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Twiggs County Georgia Records: A Reconstructed Heritage 

• Twiggs book reconstructs lost records - One of the great tragedies of genealogy is the loss of records when a courthouse burns. In Georgia, few losses have been as great as that of Twiggs County when a century's worth of records burned in 1901.  Bess Vaughn Clark has spent years collecting information on Twiggs County from published sources, record fragments and original records held by families who provided copies to her. The result is her latest book: "Twiggs County, Georgia Records: A Reconstructed Heritage."  The book's arrangement indicates the sources, including information from newspapers where Twiggs' citizens filed their legal notices, deeds and wills in private hands or re-recordings after the fire; Bible records; tax and land lottery lists; Indian depredations; information from Georgia laws; and some very interesting material from private journals or memoirs.  many family histories have been included.  Through a full-name index, one has easy access to all the wonderful items she has collected.  . . . Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, September 5, 2000.

• Dear Bess,  Yesterday when I returned home from the library there was a very special surprise waiting for me.  Our postman had delivered an autographed copy of Twiggs County Georgia Records: A Reconstructed Heritage. . . .  Words cannot express my admiration for the exceptional job that you have done, or my appreciation for all your efforts.  . . .  Abstracting extant records from a Church or courthouse is commendable  -- but when the courthouse or church do not exist the very framework from which to proceed is not there.  Thus the structure and content is derived only from the knowledge, imagination and perseverance of the author.  The writing is fascinating -- the content is valuable -- but the most impressive aspect, to me, is the vast scope of what you set out to do and certainly did.  Anyone who looks at this volume in any serious degree will not only recognize it scholarly value -- but they will be even more impressed when they realize the years that collecting the data must have taken and the lengths to which you had to go to get it. . . .  Your work is obviously a labor of love.  Everyone who has any interest in Georgia, particularly Twiggs County, and the South in general is better off today now that your book is available.  Your chapter on the Peace Monument should be required reading for everyone. . . .The photographs that you included are wonderful -- I particularly enjoyed those of you and your husband.  Even though I did not know him I feel sure that looking at your book he would say, "Well done! Well done!" MICHAEL J. VAUGHN, Attorney at Law, Waco, Texas, July 22, 2000.

• Dear Bess, I cannot tell you how much this new book means to me and I cannot wait for the CD ROM.  I know you must have put all your time and energy into such a meticulous study . . . It has answered some of my questions . . . Thank you for all your hard work and please do it again!  You're great!   PAULA WOLFF, Riesel, Texas, August 3, 2000.

• . . . I have just glimpsed through your new book and am aware of the tedious labor you must have exercised to accomplished this valuable edition.  My congratulations!  SIDNEY ISENBERG, MD, Atlanta, Georgia, August 10, 2000.

• Mrs. Clark, I noticed on your web page that the books had been mailed out.  Then we went on vacation for a week.  I wanted to enjoy myself while on vacation.  But I couldn't help thinking about my "Twiggs County Georgia Records: A Reconstructed Heritage" book waiting on me at the post office.  I have not put the book down since I have returned home.  Your other book was outstanding so I knew this one would be also.  I have found so much information in the book on my family and their association with Twiggs County.  Thank you so much for writing books that will benefit others the way you have.  Rose Jones,  Carrollton, Texas, August 7, 2000

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• The Macon Telegraph, Macon, Georgia, Sunday, September 17, 2000, Page 2-B   

  TWIGGS COUNTY — When fire swept through the Twiggs County Courthouse on Feb. 6, 1901, the only records left unscathed were five early tax digests and a couple of books. Gone were 90 years of records that detailed the county's history since it was carved from part of Wilkinson County in 1809. 

  When Macon native Bess Vaughn Clark set out years ago to look for information on her family's ties to Twiggs County — which date to 1813 — she never dreamed her efforts would wind up in a book. "I first started collecting for myself, and material for Twiggs County is just rare," Clark said. "I knew what I wanted to know, but I thought 'Oh I hate to throw all this away when it could help someone else.'"

  Now Clark has self-published "Twiggs County Georgia Records: A Reconstructed Heritage" — her third book on the county — with tidbits of everything from genealogical information to old journal entries, land deeds and a reconstructed census.

  "When the Courthouse burned, the history was gone," Clark said. "I've tried in my own small way to replace that history." Clark pieced together her information from newspapers, deeds, Bible records, military records, wills and personal journals and papers. The book includes information on marriages, births, crime, visits from out-of-town friends and relatives, county business, social gatherings, military service, encounters with Creek Indians, church attendance and land acquisitions. "Much of it I just abstracted and copied out of old newspapers," Clark said. "And after the fire, some people had their records re-recorded."

  The book, which was published in July, is already making its way across the country, ending up in public libraries from New York to California, she said. "It's been my life's work," Clark said. "It's been hundreds and hundreds of hours. I can't tell you the hours and days I have spent at a microfilm reader."

  She and her late husband traveled all over to check out records — from the Mormon Library in Salt Lake City to the Library of Congress and National Archives in Washington, D.C. "He took me to almost every county in the state of Georgia looking for material," Clark said. "When the bug bit me, I got really busy. Traveling was always fun because of the anticipation of finding something." Even trips where she found nothing were still worth the time, she said. "At least I will have been and searched and didn't find it, and that gives me a certain satisfaction that I will no longer have to pine," Clark said. "I will have gone and found that record isn't there."

   Included in the book is Clark's reconstruction of the county's 1810 census. The 1790 and 1810 censuses for Georgia are missing — believed to have been burned by the British in the War of 1812, she said. Using old records, Clark tracked down the names of people who were known to be in the county. "It was such a challenge, I didn't want to stop," she said. "It just gave me a great deal of satisfaction to add a name to the list. "She also was able to find out the names of women and children — something that would not have been included in the census unless a female served as the head of household. "I had one woman write me and say she never knew her great-grandmother's name was Lucinda until she read my book," Clark said. "That pays me back for all the hard work."

  Another unusual anecdote in her book is the correspondence of a Twiggs County doctor who attempted to recover the flag of the 48th Georgia Regiment, which was captured in the battle of Gettysburg. Clark describes her interest in history as lifelong. "I grew up in a family that liked to talk about family and history," she said. Clark has never lived in Twiggs County, but her family's roots go back to the county's early days, and she remembers her father taking her to places of importance. "This has always been dear to my heart — it meant so much to my mother and father," she said of Twiggs County.

  Clark published her first book about the county in 1976. She bound it herself and gave it away to groups. "My son came in one day, and I had a stack of papers, and he asked what that was, and I said 'It's my book,'" Clark said.  In 1987, she printed a second book — "Twiggs County Georgia Abstracts: Records of a Burned County" — with the intention of selling it. Her latest book grew out of continued research. "I still find things that don't turn up in the books," Clark said. "I don't stop researching. I'm real pleased that I could find so many things."  Debbie M. Rhyne, The Macon Telegraph, www.macontelegraph.com , (478) 744-4334.

   

• . . . Bess Vaughn Clark's recent publication entitled  "TWIGGS COUNTY GEORGIA RECORDS: A RECONSTRUCTED HERITAGE" is a well written and concise book that is an important source to historians and genealogists.  James E. Crutchfield, Macon, GA.

• Ms. Clark, You  have one of the finest county historical websites I have seen. If only every county could be so lucky to have someone with your understanding of the past; our lives would be enriched. Thanks for your wonderful resource.  I am, sincerely, Ralph N. Jackson, Wrightsville, Georgia.

   

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Reader comments about

Twiggs County Georgia Abstracts: Records of A Burned County, Bess Vaughn Clark, 1987

Comments and Reviews

• “Mrs. Clark has done one of the best and most complete reconstructions of records of a burned county that I have personally seen. This is a book that should be in every library for a really true ‘working tool’ on a burned Georgia county. This book should be on inspection for people from other ‘burned Counties’ in Georgia and in other states.” Emmett Lucas, Jr. Editor, Georgia Genealogical Magazine, Winter/Spring, 1989.

• “Twiggs County Georgia Abstracts” is a compilation of various records either owned by the author or gleaned from various places. Included are deeds, census and cemetery records, newspaper information and private documents. While the book is not going to take the place of the lost records, it can certainly help.
  Kenneth H. Thomas, Jr., The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, July 31, 1988.

• In this scholarly book, Mrs. Clark has used tax digests, Georgia Land Lottery records, Bible records, deeds and records from other Georgia counties relating to Twiggs County, . . . And much more to help fill the void of a “burned” County. . . . This is the kind of hard work that provides vital links to the Colonial Period . . .. Without such works, one “cannot get from here to there,” a lament often heard concerning “burned” Counties. Neoma O’Kelley O’Brien, National President, Daughters of Colonial Wars, The Tudor Rose Councillor, September 1999.

• Mrs. Clark has painstakingly collected many personal family records, abstracts of family Bibles, cemetery records, deeds, newspaper articles and other documents; all are referenced and documented as to source. Elizabeth E. Ross, The North Carolina Genealogical Society Journal, February 1989, Volume XV, No. 1.

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