David A. Tharp was born August 2, 1825, in Twiggs County, Georgia where he was reared and educated. When he was 22 years old, he went to Louisiana to visit some relatives. Along the way in Wilcox County, Alabama, on February 05, 1849 he married his first cousin Miss Elizabeth Ann M. "Ann" Jefferson. Elizabeth was born September 24, 1833 in Alabama. (Note: In Thomas Jefferson's succession papers it is quoted as saying "Ann M. Jefferson wife of David Tharp" and then later "Estate of Ann Backus" For the marriage record of her second marriage it is recorded as "Mrs. Anna Tharp." The name of Elizabeth is never mentioned.)

David joined Stone Creek Baptist Church on August 25, 1845. He was immediately given an assignment as in the Minutes of November 22, 1846 he was one of the persons appointed to write letters to churches in the neighborhood. Attendance to church services and to church conferences were mandatory and if a person was planning to be absent it was necessary to notify the church. In the Church Minutes of February 26, 1848 this item is recorded: "Upon application a degree of lenity was granted to Bro. David Tharp for absence this year who showed good reason why he wished the church to retain his name and bear with his absence for the said length of time."

The couple continued on to Louisiana and engaged in planting. David died on June 29, 1852. After David's death, Ann remarried a James Backus on November 1, 1853 in Desoto Parish, Louisiana. James had posed as a minister. He left with David's watch and a number of other things, and she never saw him again. Ann died in June 1855, and her father died just a couple months later. The children appear to have stayed with their grandmother for a short time, but she also became "infirmed" so the children were returned to Georgia to live with their grandfather, Charnick, and then later their uncle and aunt, Washington and Margaret (Hawkins) Tharp.

To this union three children were born. Only two survived: 1. Thomas Jefferson Tharp 2. Elizabeth Ann Tharp Thomas Torbert.

References:
Notes on the Allentharp and Tharp Families - Eleanor Pearl Davis 1944
Memoirs of Georgia - Southern Historical Association
Census records
Louisiana Marriage Records
Succession papers of Thomas Jefferson
Sifting Through the Ashes - Eleanor Davis McSwain

Revised April 12, 2008