Matthew Twomey took over the Twomey farm from Mary and Paul when they died. Matthew married a local woman named Shanna Murphy. Matthew and Shanna had only one child, a son they named Isaac. Matthew's life seemed to be going fairly well, all things considered, then tragedy struck. When Matthew was in his mid thirties he was kicked in the head by a donkey that he had borrowed to pull out a tree stump. The blow did not kill him, but it did render him "senseless" for the rest of his life. As a result, Isaac was forced to care for both his father and his mother at an early age.