From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 5

by Glenn N. Holliman

Continuing our Series of Wilson Photographs....

 Several cousins, Shirley Sorrell, Dale Wilson and Kathryn Wilson have made this article possible with their photographs and knowledge of ancestors who were born and for many, lived their lives in the North Fork of the New River in Ashe County, North Carolina.    We continue the series with more on John Wilburn Wilson (1855-1928), a son of Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson's (1828-1911).

John and Rebecca Wilson Wilson (1862 - 1954) had ten children who lived to maturity,  and while some descendants still reside in the Western North Carolina mountains, many have dispersed across the United States. 

One son of John and Rebecca's was Thomas Conley Wilson, born Feb 18, 1882 and died Dec 9, 1957. He married Verde M. Barlow, (1880 - 1969). Their children are Marie Wilson (1908-2001), Conley Argus Wilson (October 3, 1909 - January 3, 1994) and Thomas Earl Wilson (October 22, 1913 - July 23, 1977).  Earl married Neva Howard ( b. Aug 12, 1912).


Conley lived all his life on a farm that was part of the Issac Wilson home place. The house still stands on the right just before Wilson cemetery on Oscar Wilson Road, Sutherland, North Carolina.  John and Rebecca, his parents, lived a little further up the road from him. He died of what appeared to be a heart failure in his barn, where his son Argus found him.

 
Robert Wilson was the last child of John and Rebecca, born June 4, 1906 and died May 18, 1987 and is buried in Guildford Memorial Park in Greensboro, NC. As a young man, he went out west with his nephew, Earl Wilson (son of his brother Conley). Robert was a bachelor for a long time, but later married Imogene (last name unknown) from Galax, Virginia.  There were no children from the marriage. The coupled lived in High Point, North Carolina where Robert worked at Sears in Greensboro for years. Imogene worked at Pilot Life Insurance.

He loved horses but Imogene did not want him spending money on them. So he would buy one, and say it was his nephew's, Clyde Wilson. Clyde was the oldest son of Robert's sister, Bessie Wilson.  They did have dogs and cats at home.  Clyde Wilson, his wife Tincy and their daughter Kathryn lived in High Point also. Robert ‘s youngest sister, Ruth Wilson Hurt, lived in Greensboro within miles of Robert. Reportedly Imogene and Ruth had their differences and 'fought like cats and dogs'!

 

Above, recently in my sister's attic I found my mother's (Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, b 1923) baby book kept by her mother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery (1896-1943).  They lived in Bristol, Tennessee, and visited John W. Wilson and families in Sutherland in July 1924.  According to the above entry my mother first crawled at her great Uncle John's home.  The photograph to the right, appears to be my great grandmother, Frances Wilson Oborne (1851-1924) holding my mother while her two siblings, Frances Louise Stansbery Sherwood (1915-2006) and Charles Stansbery (1981-2006) mount a horse in Wilson Cove. 

Below are the obituaries concerning John Wilburn Wilson and his death in 1928.  This is has become a comprehensive treasure chest of family names and relations. Notice the reference to the bushwhacking in 1864 of Isaac Wilson by Leonard Columbus Wilson, a cousin by marriage. Click on the pages twice and they should enlarge.

From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 4

by Glenn N. Holliman


Continuing our tour of Shirley Sorrell's Family Album....

Our continued thanks to cousin Shirley Sorrell for sharing this magnificent collection of Wilson family photographs of the descendants of Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911).  These families lived along the North Fork of the New River in Ashe County, North Carolina surrounded by mountains and lush forests.


"The earliest settlers to Ashe County cleared small patches of upland soil and cultivated it by scratching the surface with crude home-made implements.  When the cleared patches decreased in productiveness they were said to be 'worn out' and then new land was cleared and brought under cultivation.  Within one or two seasons the abandoned land became covered with grass, mainly clover and blue grass.  

This development tended to increase stock raising but, as a matter of fact, there was not great demand for livestock for many years.  Apparently each settler was interested in just enough work stock for his individual use, and cattle, sheep, and hogs were raised to supply the home demand for beef, milk, butter, mutton, and bacon." - p. 208, Ashe County, a History by Arthur Lloyd Fletcher, McFarland Publishers, Jefferson County, North Carolina, 1963 (reprinted 2006).


While limited agricultural land meant that some children of prolific parents such as Wilson descendants had to move west, others remained to engage in age-old subsistence farming.  These turn of the 20th Century photographs capture the last generation of an agricultural era now gone. By World War II, most of these farms were uneconomical.  Seasonal homes, gated communities, Christmas Tree farms, tourism and work in service industries have replaced the family farm.

Edgar Osborne and Conley Wilson, ca 1910. Edgar, born 1893, the son of Walter Raleigh and Effie Lewis Osborne, was one of the many who migrated to Oregon. Conley, a son of John and Rebecca Wilson Wilson, elected to stay in North Carolina and farmed until his death in 1957.

"Prior to 1872, all plows hoes, shovels and other implements used in Ashe County were homemade from iron ore taken from the mines of Ashe and forged in Ashe County forges." - p. 208, Fletcher.

 

Above, 1907 ca Sutherland, North Carolina Callie, Minnie, John, Don, Preston and Ruth Wilson.  John Wilson (1855-1928) and his wife, Rebecca Wilson Wilson (1862-1954), were the parents of ten children who grew to maturity.
 

"The cutting and shocking of corn was first practiced in 1882...Commercial fertilizer was not used prior to 1891.  There were no facilities for soil testing in those days, and Ashe county farmers saw no need for it." -  Fletcher, p. 208

Above and below, herding sheep, Bob (1860-1949) and Ellen Wilson's (1866-1952) farm in Sutherland, North Carolina. Help in identifying these persons most welcome.

"In 1925, it took 10 to 15 acres of corn to feed a team of horse.  By 1963 in Ashe County, less than one acre of corn will feed a team of horse for a year." - Fletcher, p. 213

As the 20th Century moved on and mechanism increased "One man, plus the proper machines, could do the work formerly done by ten men or more.  There was no farm work waiting for the boys finishing high school...." - Fletcher, p. 216

"The exodus from American farms marked the end of self-sufficiency and an uprooting of families from their heritage. In 1900 40% of  the U.S. work force was in agriculture. Today the number is about 2%" - Atlantic Monthly, June 2013

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