A Trip back in Time with my Sisters 2021

 by Glenn N. Holliman

In November 2021, my two sisters, Rebecca Holliman Payne and Alice Holliman Murphy and I ventured back to western North Carolina and upper East Tennessee to visit our mother (1923-2015) Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick's ancestral homeland.  We also planned to see our second cousin, once removed, Mary Proffitt Wilson, who as a child remembered our great grandmother, Francis Wilson Osborne (1851-1940).  

Another reason for the trip was for Alice to check on the home that she and her husband recently purchased in Avery County, which is in the North Carolina mountains.  After decades of living in Texas, Alice and Bill look forward to the Appalachian Mountains, where the climate is cooler, and the summers are less humid.  It was in nearby Johnson City, Tennessee where Alice was born.

It has been a number of years since I have visited and written about my cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents who occupied and live in some of the most beautiful land in these United States.

Our most pleasant stop was in Vilas, North Carolina with Mary Wilson (b 1927), a delightful lady full of wit, humor and charm.  Below is yours truly (b. 1946), Patricia ('Tricia', one of Mary's daughters) and Mary herself. 

As a child Mary met our great grandmother and even remembered 'Frankie' Osborne talking about our mother, 'Gerry'.  

Mary's late husband was Carl Clyde Wilson, (1923-2012), her distant cousin whose life was devoted to the Baptist ministry.   Carl served in the U.S. Army in the Philippines during World War II.  Mary and Tricia shared his medals of his time overseas in 1944/45.  Mary and Carl were married in Henson Chapel Methodist Church, June 1, 1946.

Mary's lineage, as does ours, descends from Isaac Wilson (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911) and then hers follows through grandparents, Mary Jane Polly Wilson (1852-1937) and James Harvey 'Harve' Proffitt (1844-1917) and parents James B. (1896-1994) and Wilma Lawrence Proffitt (1899-1996).

We posed for a photograph with Mary and after a slice of her delicious butterscotch pie, we bid Trica and her goodbye, taking with us a remembrance of a wonderful lady, a dear cousin and visit to cherish.

Below Glenn N. Holliman, Rebecca Holliman Payne, Mary Proffitt Wilson and Alice Holliman Murphy.

Our thanks to cousin Clinton Getzinger and Mary's other daughter, Sandra, for arranging this wonderful visit. - GNH

 

 

The Wilson-Greer 2012 Family Tour, Part XVII

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Family of Annie Greer Heaton continued....

Below, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick ( b 1923), great, great grand daughter of Jesse Greer, Jr. (1806 - 1892) greats Annie Greer Heaton (b 1924), great grand daughter of the same Jesse.  This picture was taken on the Wilson-Greer family tour June 2012 at the Jesse and Frankie Brown Greer Jr. home in Banner Elk, North Carolina. 'Gerry' grew up in Bristol, Tennessee and Annie in Banner Elk but these cousins did not meet until 2012!
 

 

Annie D. Greer Heaton is the daughter of William Isaac Greer (1874-1938), who is the son of  Wilburn Hardin 'Wib' Greer (1833-1925), who is the son of Jesse Greer Jr. (1806-1892). Caroline Nancy Greer (1828-1911) is the daughter of Jesse Greer, Jr. and the great grandmother of Geraldine Feick.

Geraldine is the grand daughter of G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne, and the daughter of Charles S. and Mayme Osborne Stansbery.  Glenn N. Holliman (this writer), Rebecca Holliman Payne and Alice Holliman Murphy are children of Geraldine.

Below, Connie Burns, Alice Holliman Murphy, Becky Holliman Payne and Bryan Payne study materials from the family collection of Annie Greer Heaton.

 

On the tour observing the Jesse Greer, Jr.  Home  are left to right, Jennifer Bond, Connie Burns, Chase Bond, Betty Ankers, Charles Bond, Gayle and Bob Adema and Annie Greer Heaton.

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....

Greer-Wilson Family Tour, 2012 Part V

by Glenn N. Holliman

Jesse and Mary Morris Greer, Sr...their lives and resting places....

Just south of the Todd, North Carolina crossroads on Highway 194, up on a rise and invisible from the road, is a pioneer cemetery.  The grass road is hard to spot, and some of us on our June 2012 family tour, discovered difficult to climb!  Below Alice Holliman Murphy leads the way for some relatives who decided to walk rather than ride.

Jesse Greer, Sr. (1778-1869) was a son of Benjamin Greer, a Revolutionary War hero, and Nancy Wilcoxson, a niece of Daniel Boone.  Feisty like his fore bearers, Jesse left home in a huff at age 16, and at age 21 eloped in 1800 with a 13 year old girl named Mary 'Polly' Morris (1787-1880).


Today, this great grandfather would have been incarcerated for corrupting the morals of a minor, statutory rape or worse.  However, Jesse crossed on stilts (of all things) a fork of the New River, to 'childnap' his bride.  With Mary on his back along with a rifle and, one suspects, with an outraged father right behind them, Jesse re-forded the shallow river still on his stilts escaping with his precious load.  The couple quickly found a relative with some legal standing to marry them, and they settled down in the Todd area and eventually had 17, yes, 17 children!


Below, Betty Ankers and Clinton Getzinger photograph the grave stones of Jesse and Mary Morris. Behind them are Jim Gray and Connie Burns.

 Jesse Greer, Sr. is the father of Jesse Greer, Jr, (1806-1892) who is the father of Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911), my generation's great, great grandmother whose husband was 'bushwhacked' at their Ashe County, North Carolina home during the Civil War.  All on this family tour are descended from or married into the Greer-Wilson families.

Jesse Greer, Sr. lies at peace on a knoll overlooking the Todd valley.  His soul was not always at rest as he vividly described in a testimony of faith he wrote and was transcribed by his son Jesse Greer, Jr.