Home to a Politician & Jurist

Asa Biggs (1811-1878), a prominent North Carolina politician and jurist, and his wife, Martha, built this Federal and Greek Revival—style house and lived here from 1835 to 1862. Biggs practiced law from his office just across Smithwick Street.



Biggs served in the state legislature from 1840 to 1847 and in the U.S. Senate from 1854 to 1858. President James Buchanan appointed him a federal district judge in 1858; he resigned in 1861 when North Carolina seceded, and Confederate President Jefferson Davis then appointed him a district judge. Biggs moved his family west to Tarboro in 1862, when the Union army approached Williamston. Federal soldiers slept and cooked in the parlor here and kept their horses on the rear verandah.



Two of Biggs sons, William and Henry, joined the Confederate army as teenagers in 1861 and 1864 respectively. William Biggs survived the war, but Henry was wounded at Appomattox Station, Virginia, on April 8, 1865, the day before Gen. Robert E. Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and died four days later.



After the war, Asa Biggs resumed his law practice in Tarboro, where he joined other North Carolina lawyers protesting the state supreme court alleged partisanship during the 1869 presidential campaign. Rather than face contempt charges or apologize, Biggs moved his family to Norfolk, Virginia, where his brother lived. Biggs died there in 1878.



This house remained in the Biggs family until 1928. In 1978, the Martin County Historical Society purchased it. During restoration, workers found evidence that shells from Federal gunboats on the Roanoke River, less than a mile from here, had struck the house.



(captions)

(lower left) Asa Biggs and Martha Biggs.

(lower right) Asa Biggs law office, circa 1900.

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