From the Archives of Annie Greer Heaton, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

More Treasures from Annie Greer Heaton's Family History Materials....



The above is a family photograph of the Rev. William Albert Wilson family taken in 1896 in Hiroshima, Japan.  William Wilson (1861-1950) was the last born son of Isaac and Caroline Wilson Greer of Sutherland, Ashe County, North Carolina.  Ordained in the Southern Methodist Church, Will and his wife, Mary McClellan Wilson, served decades as Christian missionaries to Japan.  A graduate of Trinity College (Duke), Will wrote the memoirs that became the book Neighbor to Neighbor, the story of the Civil War in Ashe County and his father's murder in 1864.

According to Annie Heaton's marginalia in red, William sent this picture to his first cousin, William Isaac Greer who lived in Banner Elk, North Carolina.  Mary Wilson died in 1949 and William the next year, 1950 in retirement in Durham, North Carolina.

In 1947, William wrote the below comments concerning his family lineage and relatives.  His descendants have written their own comments in the margins. Click on the document twice and it should enlarge.

 

 

The above document of my great, great Uncle W. A. Wilson is key element in the tracing and understanding the Greer lineage. 

 

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.



Greer-Wilson Family Tour, 2012 Part VI

by Glenn N. Holliman

"A Small Travail"

In the early 1800s, the second religious Great Awakening swept across the American frontier and newly founded communities, left behind as the western movement continued to push rapidly across the new United States.  Institutional churches such as the Anglican denomination (now called Episcopalian), the dominant if not the founding church of the original southern colonies, failed to move aggressively to plant churches and provide clergy to minister to the small, isolated villages popping up in the mountain coves and rural landscapes of the newly minted nation.

Into this void came the Baptist and Methodist denominations, both with little ritual in worship and whose clergy were often under-educated.  But the pastors, ordained or otherwise, could preach, and preach they did emotionally of a doctrine of sin, damnation and personal salvation.  Camp meetings and open air revivals, attracted families for miles around.  Many came, were converted and their lives strengthened spiritually.  One such person who left his testimony, was Jesse Greer, Sr. (1778-1869).

Below, the Todd, North Carolina Cemetery where Jesse and Mary Morris Greer lie buried, overlooks a beautiful valley surrounded by high mountains covered again with forests.

He experienced a spiritual conversion experience in 1815, and as he wrote in his notebook, ‘the Gall of Bitterness’ fell away.  Whatever were the sins of this emotional, evidently impulsive ancestor?  Womanizing, drinking, horse stealing, fighting, gambling or swearing – all of the above?  He admits to some of these ‘sins’ in his confession of repentance copied below. Cousin Annie Heaton of Elk Park, North Carolina has his notebook and words written in pencil, which evidently were copied by his son Jesse Greer, Jr.  Here they are below with original spelling.  The cadence of his words capture the feeling and the emotion of his Great Awakening.

A Smawl travil of Jesse Grear, Sr.

“He was born the son of Benjamine and Nancy Grear 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 Benjamin, I Began to think that my soul must dwell with the rich man. 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 to 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 Breake 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 any 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 that 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 Baptised on the 4th Sunday in June 1815.”

     As we read his words today – he must have been a tormented soul – we hope he was happier.  Whatever could his terrible sins had been?  Maybe he neglected his children; he sure did not neglect his wife, the mother of his 17 children!

  A morning sun scatters rays through the tall trees of the North Carolina highlands as  descendants of Jesse Greer, Sr. tend to his rustic gravestone.

When We Were Greers XVI

by Glenn N. Holliman

Jesse Greer Sr. Elopes with his Child Bride, Mary Morris!


This is a stunning story of a 13 1/2 year old girl, Mary Morris, who grew up on the Yadkin River near Wilkesboro, North Carolina, disobeyed her father, my generation's 5th great grandfather, Henry Morris, and ran off with 22 year old Jesse Greer, Sr!  Jesse had grown up along the South Fork of the New River in what became Ashe County, North Carolina.  Jesse lived on one side of what is now the Blue Ridge Parkway, and Mary on the east side.

This event happened in 1801.  If it had happened in the 21st century, young Jesse would have been charged with statutory rape, kidnapping and who knows what else.  After 10 to 15 years in the state penitentiary, branded a pedophile, he would have spent the rest of his life on the sexual predators list!

Fortunately for our DNA, Jesse and Mary had very successful marriage.  Their great grandson (and brother of Frances Wilson Osborne), The Rev. William A. Wilson, in the 1940s recorded the story which had passed along as family oral history.  From p. 109 - 110 of Neighbor to Neighbor, I quote verbatim the story as I cannot improve on this tale written by my 2nd great uncle!


"Polly Morris's father objected to the marriage on the grounds that Polly was too young.  However, Morris allowed Greer and his daughter to talk matters over and during the time allotted they planned an elopement.

Old man Morris (Henry Morris whose wife was named Mary also) was good enough to ferry young Greer to the Western bank of the Yadkin.  Polly Morris appeared little disappointed and went about her work cheerfully.  Later in the afternoon, as planned, Polly Morris went down to the river bank and young Greer, carrying his gun in one hand, waded the river on stilts and when he reached the bank where she stood he took her on his back and waded back to the safe side.  They walked some distance to the home of an acquaintance of Greer's and told them they were hurrying to Ashe County where they would get married.

They crossed the Blue Ridge at Gap Creek which was only four miles from the Greer home at Old Fields.  Elijah Calloway was magistrate at Old Fields and Jesse Greer and Polly Morris were married by him. Calloway, as had Benjamin Greer, Jesse Greer's Sr's father, had married a Wilcoxson, daughter of John and Sarah Wilcoxson.  So Callway was his uncle.  Sarah Wilcoxson was before her marriage, Sarah Boone, daughter of Squire Boone, father of Daniel Boone."

On the map above, note Baldwin in the center right near the edge of the map, marked in yellow. Near here Jesse and Mary crossed the Blue Ridge from the east, Wilkesboro, North Carolina (off the map). They were married by his uncle in the area marked in yellow under the large 'D', far center edge of map. Just to the south west of Baldwin, at Todd on the Ashe and Watauga County line, Jesse and Mary are buried together at the Howell Cemetery. To get your bearings, note Boone, North Carolina in center, toward the bottom of the map.  Again in yellow. 

This young couple had 17 children, one being Jesse Jr., my generation's third great grandfather. Benjamin Greer had 15 children.  Greers live all over North Carolina, East Tennessee and Kentucky to this day!