Wilson-Greer 2012 Family Tour, Part XII

By Glenn N. Holliman

The hay had been rolled in the field behind the Wilson Cemetery in late June 2012.  Over 20 ancestors of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson examined the grave sites of our family members of whom most of us had never met. 

In 1875, the heirs of Isaac divided the large farm into various subdivisions.  Later, some children such as my great grandmother, Frances Caroline Wilson Osborne, sold their pieces and began to drift away.  Frankie and her husband, G.W. Osborne, moved to Cove Creek, NC and later to Tennesee and Virginia.  The cemetery sits on the parcel, #6 below, labeled Frankie Caroline, just south of Martha Evaline Wilson's plot, #5.

 

 

Today the road deeper into the original farm looks like this below.  The dirt and graveled road is named after a descendant, Oscar Wilson.

 

 



Wilson-Greer 2012 Family Tour, Part XI

by Glenn N. Holliman

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In the northwest corner of Ashe County, North Carolina, not far from the Tennessee line, 4 or 5 miles east of Trade, Tennessee is the former Isaac Wilson farm.  Today the land has been subdivided and other families reside in a picturesque cove snugly tucked in some of the highest mountains in the Eastern United States.

Descendants Bryan Payne (D.C.), Shirley Sorrell (North Carolina) and Bob Adema (Canada) stand on the cemetery grounds and gaze further into the Wilson Cove in the direction of the 19th Century Wilson home, now long gone and replaced by more recent structures.

Here on June 17, 1864, my great great grandfather Isaac Wilson was cruelly shot and killed in ambush while tilling his corn field.  Home of leave from service in the local Confederate Home Guard, local neighbors, Union sympathizers, fired from a tree line, striking him several times in the back.

With him pulling weeds and helping in the cultivation were several of his daughters,  Emaline, Jane, and a 13 year old, Frances Wilson Osborne, my great grandmother (1851-1940). 

In June 2012, numerous descendants of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson visited the cemetery in Oscar Wilson Cove where both lie buried along now with several dozen other of our ancestors.  Among the families now resting in the Wilson Cemetery are, among others, the Donnellys and the Osbornes.

 Jim Gray, Galye Adema, Betty Ankers, Becky Payne, Bob Adema and Shirley Sorrell at Wilson Cemetery gather around the Isaac Wilson marker.  Isaac is believed to have died on the hillside in the background of the above photograph.

 

One of the most avid Wilson and Forrester family historians is Clinton Getzinger (Virginia) who for years has visited relatives and recorded their stories of his ancestors.  Recently Clinton has published his first novel, Forbidden Romance, based in  part on the lives of Greer, Wilson and Forrester families of the 19th Century.  The book is available at Amazon.com.   Clinton is photographed here  during the family tour which he helped design and organize.



Wilson-Greer 2012 Family Tour, Part X

by Glenn N. Holliman

Please visit Ancestry.com to find information on names mentioned below.

We continue our June 2012 tour of Wilson and Greer family sites in western North Carolina.  Below is the Donnelly Store at the corner of Highway 88 and Oscar Wilson Road in Sutherland, North Carolina.  The general store and auto garage has been operated by the Donnelly families for several generations.  Bruce Donnelly married Torrance Wilson in 1906, who was a grand daughter of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson.

 
Below Joanne Donnelly, widow of Joe Donnelly, a son of Bruce and Torrence Wilson Donnelly, waits on Bob and Gayle Adema.  Bob is a great, great grandson of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson.  Bob and Gayle came from Canada for this return to his family roots.  Visiting a genuine country store was a treat for all of us, where we stocked up on cold soft drinks. Larry Donnelly, son of Joanne and Joe, now runs the tire and general store, keeping Donnellys in Wilson Cove for yet another generation.


 

 Below, two sisters and a brother pose at the Donnelly Store.  Left to right from Texas is Alice Holliman Murphy, Rebecca Holliman Payne of Tennessee and the author, Glenn Holliman of Pennsylvania.  All three siblings are great, great grandchildren of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson.  Their great grand parents were G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne, also of Sutherland and Cove Creek, North Carolina in the 19th Century.

Next up the Cove to the Wilson Family Cemetery....