The University of Massachusetts Amherst
Robert S. Cox Special Collections & University Archives Research Center
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Twiss, Thomas D.

Thomas D. Twiss Account Book

1829-1873
1 fol. 0.1 linear feet
Call no.: MS 921 bd

A farmer and laborer in Antrim, N.H., Thomas Dimon Twiss was born in Beverly, Mass., in 1801. At the age of 24, Twiss married a local Antrim woman, Betsey Brackett, with whom he raised a family of three children.

This typical single-column account book of the mid-nineteenth century records Twiss’s diverse economic transactions, providing labor for the town in “braking rods” [breaking roads] and “digin graves”and to neighbors and for a wide variety of manual farm labor, including killing hogs, plowing, threshing, haying, and assorted carpentry work.

Background on Thomas D. Twiss

Thomas Dimon Twiss (sometimes spelled Twist) was born in Beverly, Mass., on Dec. 23, 1801, one of nine children born to Dimon Cressy Twiss (1773-1861) and his first wife Sarah Ireson. As an infant, Twiss and his family relocated to southern Hillsborough County, N.H., where Sarah died in 1815. Thomas established himself in the town of Antrim, where he was listed as a farmer in the federal censuses of 1850 and 1870. At various times, he supplemented his livelihood by working for the town, including as a sexton and on bridges and roads, and by providing agricultural labor for other members of the community.

On Jan. 30, 1834, Twiss married Betsey Brackett of Antrim, with whom he had one son Alfred C. (ca.1837-1875) and two daughters, Sarah E. (Mrs. Charles J.) Davis (1840-1870) and Hannah A. (Mrs. Nathan D.) Curtis (1843-1911). He died of pneumonia on Mar. 21, 1876, and is buried at North Branch Cemetery, Antrim.

Contents of Collection

This typical single-column account book of the mid-nineteenth century records Twiss’s diverse economic transactions, providing labor for the town in “braking rods” [breaking roads] and “digin graves” and to neighbors and for a wide variety of manual farm labor, including killing hogs, plowing, threshing, haying, and assorted carpentry work.

Administrative information
Provenance

Gift of Bob Paynter, June 2016.

Originally donated to the George C. Frison Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology at the University of Wyoming, apparently by a person who had acquired it at a yard sale, the Twiss account book was given to Bob Paynter of the UMass Amherst Department of Anthropology in August 2009, who donated it to SCUA with his papers in June 2016.

Processing Information

Processed by I. Eliot Wentworth, July 2016.

Copyright and Use (More informationConnect to publication information)

Cite as: Thomas D. Twiss Account Book (MS 921 bd). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries.

Subjects

Antrim (N.H.)--Economic conditions--19th centuryFarmers--New Hampshire--19th centuryGrave diggers--New Hampshire--19th century

Types of material

Account books