Today when I got home and checked the mail, I found that a distant cousin had sent me an amazing picture of a distant uncle.  Thomas Irwin (1818-1894) was the brother of my gggg-grandfather William Irwin.  (I wrote about finding a picture of William Irwin back in January.)  The Irwins lived in Alleghany Co, west of Sparta.

This picture of Thomas Irwin and his wife Lucinda Caudill may be the oldest picture I've ever seen of one of my ancestors.  They were married in 1854 when he was 36 and she was 21.  I believe this tin type photo may have been taken sometime between 1854 and 1861 when the Civil War started.  In 1864, Thomas enlisted in the Senior Reserves and was likely stationed in Salisbury at the prison guarding Yankee prisoners.

Thomas and Lucinda had 7 children including a son Wiley P. Irwin, who himself had a son named Walter Monroe Irwin (1895-1952) who was an important figure in the community.  Walter (shown at the right) spent several years teaching at various schools, co-owned the Irwin Brothers Barber Shop on Main Street in Sparta, and served as a policeman for two years in the early 1930s.  In 1934 he was elected sheriff of Alleghany Co, serving until 1938.  In 1939 he became a Deputy US Marshall stationed in Wilkesboro. 

I like to think that my great-grandfather on another side of my family helped get him elected sheriff in 1934.  A year earlier in 1933, Walter M. Irwin helped lead in the capture of Ransom Brooks and the "worst criminal gang in Alleghany".  If it hadn't been for the criminal ways of my great-grandfather, maybe Walter Irwin wouldn't have gained the notoriety he needed to get elected.

Walter Irwin has several Irwin descendants in the Elkin area.