Champion Twin Brothers


Joshua L. Hardy and his identical twin brother, Thomas M. Hardy, were born November 20, 1827 in Montgomery County, Tennessee (see here for the Bird Hardy family record). They were the sons of Bird Hardy who was born in Pittsylvania County, Virginia and his wife Tiersey Tyre who was born in Montgomery County, Tennessee.

Below is a photograph of Joshua, Thomas and their younger brother James Bird Hardy. Joshua is seated, with Thomas on the left of the photograph and James to the right wearing the longer coat and showing a gold watch chain. We can deduce who is who by comparing this photograph with this one of Thomas and his wife.

Hardy Brothers. l-r: Thomas, Joshua (seated) and James B.
original tintype taken around 1885

                Thomas married Nancy G. Sizemore on September 30, 1850 in Trigg County, Kentucky. Some four years later, Joshua married Martha Susan Sizemore on September 28, 1854 at her father’s home in Trigg County, Kentucky. Martha was Nancy’s younger sister and they were daughters of Anderson Perry Sizemore and his wife Sarah Goode both originally from Halifax County, Virginia.

                Thomas and Nancy had no children. Joshua and Martha had the following children: Sarah, Elizabeth, Mary, John, Eliza, William Lewis, and Thomas. In addition, there were two unnamed daughters born to the family who died in infancy.

The Joshua L. Hardy family, ca. 1889, Gracey/Sinking Fork, Kentucky
l-r: William Lewis, John James, Martha (seated), Eliza E., Joshua (seated), Mary A., Elizabeth V.

               In the book, County of Christian, Kentucky by William H. Perrin (1884), Joshua and Thomas were both included in the same biographical sketch “as one is the counterpart of the other, about all the difference in them being in name.” The sketch goes on to say that “They are the champion twin brothers of the county, having weighed in the same notch for many years, and ‘each is the other’ to such a confusing extent as to nearly obliterate their individual identity…” A neighbor told the writer that the only way he could tell them apart “is that one usually wears his pants in his boots, while the other has his on the outside.”
 Joshua and Thomas were lifelong farmers and had farms of about 250 acres each lying near each other in the Bainbridge District of Christian County, Kentucky. Both voted Democrat and were members of the Masonic fraternity. According to the sketch, the twins were “held in high esteem by their fellow-citizens and are men of substantial worth to the community.”

              Joshua died on May 26, 1892 in Christian County, Kentucky (his funeral card is highlighted here). His brother Thomas died on September 3, 1903 with Nancy following a few short months later on January 26, 1904. Joshua’s wife Martha lived until May 23, 1915. All four were buried in the Sadler/Hardy family cemetery on the family property in Gracey, Kentucky.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bannerman Family Mystery

Image
Among the many old photographs originally in my grandfather's possession, there is one that has haunted me and has remained a mystery all these years. The photograph is of three children with their names and ages typeset at the bottom of the photograph. “William, 10 years, Robert 8, and Maggie Bennerman, 4 Years Old.” Who were they? My grandfather was not able to identify them, though his memory was remarkably sharp and accurate until his death at the age of 96. I first noticed this picture and the others that my grandfather had in 1989 when I embarked on the adventure of genealogy. Since then I have traced all of my father's ancestors at least back to the early 1800s (and a lot beyond). But I never ran into the Bennerman name, anywhere. Not as ancestors of mine, not even as neighbors. I am lucky enough to even have a name to match the faces in the photograph in the first place. Early in my research, I visited the Tampa stake of the LDS church and I mentioned the Bennerman na...
Read more

Friday Faces from the Past: Moorefield

Image
I am perusing through old photographs from my paternal grandparents side these days. In essence, I have been visiting Kentucky although really only in my mind. Things like this come and go in spurts. I have not looked at the research I have done on these lines in a number of years but every now and them something draws me back. What pulled me this time was an email from a gentleman who saw a photograph on my blog that was taken by Randolph in Cadiz, Kentucky (see the photo here ). This gentleman informed me that he and another local historian were doing research on this photographer who did work in Cadiz from about 1893 to 1913. He wanted to know if I would share an electronic copy of the photograph and also asked if I had anymore photographs taken by Randolph. I hunted around and found one more. This is a photograph identified by my grandfather as "My daddy's first cousin [John Willis Watts], Otis Moorefield." Otis Moorefield (1875-1958) Until I put the two tog...
Read more

Ellicottville Serendipity

Image
Old embossed medicine bottle "Glenn N. Alexander, Pharmacist, Ellicottville, NY" Hanover Town Historian Vince Martonis wrote an article in 2022 for the Greater Buffalo Bottle Collectors Association ( GBBCA ) newsletter about a series of events regarding an old whiskey bottle from Ellicottville. These events ended up bringing him full circle to a connection with an old friend who has since passed. Some years prior, Mr. Martonis told me about the bottle which had a label indicating it was filled with rye whiskey from M.E. Dinneen of Ellicottville that I wound up purchasing from a local antique market. I ended up bringing it to Bryan Scharf at Ellicottville Distillery and we hatched a plan to have a reproduction bottled and labeled to commemorate the town’s bicentennial in 2020. In contacting me for further details about how that all came about, I mentioned Bryan’s last name to Mr. Martonis. He wondered if Bryan was related to his friend Don Scharf, a former fellow member ...
Read more