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.