Person:Thomas Paxton (21)

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~thomaspaxtonjr/Paxton/Paxton%20Family%20Ties%20VII.htm

Thomas Paxton was born, May 30, 1801, and grew to manhood on the old Paxton farm of his father. He married Polly Edley and settled in the vicinity of Fairfield where his twin sons Thomas and David Edley were born, June 29, 1834. The father and husband became became one of the most prominent men of the community and when the Civil War broke out, his sympathies were placed on the side of the South. Being a man of sixty, he was too old for military service although he had achieved rank of Colonel in the militia. Thomas Paxton, one of the twins born to Col. Thomas Paxton, married Sarah Snyder and they were parents of several children who died in infancy. He was a soldier of the Confederacy and saw such hard service that he died on June 3, 1863. His service was in the Stonewall Brigade and he is said to have been an officer.

The other twin son of Col. Thomas Paxton, David Edley, was reared on his father's farm and being of a frail physique, he saw no service in the army. After the war, in 1868, he opened a general store on Moffatt's Creek where, on December 12, 1871, he married Annie East, a member of a pioneer family of that community. They became the parents of six sons, viz; Thomas R., David E., James R., Lawrence E., and Eugene F. William; the other son of Capt. Thomas Paxton and his wife Martha Stele, married Isabella Kirkpatrick, who was born about 1800. The family met with adverse circumstances and the finances were soon depleted. When the husband and father died, he left the widow without a cent and ten children to be reared. Most courageously Mrs. Paxton made the struggle of a difficult task. It was most fortunate for the children that her strength and health remained until youngest child was self supporting. Then she died. The last of the family to survive was Thomas, who lived in the vicinity of Fairfield at the turning of the century.