Local History: Pioneer Profiles - Cicero Twist and Evan Barrickman
- Terri
- 2 days ago
- 9 min read
Two pioneers in Nixon Township who left lasting footprints were Cicero Twist, blacksmith and medicine man, and his father-in-law Evan Barrickman. They both have descendants living in DeWitt County today.
Pioneer Profiles - Cicero Twist and Evan Barrickman
Two pioneers in Nixon Township who left lasting footprints were Cicero Twist and his father-in-law Evan Barrickman. They both have descendants living in DeWitt County today.
The Twist family came to Illinois from New York in 1821. John, his wife Phebe and sons Thaddeus and Cicero first settled in Woodside Township, Sangamon County. Phebe would make sweet cheese, and John would haul it by ox cart down an old buffalo trace to St. Louis to sell. By doing so, they earned the money to buy government land, and by 1826 they had moved to Rochester Township. John also bought 2 parcels in Clear Lake Township, where his neighbors were Jacob and Elias Coppenbarger, father and brother of John Coppenbarger, one of DeWitt County’s first settlers. They most surely were acquainted with, or at least aware of, each other.
In 1829 or 1830, John built a saw and grist mill on a branch of the Sangamon River. In the meantime, John and Phebe added two more sons and a daughter to their family. A land record dated 10 Jul 1832 states John and Phebe sold their mill and land in Clear Lake to Ephraim Darling for $1600. Just three days later, John was discovered dead at the mill. Historical accounts leave no clue as to his cause of death. If foul play was involved, surely it would be mentioned. Was it natural causes? Suicide? He was only about 40 years old.
Here is where records begin to conflict. Most historical accounts state that John Twist died July 10, 1831 (after all, that’s what is on his tombstone) and Darling bought the mill from his estate. Local histories weren’t being written until 20 years or more after the fact, so some of their information fell short. If we study John’s probate record (thank you, IRAD and Internet!), we learn that his date of death was actually July 13, 1832. He died intestate (without a will), and his estate wasn’t settled until 1836. It probably took so long because his estate had several accounts due from transactions at the mill, along with payments from Darling, presumably on the balance of the $1600 land purchase. Of particular interest is a bill submitted from a local craftsman.
While it is faded and difficult to read, it states a coffin was made for John Twist on July 13, 1832, likely the very day he died. Another coffin is made on May 27, 1833 for T. Twist, John and Phebe’s son Thaddeus (likely named after his maternal grandfather, Patriot Thaddeus Russell). It also submits charges for fencing in three graves and making three “boards” (wooden grave markers), which would be for John, Thaddeus and another son, Milow, who died in boyhood.
In 1834, a certificate was issued in Phebe’s name for a parcel of government land in Cooper Township (widows could own land in their own name). Then on 8 Jan 1835, she married James Stewart, a wealthy widowed neighbor. A little girl was born, Charlotte Emeline Stewart, then Phebe and the infant returned to her old homestead. What? The land John and Phebe owned in Rochester Township went to their three living children (Cicero, Joanna and John Almon) after John’s death, as Phebe had kept some chattel property in lieu of her “widow’s thirds” right to land inheritance. The parcel in her name, however, became the property of her new husband. This scenario seems so unlikely to me, though Phebe was still within childbearing age. I have to wonder if her daughter Joanna was the true mother, and Phebe struck a deal with James Stewart to protect her daughter’s reputation. To top it off, Phebe died soon after returning to her old home place, her reported date of death being 11 Jan 1836, just one year and a few days after her second marriage. Someone had to breastfeed this child, and Joanna ended up raising her. James Stewart did name her as his child in his will, though he left the bulk of his fortune to the daughter who cared for him in his old age. Charlotte Emeline was bequeathed just five dollars, same as most of Stewart’s other children. In 1841, Stewart signed a quit-claim deed in exchange for one dollar, returning ownership of Phebe’s land to her children, who were by now adults.
Did Phebe die in 1836 or was that just the date on her tombstone? As we learned from John’s probate record, he, Thaddeus and Milow had wooden grave markers. Today, there is a large stone monument in the village of Rochester cemetery memorializing John, Phebe, Thaddeus and Milow. We know from probate that John died in 1832 and Thaddeus in 1833, but the monument is engraved with 1831 and 1832, respectively. I believe that John and Phebe’s surviving children, who were minors when they died, exhumed their bodies from the old home place and had them reinterred at the cemetery, probably in the mid-1850’s. By 1858, they had all sold their part-interest in the land they inherited and were living prosperous lives of their own, well able to afford a beautiful monument. But if two dates are wrong, can the others be trusted? Unfortunately, there were no death records being kept then, and newspapers were hit-and-miss, and they missed the Twist family.
Inscriptions:
West side – John Twist died July 10, 1831 aged 39 years. Phoebe wife of J. Twist died Jan. 11, 1836 aged 37 Y’s 6 mo.
North side – Milow son of J. & P. Twist died Aug. 28, 1831 aged 7 Y’s 2 mo. 2 d.
South side – Thadeus son of J. & P. Twist died May 26, 1832 aged 15 Y’s 1 mo.
Side note regarding names – Phoebe is spelled here with an “O” but old records always spell it “Phebe” or even “Pheby.” Google says adding the O came into fashion around 1839. Milow has a W on the end, but that was dropped in later use of the name. Thadeus is engraved with one D, but his grandfather Thaddeus is recorded with two D’s. Their surviving son John Almon (not Almond like the nut) got his middle name from the Bible.
Evan Barrickman came to Sangamon County from Indiana around 1835 and purchased a government parcel of land in Rochester Township not far from the Twist property. His beginnings are uncertain, though it is believed he was born in 1800, and Census records from his adult years indicate his state of birth was Indiana. The first official record bearing his name is his marriage to Polly Shock in 1825 in Clark County, IN. (She is an even bigger mystery – more on that later.) They brought two children with them from Indiana and had six more in Sangamon County.
Their oldest child, Sarah, became the wife of Cicero Twist in 1845. They had two daughters when they sold their Sangamon County holdings and came to DeWitt County in August of 1848. They purchased government land in section 8 of Nixon Township, about two miles west of where Weldon is today. While there had been some land purchases in Nixon Township prior to this, the Twist family were the first residents. In fact, their first child born here, Milo, has this engraved on his tombstone: Milo Twist was the first white boy born in Nixon Township. It says he was born in 1849, but there is some evidence indicating that he was actually born in October of 1848, just two months after their arrival. While the tombstone inscription may seem politically incorrect today, at least it acknowledges the existence of a prior race.
Cicero Twist was a unique man, known for his height (well over six feet) and his “Indian” ways. While his primary occupation was blacksmith, he was also considered a medicine man and was known to take lengthy trips hunting, trapping and gathering wild vegetation for his medicine. It didn’t take long for him to be well known in the area, mainly for his blacksmith services, but also for his accumulation of land and wealth. He donated land for a school, and the Twist schoolhouse was still used for education, church services and as a community gathering place for many years after Cicero’s death. He and Sarah had eight children who lived to adulthood.
(One son, Wesley, moved to Moultrie County where he farmed some acreage his father had purchased there. In 1898, at age 40, he committed suicide by hanging. According to testimony at the inquest, Wesley was known to have “spells” and had made a suicide attempt several years previously. Purely speculation, but perhaps his grandfather John hanged himself at the mill in 1832?)
Sarah Barrickman Twist died in 1867, just 41 years of age. A few months later, Cicero married Sarah Tyler, widow of James Enos, but there were no children born to them. His second wife died in 1878, but Cicero lived another 25 years, to age 83. By the time he died in 1903, he had accumulated close to 500 acres of farm land plus additional estate holdings worth $22,590 (a little over a million 2026 dollars).
Evan Barrickman and his wife followed their daughter Sarah to DeWitt County sometime between 1850 and 1855 and also purchased government land near the Twists. All their children were born in Sangamon County, and all of them came along to DeWitt County, none having yet reached adulthood other than Sarah. The marriage record says Evan married Polly Shock in Indiana, but there do not seem to be any families with the surname Shock living there at that time. There are a couple of Shockleys, but no connection can be made to Evan’s bride. It is unlikely that her legal name was Polly – it was a common nickname in those days. Her gravestone, assuming Evan was married only once, says her given name was Mary. When their daughter Charlotte Angeline (called Angie) got married in 1882, she recorded her mother’s name as Mary Powers. A biographical profile of her husband says her surname was Applegate. For now, Evan Barrickman’s wife’s true identity remains a mystery. She died in 1870 at age 63, according to her tombstone.
Evan and Mary had 10 children, two of them sons. Allen volunteered for the Union Army at age 29, was wounded at the Battle of Shiloh and died a couple days later in April of 1862. Son Melville died of unknown causes in 1871 at age 24. Neither young man had a wife or children. Of the remaining daughters, two died in infancy and the rest married and left home except for Angie. She remained at home to care for her aging father, who died in 1880 at the age of 80. Evan remembered all his living daughters and grandchildren of those who were deceased in his will, but he left the bulk of his estate, including the farm, to Angie in appreciation for her care. Two years later, at age 38, she married James Coffman and they had two children who survived to adulthood. The Barrickman-Coffman farm can be found on the sesquicentennial (150 years or more) list of heritage farms on the Illinois Department of Agriculture website.
Cicero Twist has an elaborate monument over his gravesite at Lisenby Cemetery. It is located on the hill on the east side, older part of the cemetery. Several Barrickman family members are interred just behind him, but their stones are in poor condition. They all had basic tablet-style tombstones which have not held up well. Allen’s broken stone can be seen in this picture in the background on the left. Melville’s stone is to the right of that one, on the ground. Further to the left are headstones for Louisa Mentzer, their daughter who married and died two years later without children, and to the left of her is Mary, wife of Evan. (Neither of these stones are in the picture.) Evan’s probate records show payment for a tombstone, but unfortunately, it has gone missing. In all likelihood it was destroyed at some point by a falling tree limb. Maybe one day, someone will erect a marker in his honor.
Sources
FamilySearch Full Text app
IRAD (Illinois Regional Archives Depository System)
Ancestry.com
DeWitt County Probate Files
DeWitt County Marriage Records
Family Maps of Sangamon County, IL by Gregory A. Boyd, J. D.
1875 DeWitt County Plat Book
Illinois Department of Agriculture at Illinois.org
Terri Lemmel was born and raised in DeWitt County near Kenney. Upon completing her education at Clinton High School, she lived in Bloomington for several years before returning to Clinton in 1990. Her interest in genealogy was piqued in the mid-90s when she found unidentified obituaries in her late grandmother's scrapbook that family members could not identify. While she initially dabbled in the subject, it wasn't until her retirement in 2018 that she jumped in with both feet. Terri joined the Genealogical Society and has been serving as its President since 2022. Research is a passion of hers, and there are lots of interesting stories to uncover! You can find Terri in the DeWitt County Genealogical Society room at the Vespasian Warner Public Library every Thursday completing research and helping others with their family and local history research.
To learn more about the DeWitt County Genealogical Society, feel free to reach out to them via phone at 217-935-5174, email at dewittcgs@gmail.com, their website, or their Facebook page.
The Vespasian Warner Library, located at 310 N. Quincy St. in Clinton, IL, features an extensive collection of local history and archives. To learn more, visit our Local History Page on the website or stop by in person! We are always excited to showcase our local history resources and discuss DeWitt County's local history.
