THOMAS LIGGETT

LIGGETT, BROWN, ARTHUR, HENDERSON, KIRVY KIRBY

Posted By: Sharon R. Becker (email)
Date: 11/17/2008 at 16:01:25

THOMAS LIGGETT

Biographical and Historical Record of Ringgold and Decatur Counties, Iowa
Lewis Publishing Company, 1887. pp. 278 - 279.

"Thomas LIGGETT, one of the enterprising business men of Mt. Ayr, where he carries on a fine grocery, is a native of Ohio, born on a farm in Union County, March 2, 1841, a son of Henry and Jane (Brown) Liggett, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Scotland, coming to America with her parents when four years of age.

They were married in Xenia, Ohio, and settled in Union County, where our subject grew to manhood, his youth being spent in assisting his father clear and improve their farm from a heavily-timbered tract of land.

Thomas Liggett went to Livingston County, Illinois, in 1858, where he taught a district school, remaining there until the summer of 1861, when he went to Monmouth, Illinois.

At the breaking out of the war of the Rebellion he enlisted in Company C, Thirty-sixth Illinois Infantry, when he was sent to Missouri. The first battle in which he participated was at Pea Ridge, when he was transferred to the Army of the Tennessee, and was at the siege of Corinth. In September, 1862, he was transferred to the Army of the Cumberland, and took part in the battle of Perryville and in the campaign of Stone River. The following spring he was in the Tullahoma campaign, then went to Bridgeport and through Georgia, and took part in the battle of Chickamauga, where he was wounded, being shot through the cheek, the ball coming out at the back of the neck. He was then sent to the hospital at Nashville, Tennessee, remaining there till the expiration of his term of service, when he was mustered out in September, 1864.

He then returned to Monmouth, Illinois, where he remained six years, during which time he followed the vocation of a teacher. He was married in February 1869, to Miss Catherine Arthur, a native of Warren county, Illinois. They have four children living -- two sons and two daughters.

In 1870 Mr. Liggett went to Grand Prairie, his father's old home, where he had died in 1862, and there he followed farming on the homestead for two years, when he sold the farm and returned to Warren County, Illinois, and was engaged in the hardware business in the town of Alexis for two years.

In the spring of 1875 he came with his family to Mt. Ayr, Ringgold County, Iowa, and soon formed a partnership with John R. Henderson and engaged in the grocery business, on the south side of the square. Mr. Henderson retired from the firm in the following spring, when Mr. Liggett took John S. Kirvy as a partner, with whom he was associated until July, 1878, when Mr. Liggett retired from the firm.

He was then nominated clerk of the courts on the Republican ticket, being elected by a majority of seventy-eight votes, assuming the duties of his office in January, 1879; was re-elected in 1880 by a majority of 600 votes, and in 1882 was again elected to the same office, holding that position, in all, six years, after which he embarked in the grocery business, and by his courteous and affable manner, and strict attention to the wants of his many customers, he has built up a good trade and gained the confidence and respect of the community.

Both Mr. and Mrs. Liggett are members of the United Presbyterian church, of which he is serving as elder."

Submitted to the Ringgold County IAGenWeb Project by Christy Jay, email: Jaygenie@aol.com