My great-grandmother Mary Biggs Arnett was
a descendant of Elijah
Biggs, Sr. whose pedigree is
unknown. Elijah was born in 1762 in Tyrrell County, North Carolina according to
his unsuccessful Revolutionary War pension application. His pension was denied
because he had served only three months in the North Carolina line, but the application file contained a
wealth of information. It seems our Elijah lived under an assumed name for the
final years of his life, having apparently murdered a young man who had sullied
the reputation of one of Elijah's daughters, believed to have been Temperance
Biggs. The details of the alleged murder are unknown. Temperance first married a young man
named John Webb in Logan County, Kentucky. Four years later, she married Samuel
Tucker in Christian County, Kentucky. What happened to Temperance after that
time is unknown.
Elijah, Sr. and his unknown wife apparently had at least four
children: Temperance, William, Elijah Jr. and Sarah "Sally".
Two of these four -- Sally and Elijah Jr. -- are my ancestors. Virtually nothing is known about William Biggs. Sarah "Sally" Biggs married Theophilus
Moutray in Christian County. He was the son
of William Moutray and his wife Ann, who may have been a member of the Lacy
family of Virginia and North Carolina. (Sally and Theophilus' daughter
Temperance Moutray married Abner Reed -- and Abner and Tempy's daughter
was the Dicey Reed who married John Biggs). Elijah Biggs, Jr. married Mary
"Polly" Brown.
Elijah and Polly
had several children, not all of them positively identified. Both Elijah
and his wife were born in North Carolina, but it is not known where or when
they married. Their children included: Elephair, Christopher Columbus, John
James Madison, Joseph B., James Monroe Alexander, Elsa
Elgada, and Elzada. The names of two oldest children are
uncertain. The older children were all born in Kentucky, but the family
had moved to Illinois by the time James Monroe Alexander Biggs and his younger sisters
were born.
Elijah, Jr. served in the Black Hawk War in Illinois and died in
August 1849 in Johnson County, Illinois. His wife survived him and married
Larkin Cantrell. Apparently Mr. Cantrell was unwilling to provide for all her
children, as the boys were farmed out to the McCreary family. The
McCreary's were strong abolitionists in the years leading up to the Civil War.
Most of Elijah
and Polly's sons lived their adult lives in Illinois, mostly Franklin County.
The daughters married and moved away, as did John James Madison
Biggs. John married Dicy Reed, daughter of Abner Reed and Temperance
Moutray of Shelby & Fayette County, Illinois, in 1858 in Moultrie County,
Illinois. John and Dicy lived near her parents in Fayette County, Illinois for
a period of time in which their daughter Mary was born.
John and Dicy Reed Biggs apparently
moved to Missouri in the late 1860's or early 1870's, as they appear in the
1860 Fayette County Census, but not the 1870 Census. They were living
in Richwood Township is McDonald County, Missouri by the time of the 1880
Census. Daughter Mary Biggs married Anvil James Arnett in McDonald County
in 1875. John and Dicey were also the parents of:Joseph Dudley Biggs, Minnie Biggs,
James D. Biggs, Myrtle Biggs, John Quincy Biggs, and WIlliam C. Biggs. Dicey Reed Biggs died in
1912 (place unknown) and is buried in McDonald County, Missouri. John
Biggs died July 10, 1924 and is buried in McDonald County as well. Although
both died after death certificates were deemed mandatory in
Missouri, a request for death certificates for each determined that
Missouri's vital statistics division had no records for either
one. 
