 14, 1941).
She married Fulton Huey Gaddis and they lived
to Barrow County, Georgia.
The fifth and youngest child of Bud
and Lizzie Twiggs was Frank Densmore Twiggs (January 10, 1889-July 4,
1979) who
married Margaret Lea Self on October 28, 1934.
She was a daughter of Willis C. and Mollie Dyer Self. Lea and Frank lived in the Twiggs house that
his father, Bud, built. The house is still standing on Collins Road
just off
Highway 80 and is now owned and maintained by Frank and Lea’s son,
Ralph.
Frank taught school in
one-teacher schools
for a few years, among which was Pine Top. He became a full-time
farmer, saying
he “liked to be his own boss.” He and
Lea had two children, Ralph (born in 1936) and Opal (1937-1944). Frank and Lea Twiggs were wonderful neighbors
and extended such kindness to my younger brother, Blueford, and me
after our
mother died in 1945 when we were young.
Some interesting stories have been
passed down in the Twiggs family about the escapades of Harvey Alfonso
“Bud”
Twiggs. A favorite is how he “broke” a
new horse for his son Jim to ride.
Determined to tame the horse, he bridled it up and took it into
the
field. The horse bucked and reared, but
Bud held on for dear life. Finally, the
horse reared and fell, with Bud Twiggs still holding on.
Those who were watching feared that Mr.
Twiggs was badly injured, but he got up and refused help in taking the
horse
back to the barn. A few days later, Bud
Twiggs saddled up the horse and came out riding him, with the animal
behaving,
well-broken and taken to the saddle, ready for his Jim Twiggs to ride. Bud Twiggs was at the ripe age of 80 when he
broke the untamed horse. He lived four
more
years after the horse-breaking incident.
[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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