We Are Also Boones, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

Sources include the Boone Society web site and members; History of the Boone, Bryan and Morgan Families by Roberta Stuart Sims, Shreveport, LA; web site - Daniel Boone, Berks County's Gift to the West; the excellent work, Boone, A Biography by Robert Morgan; and research by Pat Hagan on the Wilcoxson family.

In 1720 Squire Boone, a son of George and Mary Mogridge Boone married Sarah Morgan. Her father was a Welsh American planter of note, one Edward Morgan, my generation's 8th great grandfather.

The family tree below is from Robert Morgan's Boone, A Biography available from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008.

Double click to enlarge the document. This reproduction and others are intended for educational purposes only, and not for commercial gain.

The marriage of my 7th great grandparents took place in North Wales in Gwynned Township, where both Welsh and English Quakers had settled. Squire and Sarah first moved to a farm in Bucks County, PA, but finding the community too crowded for a Boone, Squire soon moved to what is now Berks Country, where he bought land adjoining this father, George Boone, the great grandparent who moved the family to America.

In the 1720s, Berks County was the frontier and Blue Mountains, a few miles to the north, were a wall between the Europeans and Indians. The Squire Boones built a house over a spring, as a precaution because of possible Indian attacks. Part of the building still stands and is a historical park near Reading, Pennsylvania.

The map below is from Robert Morgan's work, one of the best recent works on Daniel Boone with considerable information on my generation's 7th and 6th great grandparents. Double click the map and it should become larger. This writer lives 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg, formerly Harris's Ferry.

Squire and Sarah had 11 children, the first being my 6th great grandmother, Sarah Boone, born 4/7/1724 in New Britain Twp., PA. She died 1815 in Madison County, Kentucky.

Sarah, my 6th great grandmother, married John Wilcoxson on May 29, 1742 in Exeter, PA. Some genealogists believe she was with child at marriage. This plus the fact John was not a Quaker led to differences between Squire Boone and his local Quaker Church, difficulties which would eventually lead to Squire leaving the Quaker congregation and, in fact, leaving Pennsylvania!

John's father is believed to be George Wilcox, who lived in Philadelphia, a weaver, who died in 1739. John's mother was Elizabeth Powell, daughter of Rowland Powell from Haverford, Chester Co. The couple married in 1718, and John was born 9/6/1720.

This posting has been full of family tree information. Next posting we will discover more about the Boone family in Pennsylvania....

We Are Also Boones, Part 2

by Glenn N. Holliman
(Adapted from a document by Roberta Stuart Sims of Shreveport, LA)

Below is the harbour of Bristol, England at low tide several hundred years ago. Three members of the Boone family, including Squire Boone, our great grandfather, sailed from Bristol, first in 1712 and other members in 1717. Ironically for this writer, another distant relative, The Rt. Rev. John Holyman, was Bishop of the Bristol Cathedral (see background) from 1554 to 1558.


The Boones and thousands of others sailed to Philadelphia, a colony founded by William Penn (below) , an activist in the Society of Friends or Quakers. Penn's fair treatment of Native Americans reduced the threat of frontier warfare, and made settlement in Pennsylvania doubly attractive.















Below the harbour at Philadelphia where the Boone family landed and settled in lands outside of the city in the 1710s. By the early 1710s, Philadelphia was the largest city in the English colonies, and would remain so for another hundred years.

George Boone took 400 acres and built a log cabin in Olay, later to be called Exeter, PA. This great grandfather of ours died in 1744 leaving 8 children, 52 grandchildren and 10 great grandchilddren. The offspring were a blend of Engish, German, Welsh and Scotch becoming, well, Americans within a generation.

Next posting, the life of Squire Boone....

We Are Also Boones

By Glenn N. Holliman

The families of G.W. Osborne and Frankie Wilson Osborne helped settle the Appalachian frontier and defeat the British Armies in the Revolutionary War. In our examination of our pioneer ancestors, I begin with one of our most famous ancestral families, the Boones. Yes, my generation's 6th great uncle was Daniel Boone himself. But let's begin the story in England where we first have information on our earlier grandparents.

In 1636, Charles I (Portrait and book right) was on the throne of England, fighting verbally and, within a decade physically, with his Parliament. England was on the edge of a civil war that would determine whether political power lay with the House of Commons or the Crown. This civil war would be important for the development of representative democracy in the American colonies as well as in England.

In that year in the southwestern part of the country, near Exeter, in a village known as Stoke Canon, one George Boone was born. His parents are unknown according to authorities at the Boone Society. George Boone earned his living as a blacksmith, and died 1696. He and his wife, Sarah Mary Oppy, are buried at St. Magdelene Parish in Stoke Canon.

They married in 1665, and the next year, 1666, a son, another George Boone, entered the world.

While this second George Boone grew to manhood, England suffered through a violent civil war which resulted in Oliver Cromwell (portrait left) ruling England as a Commonwealth without a monarchy throughout the 1650s. With Cromwell's death, England turned again to the Stuart family and invited Charles II to the throne, although with reduced powers. No more Divine Right of Kings even with the Stuart family restoration.

So by the early 1660s, King Charles Stuart II (portrait and book below), the son of the executed Charles I, sat in London's Whitehall Palace on the throne overseeing a growing empire. Virginia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island and after the Dutch wars, New York and New Jersey were New World English colonies.

One can be assured the Boones did not dress so fashionably as King Charles II (above) who was popular with the 'ladies'.

In the 1680s, this King Charles II, still paying off political debts for his restoration, deeded a huge chuck of North America to the son of one of his noble friends, William Penn. Penn belonged to a growing Christian sect, the Society of Friends or Quakers as they were called.

Our George Boone, now grown, married and with a growing family, was intrigued by the Friends, who sat patiently in informal worship waiting for an 'Inner Light' before speaking or 'quaking'. No priests or bishops were allowed within this democratic, egalitarian and pacifist denomination whose members refused to doff their hats to anyone.

George, himself a tanner and weaver, married Mary Milton Mogridge, daughter of John Mogridge and Mary Milton. Mary had been born in Bradninch, 8 miles from Exeter in 1669. They raised a large family, and one of the sons was named Squire Boone (b 1696).

George Boone was an ambitious man, and restless in Devonshire. He heard of William Penn's new and successful colony along the Delaware River, a colony where the founding city was named Philadelphia or city of brotherly love. The Quaker, with his growing family, was ready to make the dramatic move to the New World and leave behind his ancestral homeland.

Next post we learn of the trip across the North Atlantic to Pennsylvania and a new life on America's frontiers....

Photos in the Post WWII Era

by Glenn N. Holliman

Last night, July 6, Rob Adema visited Barb and me here in Newport, PA, as he was en route to business calls in Central Pennsylvania. Rob is a great great grandson of G.W. and Frankie Osborne, through their son, Bascom, a brother of my grandmother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery. Bascom is sometimes spelled with or without a 'b' on the end.

Photo above is l to r, Glenn Holliman (b 1946) and Rob Adema (b 1966) July 6, 2010 in Newport, Pennsylvania practising genealogy. Glass is of Coca-Cola, sort of. Photo by Barbara Holliman.

We sat up late examining documents and old photographs. In celebration of his visit, I am posting several photos we looked at closely as they reflect both his direct line and our over lapping families. I believe the 1945 photo is courtesy of Phyllis Ackers, and the 1954 picture, a family snapshot by my father.

A contemporary photo of Rob's parents, Bob and Gay, and his Aunt Peg Adema can be found on the Contributors page of this blog. August 20, Barb and I will be visiting Rob and his parents, Bob and Gay, outside of Buffalo, NY to look at more family memorabilia of when our ancestors lived in Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

Now the Wilson/Osborne frontier families, under many different names, are spread across the nation.

Photo above taken approximately 1945 at the Elmer 'Flea' Akers home in Damascus, Virginia of the children and grandchildren of Bascom Wilson Osborne, one of the five son's of G.W. and Frankie Osborne. Back row, l to r - 'Flea' Akers, Doris Osborne Akers, Gladys Osborne Adema, Edith Osborne (wife of Bascom Kruger Osborne, who is kneeling). Front row, l to r - Phyllis Akers, Bobby Adema, Peg Adema, Uncle 'Bab' Bascom K. Osborne, in Navy uniform, and his daughter, 'Gini' Osborne.

Photo of Pauline Osborne Smith, daughter of Thomas 'Toby' Osborne, one of the five sons of G.W. & Frankie, in the early 1930s rowing a boat. In the photo below, she is pictured in the 1950s with her children in a visit to her first cousin, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick.

Taken in the summer of 1954 in Johnson City, Tennesse at the home of Geraldine Stansbery and her husband, Bishop Holliman. Left to right in front of the 1948 Plymouth are: Louise Stansbery Sherwood (daughter of Mayme Osborne Stansbery), Rebecca Louise Holliman Payne, then 4 years old on her aunt's knee, and standing is one of Pauline Osborne Smith's children, name unknown.

Kneeling with his Cocker Spaniel, Sandy, is the writer, Glenn Holliman, age 7. Behind standing sans shirt is Vance R. Sherwood, Jr., also age 7, now a published clinical psychologist. The tall young man is another of Pauline's children, name unknown.

Continuing left to right are Dave Wright, husband of Pearl Osborne Wright, Geraldine (Gerry) Stansbery, sister of Louise Sherwood, Pauline Osborne Smith (whose photo above is of her rowing a boat), and Pearl Osborne Wright, who is Geraldine and Louise's aunt.

Pauline and children lived in Sumner, Washington at the time. Pearl and David Wright in Damascus, and Louise and her son, Vance, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

An aside, it was Dave Wright who in 1912 gave his mother-in-law, Frankie Osborne, her first automobile ride from Damascus to Glade Valley, Virginia and back!

More family history in the next posting....

We Are Also Wilsons

by Glenn N. Holliman

The father of my great grandmother, Frances Wilson Osborne, was Isaac Wilson (1822 - 1864). This note appears in Frankie's Diary, July 23, 1928 after a visit to see relatives in Ashe County, NC.

"Hiram Wilson was a son of John Wilson and John was a son of Charles; he come over in Mayflower from Irland (sp.). My father was Isaac, the son of Hiram."

Since I transcribed the above last year I have thought Frankie accurate about the four fathers. The local Watauga, NC historian John Preston Arthur stated the same in his writings and wrote that Charles Wilson immigrated from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. Another Wilson family from East Tennessee may have come over on the Mayflower but there is no evidence that our branch did so. More investigation is due this matter.

So what do we know about these forefathers of ours? Here's the timeline I have been able to put together from Internet sources and A History of Watauga County, NC, by John Preston Arthur, 1915.

These photos are found on the web site of Johnson County, Tennessee historical society. The left photo is of Isaac Wilson in his 20s in the 1840s, when photographs has just been developed. The one of the right is probably about the time he was murdered in 1864. Notice his hair style has not changed through the decades. Isaac's son, William A. Wilson, the family genealogist and memoir writer, evidently had the original and made copies for his nieces and nephews.

The web site also reveals Isaac was in Company E, 37th Regiment NC Troopers. He was home on leave when bushwhacked by his neighbors the Potters and a Tom Stout, Union sympathisers. W.A. Wilson's story of the episode can be found at the Johnson County Tennessee Genealogy Page on the Internet.

Prior to 1750 - Charles Wilson immigrates from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. We do not know his birthplace or father's name.

1750 - John Wilson was born in North Carolina, and his wife Sara, unknown last name, in 1752, also in NC.

1770 - John Wilson and Sara marry.

1780 - Charles Wilson, according to John Preston Arthur, is killed at the Battle of Guildford Court House during the Revolutionary War, fighting as an officer under General Nathaniel Greene. We have no birth date on Charles, but according to Frankie, he is the father of John Wilson. Local historian, Arthur agrees with Frankie and even argues that Charles Wilson is relative by marriage to the legendary Nathaniel Greene. This writer has researched this and doubts this proposition.

1787, On 11/2/1787 in Rowan, NC, Hiram Wilson is borne, Frankie's grandfather. His wife, Nancy Smith was born about 1786, also in Rowan.

1799 - John Wilson dies.

1812 - Hiram and Nancy Smith Wilson marry on 9/12/1812 in Rowan, NC and settle at Cove Creek in Ashe County, NC in 1815.

1822 - Frankie's father, Isaac Wilson is born 12/16/1822. James Madison is president of the U.S. at this time.

1828 - Caroline Nancy Greer is born 12/10/1828 in Ashe Co.

1849 - Caroline and Isaac Wilson marry 3/25/1849.

1851 - 6/20/1851, Frances Wilson (Osborne) born in Ashe Co., NC.

1864 - 6/17/1864, Isaac Wilson shot from ambush. Frankie's father and two uncles die in Civil War. Hiram is present at his son's funeral and provides assistance to the now widowed Caroline Greer Wilson.

One of the assassins, Thomas Stout, was captured and held overnight in Cove Creek (Ashe County, NC) at Hiram's farm. The next day several relatives and friends recovered Tom Stout and started to Camp Vance in Morgantown, NC with him. Tom Stout never arrived. Several months later a noose was found on Rich Mountain, and after examination the remains of Stout were discovered in a shallow grave. His widow retrieved what was left of Stout and buried him in her family cemetery.

1867 - Frankie marries G.W. Osborne. (These are my generations' great grandparents.)

1879 - Hiram Wilson dies in Watauga Co., NC.

1911 - 8/9/1911, Caroline Greer Wilson dies and is buried in Wilson Cemetery, Oscar Cove, NC.

Next posting, we examine another branch of our Osborne/Wilson family tree....