They moved to Alabama sometime before their son David Adolphus was born in 1854. In 1870 they moved to Smith Co, Texas, buying a place in the northeast part of the county from Hundley FOWLER. This house was built in 1852 in the Center Community, nine miles north of Tyler. It was made of hand-dressed lumber and put together with square nails. It sat in an old-fashioned garden of roses, poppies and many other blooms. A bell on a long pole was used to call the hands from the field at meal times.
"The main road near their house as the old Tyler-Shreveport road and about 1 1/2 miles north of this house it joins the Dallas-Shreveport road. The home was the free hotel to hundreds of traveling salesmen who then toured the county in horse and buggy would spend the night at the Wiggins home. They always paid for their lodging, and sometimes left free samples of goods. However there were many peddlers who walked with heavy packs on their backs, most of whom were too poor to pay. There were many foreign peddlers such as Syrians and the Wiggins family found their guests nearly always interesting."*
In 1871 Elihu was listed as a deacon of Harris Creek Baptist Church.
Children of Elihu and Bess:
Elihu died 5 September 1911 and Judith died 16 February 1912. They are both buried in the Harris Creek Cemetery, Smith Co, Texas.
They lived in the house with Dolph's parents and raised their children there. Children of this marriage were:
All the children were born in Smith Co, Texas and buried in Center Cemetery, Smith Co, Texas. E. C. and Claude E. OLIVE are believed to be the same person although what is stated is what was in the Smith County Marriage Book II, 1900-1926. He was born 20 February 1884 and died 20 Sep 1929. He is also buried in the Center Cemetery, Smith Co, Texas.
Dolph died 16 June 1924 and Anna died 6 January 1918. They are both buried in the Center Cemetery, Smith Co, Texas.
Pictures - John Culpepper
Cemetery Records Smith County, Texas, Volume V, Northeast Quarter; East Texas Genealogical Society,1987
Marriage Records of Smith County, Texas, 1846-1899; East Texas Genealogical Society, 1979
Marriage Records of Smith County, Texas, 1900-1926; East Texas Genealogical Society, 1999
Smith County TX US Federal Census -
Chronicles of Smith County, Texas, Vol. 11, No. 1, Spring 1972, Harris Creek Baptist, page 10