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- MA Joshua Sr. was living in Westborough, MA when the a larm sounded on April 19, 1775, the beginning of the Revolutionary War. H e was 24 years old at that time. He immediately enlisted as a private i n Captain Seth Morse's militia in Colonel Ward's Regiment. He served in C aptain Mose Wheelock's Regiment. He was with Colonel Cushing's Regiment a t Fishhill in June 7, 1778. He served there for the rest of the war, an d some time after the war--all together it was almost seven years--thus s howing the true pioneer spirit of the love of freedom.
After the war Joshua Twitchell Sr. returned to Westborough and married S arah Miller. Soon after their marriage they purchased land in Fitzwilli am, Cheshire, NH on January 7, 1882. Their first four childr en were born in Fitzwilliam, NH. They were Mary (Polly), bor n 1783, a little boy, Joshua, born in 1785, who died very young, and an other baby boy born in 1787, and a baby girl born in 1789. The last two b oth died so young they evidently didn't get names; at least none were f ound.
Joshua Twitchell Sr. and Sarah, his wife, then sold their place in New H amshire on August 5, 1790. They bought new acreage just across the Conn ecticut River in Dummerston, VT on November 5, 1790. It w as here in Vermont they became the parents of Louisa (Lois), born in 17 91; Joshua Jr. born September 12, 1794; William, born October 18, 1797; M eroi, born in 1799; Maruah, born April 20, 1801, and Ephraim born May 1 8, 1803.
WEST IN OH
In about 1787 General Putnam of MA Militia petitioned George W ashington to grant a tract of land to officers and other men who had se rved in the Revolution. This plan was to attract settlers to help devel op newly acquired Federal lands. It was done in the form of grants. Th e OH Land Company was formed and the development of OH began.
Joshua Twitchell Sr. then decided to move his family to these richer fa rm lands in the OH Valley. They settled in what became Meigs County.
New settlers always located on land near rivers, for there were no road s at that time, and the rivers provided transportation and communicatio n. These new settlers farmed for their living in the spring and summer , and cut trees and rafted the logs down the river to a saw mill in the f all and winter. The men who ran the saw mill would cut the logs into lu mber on shares, to be paid to them out of the final sale of the lumber. T his was hard and hazardous work because of flash floods and rapids--som etimes destroying their whole investment.
Joshua Sr.'s son, Joshua Jr. (Ephraim's brother) served in the War of 1 812. He would have been only about 18 years old at that time. By the t ime of the Civil War there were many Twitchells who served from the Nor th. Many Twitchells died in World War I and World War II.
The Twitchells came from Holliston, MA, moved to F itzwilliam, Cheshire, NH, then to Dummerston, Windham County , Vermont, and then to Salisbury, Gallia County, OH. They lived in Oh io for many years. It was in Gallia County, OH that Joshua Twitchell S r. died October 13, 1816, leaving Joshua Jr. age 22 to take on much mor e responsibility. Young Ephraim was only 13 years old.
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Puffer Genealogy
1750 - 1816 (65 years)