The 2014 Wilson, Greer and Associated Families Forum 4

by Glenn N. Holliman

With retirement this year, cousin Gary O. Hodges of Virginia is rapidly becoming one of the most prolific researchers of the Wilcoxson-Boone-Greer family lines.  Those of you descended from Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911), as am I, are direct descendants of most of the persons recorded by Gary below.  With his wry sense of humor, Gary shares some important information with us.- GNH

Greers, Boones and Wilcoxsons by Gary O. Hodges

It’s time to set the record straight about the cousins who attended the family reunion this July in Boone, North Carolina. Not all of the attendees were Wilsons. Several of us have no direct blood line connections to the Wilsons.

At the dinner Friday night my wife Elogene, my daughter Wendy and I crashed the party and weren’t thrown out. Saturday Wendy and I attended the get together at the library, though I had to sneak in disguised as John Wilcoxson. Don’t put all the blame on me for crashing the reunion. Glenn spilled the beans and inadvertently let me know about the gathering.  Now I say all this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, next to a chew of tobacco.

Below, Gary, far left, shares information at the July Wilson/Greer and Associated Families Forum in Boone, North Carolina.  

So who am I? I am your cousin Gary Hodges. I am a Boone/Wilcoxson/Greer/Wilcoxson. I haven’t found any Wilson members in my direct line, but I hope you won’t hold that against me. But I am a Greer. I am a direct descendant of Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, her husband John Wilcoxson and two of their children; Samuel Wilcoxson and his sister Nancy Wilcoxson Greer. It’s through Nancy that I have my Greer blood line.

How is it that I am descended from two of Sarah and John’s children? Well, that is what can happen when second cousins marry. Their grandson Isaiah Wilcoxson married their great granddaughter Frances “Fanny” Greer.  Isaiah and Fanny’s son Rev. William M. “Billy” Wilcoxson/Wilcox is my 2^nd great grandfather. Through Sarah and John’s son Samuel my Wilcoxson/Wilcox family surname is unbroken to my mother Rosa Jean Wilcox Hodges. Through their daughter Nancy my line takes the Greer twist with their son William Greer and his daughter Fanny Greer.

When I started this article I tried to figure out just what to include. I decided to concentrate on our Wilcoxson and Greer families connection to the American Revolutionary War. Maybe I need to do another article that is more personal to my family line, post Rev. Billy Wilcox, but let’s concentrate on our families participation in the Revolutionary War.

Most of us have four documented Revolutionary War Patriot ancestors through the Boone/Wilcoxson Greer line. If you are a descendant of William Greer and his wife Hannah Cartwright then you have five. 

The first Patriot Ancestors I want to talk about are Sarah Boone and her husband John Wilcoxson. Sarah was the first child of Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan. Her brother, Daniel Boone, was Squire and Sarah’s sixth child. But being a sister of Daniel Boone is not why Sarah is designated as a RW Patriot. Sarah and her husband John Wilcoxson were some of the earliest settlers of Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky County Virginia.  

The Sarah and John Wilcoxson house in Mocksville, North Carolina in the 1980s, still standing over 200 years old.

She was at the fort when it was attacked in September of 1778 by over 400 Indians allied with the British and 12 Tory Militiamen. Since Sarah was at the fort during this 10 and a half day siege, she has been designated by the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as a Patriot Ancestor. Her designation is “Defender of the Fort”. Sarah’s husband John was not present at the time of the siege. John, a member of the Kentucky County Virginia Infantry, was away fighting Indians allied with the British. John’s designation is as a “Soldier” in the Revolutionary War.  

Ft. Boonesborough in a 1901 sketch.

The next two Patriot Ancestors I submit are John Greer (Grier) and his son Benjamin Greer (Grier). When the Wilkes County NC court first met in March of 1778 John was appointed one of the first Justices of the Peace. John served in this capacity for over a year. He swore allegiance to the State of North Carolina the first day the court met. His designation is as a “Civil Servant”. 

John’s son Benjamin was appointed as the first Constable of the Moravian Creek (now Moravian Falls) community of Wilkes County. This appointment and his swearing the oath of allegiance to North Carolina was done on that same day. In addition to serving as a “Civil Servant” in Wilkes County, Benjamin Greer also served in the North Carolina Infantry and the Wilkes County Militia. Ben attained the rank of Captain in the Wilkes Militia, serving under Col. Benjamin Cleveland. Benjamin Greer has two RW Patriot designations, both as a “Civil Servant” and a “Soldier”. I won’t go into Ben’s exploits in the rescued of Col. Cleveland or the famous “Greer Hint”. Cousin Glenn Holliman has covered those in previous articles.

Ben Greer, my 5th great grandfather, was an Indian fighter also, as was his kinsman of the same time period, Daniel Boone.  This dramatic picture interprets an episode in the long and exciting life of our ancestor.  GNH

The fifth Patriot Ancestor some of you may share with me is Joseph Cartwright. Joseph was the father of Hannah Cartwright and  the grandfather of Fanny Greer. There is little information available about Joseph Cartwright and his wife Eve Miller. Eve apparently died in 1777 and Joseph died in 1778, leaving Hannah and her brother Joseph M. Cartwright orphaned. Hannah was six and Joseph was five. Joseph Cartwright served in the Wilkes County Militia under Capt. William Lenoir. His designation is that of a “Soldier”.

For those of you interested in these five Patriot Ancestors, I have documentation proving their service and my blood line to each of them. Some of this documentation comes from the records of the SAR and DAR. At least one person has successfully filed applications to one of these organizations through their direct blood line to one or more of them. 

I successfully filed applications to the SAR under both Sarah Boone Wilcoxson and her husband John Wilcoxson. I have an application (supplemental) for John Greer (Grier) that is being reviewed by the SAR at the National level. It has already been reviewed and approved at the State (Virginia) level. I presently serve as the Chaplain of the Thomas Nelson Jr. Chapter of the SAR in Newport News Virginia.  I know some of our cousins are members of the DAR. Maybe it’s time more cousin joined the SAR or DAR, Hint-Hint. And that’s not a “Greer Hint” I won’t hit any cousin, even if they steal my tobacco.

A few years ago I became very interested in researching my blood line. I started looking for ancestors who served in the American Civil War. Now I call it the War of Northern Aggression. I found two direct ancestors who served in the 65^th NC Troops (6^th NC Cavalry) and several collateral ancestors (multi great uncles) who served. Some were members of the Wilcoxson/Wilcox family, including one multi great uncle and his son who were Yankee soldiers. Those of you who are familiar with the Journal of Francis Marion Wilcox have read about him and his father serving in the 450^th KY Vol. Infantry (USA). But I digress. 

A Daniel Boone portrait of a man perhaps age 35 to 40, lean and hardy from years as a hunter, explorer and soldier.   

When I started my research I was fortunate to get in contact with the senior genealogist of The Boone Society, Dorthy Grissom Mack. Cousin Dorthy is a direct descendant of Sarah Boone Wilcoxon’s younger brother Edward Boone. Cousin Dorthy had a lot of research information on our family and she also created some family line documents just for me. 

I say just for me but Dorthy encourages me to share her work with my cousins, which I do at every opportunity. She guided me in how to research my family line and continues to help me and offer encouragement. Another Wilcox cousin once told me “family history without documentation is just a bunch of folk tales”. Document everything you can”. 

When I was appointed the de-facto genealogist for my first and second cousins, on my Hodges and Wilcox sides, I decided to amass as many documents as I could. I grab hold of and file every document I come across. Some of them have been furnished by cousins. A few aren’t in my direct blood line but anything a cousin gives me goes in the appropriate file. I try to keep everything on a thumb drive so I can attach information to e-mails. That’s another non “Greer Hint” hint that I share everything I have with my cousins. Most of my close cousins aren’t interested in detailed information about our family but I don’t let that discourage me. I just keep plugging on sharing more with cousins who really want the stuff I have.

If I don’t get nasty comments about this article, ha-ha-ha, maybe I will write more for our family site. Cousin Glenn is encouraging me to write an article on the 2014 Boone Society family reunion held at Pine Mountain State Resort Park in Kentucky. There were over 100 Boone family members there including at least eight direct descendants of Sarah Boone and her husband John Wilcoxson.

Gary O. Hodges

Boone/Wilcoxson/Greer/Wilcox families 

Our thanks to Gary for his full and factual presentation of some important family history. For information on Gary Hodges' email address, write me at glennhistory@gmail.com. GNH, seventh great grandson of Squire and Sara Morgan Boone.