From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 6

by Glenn N. Holliman

We continue with our series on the Wilson and associated families of Sutherland, North Carolina. Thanks once more to cousin Shirley Sorrell for making available these marvelous photographs from 1935 of the John and Rebecca Wilson family reunion in Sutherland, North Carolina. 

Right, Annie Greer Heaton of Banner Elk, NC with Shirley Sorrell, front right, and Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, back right.  This picture was made at our Wilson-Greer family forum in 2012.  Another is planned this July 19 and 20, 2014.
 
In 1935, the United States struggled to escape the Great Depression.  Ashe County historian, Arthur Lloyd Fletcher, states that the sheriff reported in 1932 to the County Board of Supervisors that enforcing the property tax law would result  in foreclosure of more than half the homes in Ashe county!   Such were the economic challenges of our ancestors in those difficult times.  

Shirley has identified the ten surviving children below.  John Wilson, born 1855, died in 1928.  His parents are Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911).

The Rebecca and John Wilson Descendants Family Reunion 1935

Above, front row in the summer of 1935: Ruth Wilson Hurt (1903-1999) , Bessie Wilson Wilson (1887-1976), Rebecca Wilson Wilson (1862-1954), and Conley Wilson (1882-1957).  Back row: Preston (1900-1989), Robert (1906-1987), Cal (1898-1999) , Margaret (1894-1992), Mayme (1892-1975), Minnie (1896-1987) and Don (1890-1975).

Four children died in infancy or childhood, Nora (1881-1887), Edgar (1883-1885), Boyd (1885) and Nancy (1912).

Above, from the same reunion, we have this picture of several generations. Shirley has made it easy for us to identify our ancestors.  Below is a numbered photograph and then under it, are numbers and names.

1. Roger Donnelly, son of Mayme Wilson and Earl Donnelly
2. Meridith Duncan, son of Bower and Margaret (Maggie) Wilson Duncan
3. Robert Wilson, son of Boyd and Lexie Wilson
4. Emojean Wilson Suggs, daughter of Ruth Kilby and Preston Wilson
5. Ruthel Wilson Merritt, daughter of Preston Wilson
6. Mary Wilson, daughter of Olive and Oscar Wilson, son of Ellen and Robert Wilson
7. Shirley Hurt Brand, daughter of Ruth Wilson and Shirley Hurt
8. Irene Wilson, daughter of Olive and Oscar Wilson, son of Ellen and Robert Wilson
9. Worth Wilson, son of Olive and Oscar Wilson, son of Ellen and Robert Wilson
10. Alice Wilson, mother to Arlie Wilson, husband of Bessie Wilson
11. Rebecca Wilson Igneizi, only daughter of Cal Wilson and William Wilson
12. Rebecca Wilson Wilson (b 1862), wife to John (1855-1928), sister to Ellen Wilson
13. Rebecca Hurt Johnson, daughter of Ruth Wilson and Shirley Hurt
14. Ellen Wilson Wilson, wife of Robert and sister to Rebecca Wilson Wilson
15. Virginia Hurt Breeden, daughter of Ruth Wilson and Shirley Hurt
16. Geraldine Wilson, daughter of Preston Wilson
17. Ernest Wilson, son of Bessie and Arlie Wilson
18. Olive Kilby Wilson, wife of Oscar Wilson, son of Ellen and Robert Wilson
19. Maude 'Tincey' Williams Wilson, wife of Clyde Wilson
20. Don Wilson, son of John (b 1855)
21. Conley Wilson, son of John (b 1855)
22. Shirley Hurt, husband to Ruth Wilson Hurt
23. Rebecca Donnelly Sutherland, daughter of Mayme Wilson (b 1892) and Earl Donnelly
24. Grace Donnelly Wilson, wife to Argus Wilson, son of Conley
25. Betty Wilson Elmore, daughter to Argus and Grace Wilson (baby in Grace's arms)
26. Ruth Wilson Hurt, daughter of John (b 1855)
27. Lexie Lawrence Wilson, wife to Boyd Wilson, son of Bessie and Arlie Wilson
28.Gloria Wilson Heimburger, daughter of Boyd and Lexie Wilson
29. Shirley Hurt, husband to Ruth Wilson
30. Boyd Wilson, son of Bessie and Arlie Wilson
31. Chall Wilson, husband to Minnie Wilson, daughter of John (b 1855)
32. William Wilson, husband to Cal Wilson
33. Arlie Wilson, husband to Bessie Wilson
34. Ruth Kilby Wilson, wife of Preston Wilson, son of John (b 1855)
35. Clyde Wilson, son of Bessie and Arlie Wilson 
36. Oscar Wilson, son of Ellen and Robert Wilson (b 1860)
37. Bessie Wilson, daughter of John (1855)
38. Unidentified blond boy
39. Cal Wilson, daughter of John (1855)
40. Preston Wilson, son of Rebecca and John (1855)
41. Argus Wilson, son of Conley
42. Bower Duncan, husband of Margaret (Maggie) Wilson
43. Deronda Donnelly, son of Mayme Wilson Donnelly
44. Earl Donnelly, husband to Mayme Wilson
45. Shirley Ann Marsh (b 6/15/1935), daughter of Marie Wilson (Conley's daughter) and Don Marsh

If one discovers any discrepancies in the above, please let us know.  One of the positive features of a blog is one can go back and change, add or subtract copy. 


Next posting yet more reunion photographs from the John Wilson family of Ashe County, North Carolina....

We invite you to rediscover your heritage at a Wilson, Greer, Wilcoxson, Osborne, Forrester, Adams and other families Forum, Saturday, 9:30 am, July 19, 2014 in the community room of the Boone, North Carolina public library.  Sunday, July 20th is also the annual Wilson Homecoming at Sutherland United Methodist Church in Ashe County.  A Friday evening, 6 pm, July 18th get acquainted dinner will be held at the Boone, NC Rustica Restaurant.  For reservations and details, email glennhistory@gmail.com.

 

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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From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 1

by Glenn N. Holliman


Shirley Sorrell, right, is an avid family historian and provided material and photographs for the book Neighbor to Neighbor (2007). Published by Appalachian State University, this tome is built around the memoirs of The Rev. William A. Wilson (1861-1951), tells the story of the Wilson-Greer families of Ash County, North Carolina during and immediately after the Civil War.

Both Mrs. Sorrell and this writer share a common lineage as we are descended from Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911) whose portraits Mrs. Sorrell holds in this picture.  As recorded in earlier articles Isaac, an officer in the North Carolina Home Guard was brutally murdered in June 1864 while plowing corn at his farm in Sutherland, Ashe County, North Carolina.

Isaac and Caroline Wilson had seven childen.  In previous posts, another descendant of Isaac and Caroline, Jennifer Bundy, provided photographs and commentary of her lineage through one of the sons, Robert Wilson (1860-1949) .  In this post, Shirley begins sharing from her collection of family pictures, beginning with the family of John Wilson, another son of Isaac and Caroline. Shirley is a great grand daughter of John and Rebecca.

John Wilson (1855-1928)  would marry a cousin, Rebecca Wilson Wilson (1862-1952), daughter of Jacob Wilson (1832-1917) and Eliza Jenkins (1830-1905).  They would spend their lives farming in Sutherland on part of the property left to Caroline and the children after Isaac's death. 

One of the first pictures in Shirley's collection is of John and Rebecca with their children in 1895 although there is some ambiguity about which child is whom. Ultimately the couple would have nine children.

A few years later in a less preserved photograph, one can see a sixth child has been born,  a daughter named Cal.

More information on the relationships of Greers, Wilsons, Osbornes, Stansberys and others can be found at this writer's Ancestry.com site. Please write glennhistory@gmail.com for access or to add information.