Greer-Wilson Family Tour, 2012 Part III

by Glenn N. Holliman

Frances Wilson Osborne, one of the daughters of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, holds Lois Ann Howard Adams in 1932.  In the previous article, a photograph of Frankie holding a grand daughter, Geraldine Stansbery, was posted.

Lois Ann is the daughter of Roby (1891-1982) and Hallie Synder Howard (1897-1950).  Hallie is the daughter of Jacob and Alice Osborne Synder.  In turn, Alice is the daughter of Frank and Emaline Wilson Osborne.

'Frankie' (1851-1940) is a sister of Ema (1850 -1919) and the writer of a diary from 1912-1940 that records the names and events of many of her Wilson brothers, sisters and their descendants.  This writer has a scanned document of the diary.  The original is now in the  Appalachian State University's archive's collection concerning the Wilson family of western North Carolina.

Roby Howard, Jr., a brother of Lois Ann Howard Adams, shares the June 2012 Boone, NC dinner with his distant cousin, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick.

In this photograph at the dinner are Trula Howard Muse, Roby's sister, and her daughter, Cathy Muse.

When We Were Greers XIX

by Glenn N. Holliman

Jesse Greer, Sr. Makes a Confession of Faith


Jesse, my generation's 4th great grandfather, did not write a book such as St. Augustine's Confessions, but Jesse in a long and laborious paragraph, described his own faith experience.  Sometime in the 19th Century in a school notebook, Jesse Greer, Jr. copied from notes his father had written, Jesse Sr.'s anguished confession of sin and contrition.  What 'sins' this father of 17 children by one wife had to confess, we know little other than his cursing and drinking.  He mentions in passing 'all kinds of sin' which we leave to imagination but suspect they were relatively minor - no murder or horse thieving!

Below copied, with Jesse's imaginative spelling and capitalization intact, is that confession as transcribed by Mary Floy Katzman, and on the web site, A Gathering of Greers.  The original was held by the late Annie Greer Heaton of Heaton, North Carolina, but I have a copy and a much better one is available at the Center for Appalachian Studies in Boone, North Carolina.  Note that Jesse begins by referring to himself in the 3rd person. Although only one paragraph, to ease our reading, I have broken this into many paragraphs.  


                                            A Smawl travil of Jesse Grear


He was born the son of Benjamine and Nan

cy Greer in Wilkes County, North Carolina on the 14th November 1778.  then traveled on to the year of maturity under a tender father and mother and at 16 years old I left my Parents much Against their will.  then serving the Devil was all my delight.  till the year 1800, then married Polly Morris which was born a daughter of Henry and Franky Morris on the 17th september 1787. 


then went on in the Gall of Bitteness as tho there was no soul to save or to be lost, til the year 1810, at the Baptism of Brother Bejamin, I Began to think that my soul must dwell with the richman.  then I betook my self to trying to pray for about ten months.  But the Devil pursuaded me it was so hard that I could pray no longer.  But betook myself to cursing and swearing and drinking and all kinds of sin til the year 1814.  


Very Gardless we went to meeting at the Oldfeel (Old Field) meeting house but there was no ministry  Came to preach, but as they thought proper that they should sing and pray one of them began and as I set I saw a small child about twelve or thirteen years old crying as if He would Break her heart.  and it seamed to strike me like a Clap of thunder, to think that God was at work with such small Children and I still in the gall of bitterness then I went  hence trying to pray.  but it oppressed (?) to me that God would not hear my weak pertishion. 


 I soon began to think that I had passed the day of grace and soon betook my self to my friends and to the people of god to see if they could give an Conslation.  but I had to go moving through the wilderness until 1815.  I had been from home and on my return home some hour in the night I thought if I was lost I would  die a praying.  and as I was trying to pray I thought that my Blessed Jesus meet with me and Bid me not fear.  


Then I went home Rejoycing and praising God and I had Been lost But now was found.  and in the time to follow his Companion Got a hope that she had made peace with god and we was Received in to the Baptist Church and was Baptized on the 4th Sunday in June 1815. 

Above the Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (1923-2015) in 2009 stands in front of the latest version of the Sutherland Methodist Church in Ashe County, North Carolina.  Her great grandparents, Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, became Methodists during a revival in the 1850s at this church, a few mountain valleys west and in the same county where Geraldine's 3rd grandfather, Jesse Greer, Sr. 'got religion' in 1815. 

Historians report that the Baptist and Methodist Churches grew rapidly during this period, especially in the Southwest (Tennessee, Kentucky and western Virginia).  In this time period, these churches were considered radical, too emotional, too democratic to more established denominations - the Episcopal and Congregational denominations for example.  Yet within a generation, Baptists and Methodists (although both split into numerous factions, especially the Baptists) were main stream, middle America and have remained so to this day.  Many Scotch-Irish remained Presbyterian, and this denomination also grew dynamically during the Second Great Awakening.


Before I go to Jesse Greer, Jr., we will detour back to Scotland and look at some home sites of our Grierson ancestors.  I pause here for two reasons: one I made a recent trip to Scotland and want to record my research while still fresh, and two, the Jesse Greer, Jr. story rolls right into the Civil War and more recent times.  His story and that of his wife, Frankie Brown Greer, and of course, their daughter, Caroline Greer Wilson, are fascinating, suspenseful and courageous in turbulent times.  Their stories are well recorded and worthy of a closer look.  I devoted several stories to Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, my generation's 2nd great grandparents and are located at Ancestry.com.

When We Were Greers XVIII

by Glenn N. Holliman

Jesse Greer, Sr's. Great Awakening
Gordon A. Wood in his epic Empire of Liberty (see below) describes in vibrant terms the Second Great Awakening, an evangelical Protestant religious revival that swept the American frontier and rural areas of the new country in the early 1800s.

The radical expansion of religious fervor 'transformed the entire religious culture of American and laid the foundations for the development of an evangelical religious world of competing denominations unique to Christendom.'  There were few trained clergy to minister to the yearnings of religiously 'under fed' men and women.  The Baptists and the Methodists became effective in reaching out extravagantly and emotionally to persons offering solace, reassurance and God's forgiveness of sins. 

The Cane Ridge, Kentucky summer revival in which 15,000 to 20,000 persons gathered for several weeks in 1801 is the most famous and perhaps earliest of revivals that were reproduced thousands of times, even to this generation in parts of America.

Heat, noise, confusion, and exhortations of preaching by a dozen ministers at the same time led to an 'intoxication' of the spirits, with holy dances, shouting, and the 'jerks'.  Critics have said more souls were made in the evening shadows of the camp revival than were saved.  Be that as it may, Cane Ridge immediately 'became the symbol of the promises and extravagance of the new kind of Evangelical Protestantism spreading through out the west.'

                            Above an 1819 Methodist camp meeting. In the middle 1850s in  Sutherland, North Carolina, Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson would convert to Methodist as a result of a revival of this type in the Western North Carolina mountains.  Caroline Greer Wilson is a grand daughter of Jesse Greer, Sr.  Engraving reproduction for educational purposes only.


No doubt, the new religion offered a steadying influence to a rough and often physically violent society. Whether tucked in the hollows of Watauga County, North Carolina, the blue grass of Kentucky or in the Tennessee Valley, church communities stood for morality (although perhaps thought excessive in the 21st Century such as 'not wearing extravagant clothing or working on Sunday'.  Excessive alcohol consumption was a major problem in early 19th Century America with subsequent child and spouse abuse.  Later church denominations would bring to the Southwest academies, seminaries and colleges, all to the good for an ill-educated, often socially and culturally isolated peoples.

Jesse Greer, Sr. (1778 - 1869) responded to this religious call, but he did not rush to 'redemption' as his own words so indicate.  In another article I have posted the 'testimony' of Jesse Greer Sr. as copied by Jesse's son, Jesse Greer, Jr. (1806 - 1892), my 3rd great grandfather.

When We Were Greers, Part IX

by Glenn N. Holliman

Joppa Town, Maryland - A Place for Family Weddings!

During their first marriage, Sarah and John had numerous children. Our direct ancestor is one of their sons, John Greer, Jr., my generation's 6th great grandfather, who was born 1714, again on the Gunpowder River. He would die May 1782 in Wilkes County, North Carolina. Notice the migration south. Much of this extended family will settle in North Carolina, including our direct ancestors.

John Greer Jr. married Sarah Day Elliott at the St. John's Parish in Joppa, Maryland in 1736. A second wife would be Nancy Lowe Walker.

Below is the plot of land, roped off, where the church stood. Samuel and Mary Harrod Stansbery (Stansbury) also married at this location in 1761. In the left background is a 1962 structure, the Episcopal Church of the Resurrection, signifying the rebirth of Joppa in the 1960s, two hundred years after it achieved ghost town status.

In the 1960s a real estate development company, realizing the potential of a location along slow moving rivers, near I - 95 and only 25 miles from downtown Baltimore, created a 'new' Joppa Town. Below is an advertisement from that era.  Oh, to have 1960 prices with 2010 incomes!

Photos in the Post WWII Era

by Glenn N. Holliman

Last night, July 6, Rob Adema visited Barb and me here in Newport, PA, as he was en route to business calls in Central Pennsylvania. Rob is a great great grandson of G.W. and Frankie Osborne, through their son, Bascom, a brother of my grandmother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery. Bascom is sometimes spelled with or without a 'b' on the end.

Photo above is l to r, Glenn Holliman (b 1946) and Rob Adema (b 1966) July 6, 2010 in Newport, Pennsylvania practising genealogy. Glass is of Coca-Cola, sort of. Photo by Barbara Holliman.

We sat up late examining documents and old photographs. In celebration of his visit, I am posting several photos we looked at closely as they reflect both his direct line and our over lapping families. I believe the 1945 photo is courtesy of Phyllis Ackers, and the 1954 picture, a family snapshot by my father.

A contemporary photo of Rob's parents, Bob and Gay, and his Aunt Peg Adema can be found on the Contributors page of this blog. August 20, Barb and I will be visiting Rob and his parents, Bob and Gay, outside of Buffalo, NY to look at more family memorabilia of when our ancestors lived in Southwest Virginia, East Tennessee and Western North Carolina.

Now the Wilson/Osborne frontier families, under many different names, are spread across the nation.

Photo above taken approximately 1945 at the Elmer 'Flea' Akers home in Damascus, Virginia of the children and grandchildren of Bascom Wilson Osborne, one of the five son's of G.W. and Frankie Osborne. Back row, l to r - 'Flea' Akers, Doris Osborne Akers, Gladys Osborne Adema, Edith Osborne (wife of Bascom Kruger Osborne, who is kneeling). Front row, l to r - Phyllis Akers, Bobby Adema, Peg Adema, Uncle 'Bab' Bascom K. Osborne, in Navy uniform, and his daughter, 'Gini' Osborne.

Photo of Pauline Osborne Smith, daughter of Thomas 'Toby' Osborne, one of the five sons of G.W. & Frankie, in the early 1930s rowing a boat. In the photo below, she is pictured in the 1950s with her children in a visit to her first cousin, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick.

Taken in the summer of 1954 in Johnson City, Tennesse at the home of Geraldine Stansbery and her husband, Bishop Holliman. Left to right in front of the 1948 Plymouth are: Louise Stansbery Sherwood (daughter of Mayme Osborne Stansbery), Rebecca Louise Holliman Payne, then 4 years old on her aunt's knee, and standing is one of Pauline Osborne Smith's children, name unknown.

Kneeling with his Cocker Spaniel, Sandy, is the writer, Glenn Holliman, age 7. Behind standing sans shirt is Vance R. Sherwood, Jr., also age 7, now a published clinical psychologist. The tall young man is another of Pauline's children, name unknown.

Continuing left to right are Dave Wright, husband of Pearl Osborne Wright, Geraldine (Gerry) Stansbery, sister of Louise Sherwood, Pauline Osborne Smith (whose photo above is of her rowing a boat), and Pearl Osborne Wright, who is Geraldine and Louise's aunt.

Pauline and children lived in Sumner, Washington at the time. Pearl and David Wright in Damascus, and Louise and her son, Vance, in Knoxville, Tennessee.

An aside, it was Dave Wright who in 1912 gave his mother-in-law, Frankie Osborne, her first automobile ride from Damascus to Glade Valley, Virginia and back!

More family history in the next posting....

Reaching Out to Many Branches of the Osborne/Wilson Tree

by Glenn N. Holliman

Those of you reading this posting are descendants of Frances Wilson Osborne (1851 - 1940) and George Washington Osborne, Jr. (1846 - 1927). The ancestors of this couple braved the North Atlantic to come to the New World. Some of these persons, our great grandparents, uncles and aunts, became the most famous frontier men and women in American history. Many were pioneers who fought Native Americans, later the British and Tories, and finally each other in a Civil War that took the lives of many of our direct ancestors.

The descendants and ancestors of this couple go by the names of Osborne, Wilson, Greer, Wilcoxson, Brown, Boone, Morris, Wright, Adema, Noeltner, Aker, Sherwood, MacKenzie, Hayes, Holliman, Stansbery, Payne, Murphy, Hensley and Jahn. No doubt more can be added.

By using this blog site articles and photos can be archived and available to all family members. Your comments, articles, family trees, corrections, photographs, diaries and old letters are most welcome. In this format I, you and loved ones can hand off our family stories to the future. I invite all to join. My email address is Glennholliman@Embarqmail.com.

Frankie Osborne, as my generation's great grandmother is known, was born deep in the Appalachian Mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina. Millard Fillmore was president of the United States when she entered this world, and Franklin D. Roosevelt when she died. She lived through and during four major wars including the one that most affected her life, the American Civil War (1861-1865).

This triple photo display of George Washington Osborne, Jr is in an album passed down from Mayme Osborne (one of G.W.'s two daughters) to Louise Stansbery Sherwood and her sister, Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick. G.W. appears to be in his 50s which would date these pictures in the 1890s.

Frankie's father and several cousins died in that war, and her husband to be, George Washington Osborne, Jr. was wounded twice. If G.W. (as he was known) had not encountered a nasty knife thrust into his side from a Union sympathizer, he and Frankie might not have met and married. She was 14 when G.W. came to her house, deep in Wilson Cove near Trade, Tennessee, to recuperate from his injury.

Frankie nursed the 19 year old G.W., and in January 1867, when she was all of 15 1/2 years, they married. That marriage lasted until G.W.'s death in June 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee. Six sons and two daughters grew to maturity from this couple.