William Bagwell and Elizabeth Martin
Date unknown but probably about
1870

Photograph provided by James Blake Thomas, a lineal descendant of William Blackstone Martin, a brother to Elizabeth.  The date "September 30, 1894" appears on the back of the Photograph but that date cannot be the date that the picture was taken because both William and Elizabeth were dead before that date.

The Birth of William Bagwell

            William Bagwell was born in South Carolina, probably in Union County near Spartanburg,  on Friday, 14 June 1799. Only 23 years earlier, the thirteen original colonies had declared their independence from England and a mere 16 years earlier, that independence had been achieved.  The United States had been a Federal Republic for slightly more than a decade. Coincidentally, George Washington died on 14 December 1799,exactly six months after William's birth. The fact that William Bagwell's birth coincided with the birth of our country is only the beginning of a story of the "growing pains" that would denominate the maturation of both.

            William's parents have not been identified but it  seems likely that he was born in the back country near Spartanburg and that he lived in that area until he reached maturity. Current research has revealed nothing about his childhood and adolescence. The South Carolina back country was wild and living was harsh and dangerous. The newly formed United States and the State of South Carolina had established only the barest essentials of organized government and the hardships of life were to be endured without much help from Washington or Columbia. It is unlikely that he attended school; indeed, he reported on the 1850, 1860, and 1870 United States Census records that he could neither read nor write. Given the economic and social conditions that existed at the turn of the 19th century, he was probably reared on a farm and spent his youth helping with the daily routine of growing tobacco, cotton, and rice.

            It is interesting to speculate about his early life. Did he ever attend school? Was there a regular church to attend or merely a circuit riding preacher who came occasionally? What did the family do for entertainment? Because transportation was on foot or horseback and roads were few in number and little more than trails, very limited opportunities for social occasions existed. It seems certain that William had not ventured more than a few miles from the place where he was born before he set out on the great journey to the west.

            In 1820, probably October or November, William Bagwell accompanied John Martin and his wife, Margaret "Peggy" Farris Martin, along with ten children to Union Township, Parke County, Indiana. It was said that William was John Martin's hired hand and that he rode horseback alongside the wagons as the Martin family moved from Spartanburg, South Carolina to Indiana. Although the Martins had eleven children, the oldest child, John Martin, Jr., did not go with the family to Indiana in 1820 but he did join them a few months later.

            Some family legends hold that William Bagwell returned to South Carolina and remained there for about a year before returning to Indiana to "marry the Martin girl".  Whether that is true is unclear but it seems certain that he lived with the Martins that first winter in Indiana. The entire Martin family, consisting of John and Margaret and the ten children, plus William, lived in a 20 feet square cabin that first winter.

            Nevertheless,  he did marry Elizabeth Elliott Martin, the second child and oldest daughter of John Martin and Margaret Farris. Elizabeth's name has been shown as "Elliott" and in some records the middle initial appears to be an "F."  The exact date of their marriage cannot be determined since the records at the Parke County Court House do not pre-date 1840. It seems reasonable to believe that the marriage occurred in late 1821 or early 1822, probably in 1821. Their first child was born 27 August 1822.

            At a family reunion for the Martin and Bagwell Family in 1927, the following paper was presented. The author is unknown and some of the dates may not be correct but the story itself appears to be factual.

About the year 1820 a lone traveler on horseback left his home in South Carolina to seek his fortune in a western state. There was no good water near where he lived and he was anxious to find a home where there might be an abundant supply of this element. He reached Indiana and stopped in Park County in Union Township. That weary traveler was John Martin.

             Indiana had been admitted to the Union in 1816 and there was still land our government was glad to have taken as claims and this was the desire of John Martin to have a claim. He selected 160 acres in Section 33 of Union Township of Park County and began trying to locate cornerstones. Lest a rattlesnake might wish to share his bed, he built it far above the ground.

He went to Crawfordsville, the nearest land office and received a patient for his land and returned to South Carolina to make ready to move to the new home, having been gone about three months. One evening while preparing his supper over campfire, two burly Indians came talking and gesticulating to each other. After eyeing the solitary camper and looking his horse over they went away.

Mr. Martin with his wife, ten children and a hired man, came over untried roads facing many difficulties and grave dangers to help settle the new state. There was no immigrant car for them with the family coming through on the train in a Pullman. Trains were few and far between. Railroading was in a very infantile stage throughout the world. Our own country began experimenting in the 1820 s in this enterprise. As late as 1831 the Baltimore and Ohio R. R. Company offered a price of $4,000 for an engine that would draw 15 tons at a speed of 15 miles an hour. The Martins did not travel at this terrific speed as they traveled in three prairie schooners. They slept in a tent pitched in some sheltered nook and did their cooking over a campfire at the side of the trail. They started in October and traveled over 600 miles to reach their new home in November 1820 having been on the road for six weeks. They had encountered cold weather, rain and snowstorms. One day while on the crest of Snowy Mountain, a peak of the Cumberland Range, it became very foggy and they could hear it thundering far below them. It cleared up and they went on, but before they got half way down they were checked by high waters. It had rained so much that the mountain streams had become great torrents and they were forced to camp and wait until the streams went down. They crossed the Ohio River on a ferry boat and when about midstream one of the horses became unmanageable and jumped overboard.

            On reaching their new home the first thing they did was to build a house. This consisted of one room 20 feet square constructed of round poles covered with clapboards and with a puncheon floor. It also had a big open fireplace. While the building was going on they lived in their tent. In this one room log hut the family of father, mother, ten children, and the hired man lived the first winter. Wild animals prowled about and wolves often engaged the Martins dogs in fighting, sometimes rolling almost into their temporary tent home in their mad scrambles. But these brave Southerners with many others of their type fought and worked on amid many trials and privations, subduing forest, stress, and wild animals, laying the foundation for the present state of civilization. Other farm buildings were erected, and in the course of a few years a larger and better house was build, this time with hewn logs and real glass for window panes. The old house was then taken for a hay barn. Here the Martin children grew up, married, raised families, lived and died. All were buried in the Martin Cemetery.

            Others came and made settlements. These pioneers all lived the simple life but were very industrious. They cleared the land, fenced the fields, built schoolhouses, cut out public roads, and for materials they used such as grew on the land. Not much was said or thought about taxes when improvements were to be made. The women-folk also contributed their part in the early days. They spun flax and woolen yarns and wove cloth from which clothing and other materials were made.

            Elizabeth Martin, the oldest daughter was 16 at the time of the migration from South Carolina to Indiana. William Bagwell, the hired man, soon became captivated by the young lady and asked for her hand in marriage. They were married in 1822.  Mr. Bagwell was 22 at the time. They lived near the Martin home for 13 years and then moved to another tract. There were six children in the family at this time. They were as follows' Rebecca, Matilda, John, Minerva, Euphony, and Nancy. After moving to the new home nine children were born, two dying in infancy. The seven who remained were Vira, Sarah, James, Mary, Lavina, Barbara and Rivanna. Of the fifteen children born, many lived long and useful lives.

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            William and Elizabeth began their marriage and their farming careers near the home of her parents. There they lived for more than 13 years then moved to another tract nearby but continued to farm for the remainder of their lives.  The first of the fifteen children of William and Elizabeth was born a year after their marriage. Margaret, probably named for her grandmother, was born in November' 1822 but she lived only 22 months and died 14 September 1824. The second child' Rebecca Adeline was born 5 January 1825, just four months after Margaret'. death. Matilda J. came along 5 June 1826.

            Sadness and sorrow befell the Bagwell's and the Martin's in 1827. John Martin, the patriarch of the clan and the driving force for the move to Indiana, died and was buried on his farm. It is possible that his grand daughter' Margaret Bagwell who had died three years before, was the first to be buried in what is now the Martin Cemetery but there is no record to show that she was buried on the Martin farm. John Martin's death left his wife, Margaret, with nine children at home and a farm to run. With the death of his father-in-law, William Bagwell became the oldest adult male in the clan. How William functioned in this new responsibility is not known, but the family stayed together and, as we shall soon see, multiplied and thrived.

            The fourth child, Dorcas F., perhaps the F. stands for Farris, was born 9 October 1829. Dorcas, named for her great-grandmother, Dorcas Means Farris, lived only a few months and died 31 August 1830. The fifth child and the first son, John Wilkie was born 2 May 1830. The birth date for Dorcas appears to be in error.  More likely, her birth date was one year earlier in 1828. 

   (Each of the age categories match.  John Wilkie was only a few weeks old, William was 31 years of age,
Rebecca was 5, Matilda 4, and Elizabeth was 26.)

            The first decade in Indiana came to an end with much accomplished and great hope for the future. The Bagwells lived a few houses away from Margaret Martin.  Elizabeth's younger brother, William Blackstone Martin, lived nearby.  The Bagwells worked with the other Martin sons and daughters on the farm. In the 10 years since he left South Carolina, William had become married and the father of five children. He had acquired land and was busy farming. John Martin's will acknowledged a debt to Bagwell in the amount of $100.00 and directed that the debt be satisfied by purchase of land. Indeed, the land records show that William acquired an 80 acre tract in the same year that John Martin died.  The tract in Section 32 lay a quarter of mile west of the Martins.

            If William and Elizabeth could have foreseen the next ten years, one wonders what they might have thought of the prospect. Surely, they little considered that their family of five would have six additions during this ten year period and that five of the six children would be girls. But that is exactly what happened.

            The sixth child, Nancy, was born 14 August 1832. Just a year later on 9 March 1833, Minerva was born, and on 13 October 1834, Euphony was born. Two years later, on 2 October 1836,  Elvira Violet was born. Two years after her birth the 10th child, Sarah C. was born on 25 October 1838, and to round out the decade, James, the second son, was born on 27 June 1840.

            When the 1840 Census was taken, William and Elizabeth reported that they had nine children living at home, Margaret and Dorcas having died in infancy as reported earlier. In the first nineteen years of their marriage, they had eleven children, nine of whom were girls. 

            William was 41 in 1840 and Elizabeth was 36. With so many mouths to feed, it was necessary to work long hours and manage carefully. One wonders what life was like for this young family. The oldest child, Rebecca, was only 15 years of age and could not have been of significant help on the farm. The oldest male child was only ten years old. But the first 20 years since they came to Indiana from South Carolina had passed and they were established in Parke County.  Other pioneers from equally distant places had joined them in the search for a better life and the fertile Indiana soil yielded more than adequate harvests..

            The decade of the 1840's brought more children and more of the life that had marked their first 19 years of married life. They were hard working farmers of the rich Indiana soil and solid members of the community. While the membership has not been established, it seems likely that they attended the Farmers Chapel Evangelical United Brethren Church, a church near the community of Bellmore, Indiana.  That Church, located in Section 33, was very near the farms of the Martins and the Bagwells

            The l2th child, Mary Angeline, was born 14 June 1842. The l3th child, Lovina Frances, was born 27 April 1845. The 14th child, Rivanna, known as "Rise", was born 3 September 1847 and the last child, Barbara, was born 13 January 1850. In a period of 28 years, William and Elizabeth had 15 children. Thirteen of the children were girls and 11 children lived to maturity.

            The first of the children to marry and begin their own families occurred during the 1840's. Rebecca Adaline, the oldest surviving child, married William Cooper in February 1849 and Nancy married Hamilton Woodard in December 1849. It appears that John Wilkie, the oldest son, might have married that year also since he was not at home when the Census was taken in 1850. He married Margaret Low. 

            During the years following their marriage in 1822, William and Elizabeth lived within a few miles of the place where they began their marriage. William's successes as a farmer were both bitter and sweet. With so many children and almost all of them girls, he was largely left alone to manage. No doubt he was assisted by the brothers and sisters of Elizabeth who lived nearby but for the most part the duties of farming were his and he was, after all, the oldest male in the clan.

            Thirty years had now passed since that summer and fall in 1820 when the Martins had packed up their belongings, sold their place in South Carolina and started a new life on the frontier. The Bagwell family had lived in Indiana longer than they had lived anywhere else and they must have felt that they were natives by now.

            The 1850 United States Census for Parke County, Union Township, listed William Bagwell and his wife Elizabeth at ages 51 and 46, respectively. There were nine children, the youngest nine, living at home. Of the six older children, two were dead and three had married. Although Matilda had not married by the l850 Census taking, she was not living at home. The oldest child at home was Minerva at age 17, followed by Euphony, 16; Violet, 14; Sarah, 11; James' 10; Mary Angeline, 8; Lovina Frances, 3, Rivanna F. , 2; and Barbara! 11 months.

            What was life like for a 51 year old and his wife with nine children at home? How do you suppose they spent their time on weekends? Were they regular at church? Although the children did attend school, the frequency and length of terms are not known.

            The "full nest" that had so characterized the Bagwell family since the beginning of the marriage began to empty. During the decade form 1850 to 1860, five of the children married. Euphony married William Barton in December, 1852. Elvira Violet "Vira" married Benjamin Lacy Snow in March, 1857! and Sarah C. married William Durrow Mitchell in De­cember 1857. Matilda J. married Levi Moorer in October 1858, and Minerva married James Drake in May 1859. With the marriage of these children and the beginning of their own families, William and Elizabeth enjoyed the experiences of grandparents. Most of the children established home nearby and no doubt were frequent visitors.  There were grandchildren in abundance. 

            James Bagwell, the second son and a teenager of 17, died in February, 1857. His death marked the third of the 15 Bagwell children to end prematurely. He was buried in the Martin Cemetery.

            Sarah C. Bagwell's marriage to William Durrow Mitchell caused considerable turmoil in the Mitchell and Bagwell families. Mitchell had been married twice before, the last time to Sarah Foster Martin, the sister of Elizabeth Bagwell and thus, the aunt of Sarah Bagwell. When Sarah Martin Mitchell fell ill, Sarah Bagwell went to live with her aunt to take care of her. When Sarah Mitchell died, William Mitchell and Sarah Bagwell, his niece by marriage, were married. The family felt disgraced. Mitchell was 20 years older than Sarah Bagwell and although he was 41 at the time of their marriage, they lived together 41 years and had 11 children.

            When the 1860 Census was taken, William Bagwell was 61 years old and his wife, Elizabeth Martin Bagwell, was 57. The four youngest children were still at home and although William and Elizabeth had reached middle age and had been married 38 years, they still had young children at home.  

            It is apparent from the records that William and Elizabeth were not well off since the value of their farm was only $600.00. while the values returned by their relatives and neighbors were much larger. The Post Office was Sappenfield Mill and probably named for Absolom Sappenfield, a miller, whose son, Daniel Sappenfield, later married Rivanna.

            Like all the other States in the Union, Indiana had its burdens to bear as the Civil War exploded in April 1861.  William was beyond the age of military service.  Whether John Wilkie Bagwell served has not been established but the Martin nephews of William and Elizabeth surely did serve.  Although the  Civil War history of Parke County and Indiana exceeds the scope of this story,  the pain and hardship brought on by the conflict spared few families of a direct loss and spared none of the loss of relatives and friends.

            During the decade of the 1860-1870, only one of the children married. Mary Angeline married Owen J. Owen 10 August 1865 and they set up framing on the farm adjacent to William and Elizabeth. By 1870, the Owens had three children and were listed on the Census as farmers. In 1877, Mary and "Doc" moved to Arkansas and became the first of the Bagwell family to stretch the influence to Arkansas. Later, Mary and "Doc" would be joined by her younger sister, Lovina and William Lent Thompson who moved to Arkansas in 1893.

            Although William and Elizabeth were 70 and 67 years of age, respectively, they had three of their 15 children still at home. Rivana, age 24, Lovina, age 22, and Barbara, age 20,  were listed on the Census as resident s of the household. 

            William died 5 March 1872 and was buried in the Martin Cemetery. His death marked the last of the two seniors who had come to Indiana from South Carolina more than 50 years before. Just six months later on 14 September 1872, Barbara, the youngest child, died and was buried in the Martin Cemetery. Barbara's death brought to four the number of Bagwell children who had died before they reached adulthood.

            Elizabeth,  now a widow at age 68 and with two children yet at home, tried to manage the family. On 30 January 1873, Lovina Frances married William Lent Thompson, the son of Jesse Thompson and a neighbor of the Bagwell's. Thompson's first wife, Eliza Ann Cheadle, whom he had married in 1868 and by whom he had one son, had died in 1869 and the son also died. Thus, with Lovina's marriage, Elizabeth and Rivanna were left alone. Sometime before 1880, she and Rivanna moved into the home of her brother, John Martin Jr. and they were living there when the 1880 Census was taken. 

            Elizabeth lived ten years after William's death and died 9 June 1882. She was buried in the Martin Cemetery alongside her husband and two of her children. Rivanna, now the only living Bagwell child who had not married,  remained single until 10 January 1889, when at the age of 41, she wed Daniel Sappenfield.  That marriage ended too soon, a mere seven years,  with Sappenfield's death in March 1896.

            When William died in 1872, twelve of the fifteen children were living. The date of death for Matilda J. Bagwell is unknown. Barbara died within a few months of her father and was buried near him in the Martin Cemetery. John Wilkie Bagwell, having left Parke County many years before, died in 1894.  Euphony Bagwell Barton died in l911. Minerva Bagwell Drake died in 1914. Sarah C. Bagwell Mitchell died in l916 and was buried in the Martin Cemetery. Elvira Violet "Vira" Snow died in 1917 and was buried in the Pleasant Run Cemetery in Bridgeton, Indiana. Rebecca Adeline Bagwell Cooper died in 1920. Lovina Frances Bagwell Thompson, who had followed her sister, Mary, to Arkansas in 1893, died in 1923 and was buried in the McNew Cemetery in Faulkner County, Arkansas. Nancy Bagwell Woodard died in 1924. Mary Angeline Bagwell Owen died in l930 and was buried in the Conway Cemetery in Faulkner County, Arkansas. Rivanna Bagwell Sappenfield lived until 24 July 1935 and died in Parke County, Indiana and was buried in the Blake Cemetery. 

            With the death of Rivanna, all of the Bagwell children had died. Because John Wilkie, the only Bagwell male to reach adulthood and have children had relocated to Illinois, the Bagwell name in Parke County ended. Thus, from the birth of William in 1799 to the death of Rivanna in 1935, a period of 136 years, Bagwells had made a contribution to the building of the country. Almost all of the Bagwell ladies married, raised families, and died in Parke County.  Their descendants have spread far and wide. There is a marker in the Martin Cemetery that marks the graves of William, Elizabeth' James, and Barbara. Sarah Bagwell Mitchell's grave is nearby.

            Since John Wilkie was the only male descendent of William, few Bagwells were left to carry on the name of this early pioneer. In fact, John Wilkie Bagwell's story is not known but it is believed that he was the father of five children, two of whom were sons. Current scholarship has established his residence in Illinois but a careful examination of the Census records has thus far failed to show his listing. 

Descendants of William Bagwell

1 William Bagwell b: June 14, 1799 in South Carolina d: March 5, 1872 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery
.. +Elizabeth Elliott Martin b: September 28, 1804 in Spartanburg, SC m: 1821 in Parke Co., IN d: June 9, 1882 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery
. 2 Margaret Bagwell b: August 27, 1822 in Parke Co., IN d: September 14, 1824 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery
. 2 Rebecca Adaline Bagwell b: January 5, 1825 in Parke Co., IN d: November 1920 in Parke Co., IN
..... +William Cooper m: February 20, 1849 in Parke Co., IN.
. 2 Matilda J. Bagwell b: June 5, 1826 in Parke Co., IN
..... +Levi Mowrer m: October 8, 1858 in Parke Co., IN.
. 2 Dorcas F. Bagwell b: October 9, 1829 in Parke Co., IN d: July 31, 1830 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery
. 2 John Wilkie Bagwell b: May 2, 1830 in Parke Co., IN d: January 12, 1894 in Jasper Co.,IL
..... +Margaret Low b: 1834 in IA m: November 13, 1851 in Shelbyville, IL
. 2 Nancy Bagwell b: August 14, 1832 in Parke Co., IN d: December 7, 1924
..... +Hamilton Woodard b: February 6, 1829 m: December 11, 1849 in Parke Co., IN d: November 27, 1889
. 2 Minerva Bagwell b: March 9, 1833 in Parke Co., IN d: March 5, 1914
..... +James S. Drake m: May 30, 1859 in Parke Co., IN.
. 2 Euphony Bagwell b: October 13, 1834 in Parke Co., IN d: 1911 in Parke Co., IN
..... +William A. Barton b: 1831 in KY m: December 30, 1852 in Parke Co., IN
. 2 Elvira Violet Bagwell b: October 2, 1836 in Parke Co., IN d: October 4, 1917 in Parke Co.,IN-Bridgeton Burial: Pleasant Valley
..... +Benjamin Lacy Snow b: August 21, 1833 in Indiana m: March 5, 1857 in Parke Co., IN d: February 13, 1904 in Parke Co.,IN-Bridgeton Burial: Pleasant Valley
. 2 Sarah C. Bagwell b: October 25, 1838 in Parke Co., IN d: August 28, 1916 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery
..... +William Durrow Mitchell b: February 22, 1818 in Indiana m: December 12, 1857 in Parke Co., IN d: November 30, 1898 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery
. 2 James Bagwell b: June 27, 1840 in Parke Co., IN d: February 17, 1857 in Parke Co., IN-Martin Ce
. 2 Mary Angeline Bagwell b: June 14, 1842 in Parke Co., IN-Rockville d: January 31, 1930 in Faulkner Co., AR-Conway
..... +Owen J. "Doc" Owen b: January 23, 1842 in Washington Co.,AR-Fayetteville m: August 10, 1865 in Parke Co., IN-Rockville d: September 22, 1905 in Faulkner Co., AR-Greenbriar
. 2 Lovina Frances Bagwell b: April 27, 1845 in Parke Co., IN d: April 22, 1923 in Faulkner Co., AR Burial: McNew Cemetery
..... +William Lent Thompson b: October 27, 1844 in Nelson Co., KY m: January 30, 1873 in Parke Co., IN d: February 9, 1904 in Faulkner Co., AR Burial: McNew Cemetery
. 2 Rivanna Farris Bagwell b: September 3, 1847 in Parke Co., IN d: July 24, 1933 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Blake Cemetery
..... +Daniel Sappenfield b: November 22, 1839 in Parke Co., IN m: January 10, 1889 in Parke Co., IN. d: March 26, 1896 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Blake Cemetery
. 2 Barbara E. Bagwell b: January 13, 1850 in Parke Co., IN d: September 14, 1872 in Parke Co., IN Burial: Martin Cemetery

            William Bagwell was a remarkable man and he had the good fortune to marry a remarkable woman. While they did not have the benefits of formal schooling and William was unable to read or write, theirs were the lives and spirit that contributed to the establishment of this great country. They were a risk takers. At an early age, both left their  birth place to make a new life in the west where living was dangerous and hard and the rewards uncertain.

            They raised a family of 15 children, thirteen of whom were girls. All of the children who grew to adulthood became responsible and hard working citizens.  The legacy of William and Elizabeth continue to live through the lives of their thousands of descendants.  Their 50 year marriage, unusually long for the time, was an exemplar for the strong families established by their descendants.  With their quite and simple lives, they made a difference in their community, to their children and descendants, and they helped to establish a country where freedom and opportunity became the norm rather than the exception.  All of us who are descended from this great couple take pride in the way that their lives have influenced ours.

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