The 2013 Wilson-Greer Reunion, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

A 2013 Gathering at the Ancestral Home of Earl and Mayme Wilson Donnelly....

We continue our stories and photographs of cousins and ancestors, inspired by the July 2013 Wilson reunion at Shirley Sorrell's home in Sutherland, North Carolina along the North Fork of the New River. Our Wilson-Greer-Osborne-Donnelly-Forrester and other associated families lived (and many still do) in some of the most beautiful, tallest and isolated mountains in the eastern United States.  Our thanks to Dale Wilson for sharing his story.

Left is Dale Wilson and right, Shirley Sorrell at Shirley's family home in North Carolina, July 2013.  Dale is a great, great, great grandson of Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911).  His great, great grandparents are John and Rebecca Wilson Wilson.

Thomas Conly Wilson (1882-1957) and Verda Barlow (1880-1969) are his great, grandparents.  Dale, now a resident of Kansas, is a grandson of Conley Argus Wilson (10/3/1909 -1/3/1994) and Grace Elizabeth Donnelly Wilson (11/26/1916 - 1/14/1998).  One of their daughters, Betty Jo Wilson Hodges, is Dale's mother.

 

 

 

Below is a group photograph with identifications of Dale's Donnelly side of the family. Dale took the name Wilson after his Mother's separation from her first husband. Typed comments on this and other photographs by Dale Wilson.

  Below, Argus Wilson, one of Dale's grandfathers.

Dale lived the first twelve years of his life in Sutherland, Ashe County, later attending Appalachian State College.  Recently, he reflected on that time and his North Fork upbringing with the following short fascinating memoir which captures the culture of that time. 

For those familiar with the story of the 1864 bushwhacking of Isaac Wilson (this writer's great, great grandfather), Dale's memories suggest animosities and feuds continued for generations.

"Life in rural Sutherland, North Carolina in the early 50’s was the essence of bucolic America.  We were mostly ignored by county, state and federal government, thank God!  So long as taxes were paid we were free to subsist as best we could, hunt for small game, plant tobacco and continue to marry our cousins when it seemed a good fit. After all, being landlocked both culturally and geographically had its advantages, but I digress.

At the age of  7 I began my formal education at Mabel Elementary School in Zionville, NC.  What is striking to me is that I traveled by bus thru three counties and two states to arrive at Mrs. Mast’s first grade class.  There we learned organization, respect for our teachers and how to read the King’s English thru snippets of the daily lives of Dick and Jane with a healthy dose of Spot. 

Each day commenced with a school bus ride under the tutelage of one Willy Laing, who was charged with bringing us safely from our homes to school and back again.   Willy began the pick-ups in the heart of Potter Town (Meat Camp) where decent men did not tread nor tarry due to the general lawlessness of the area.  Here people simply settled their grievances with a gun, with no remorse for the outcome and little sympathy for the loser. 

 So well I remember sitting on the bus between two children, one whose father had slain the other child’s father in a contest over some squabble probably to do with a rhetorical insult or less.   Mountain men did not insult each other...did not wrong each other in a cavalier way without suffering certain consequences. 

The Potters, the Ellison’s, the Snyder’s, the Shelton’s...names of children I remember well and especially the eyes they cast when their kin were killed by the relatives of the student they shared a bus seat with.  Today we would find this “insensitive” at best.. in those days it was simply reality." - Dale Wilson

Below, Thomas Conley Wilson, one of Dale's great grandfathers.

For more information or to ask for an invitation, please contact Glenn N. Holliman at glennhistory@gmail.com.  Stories on the Wilson, Osborne and Greer families can be found at Ancestry.com under the Holliman-Long family tree and at www.bholliman.com.