From the Scrapbook of Bruce and Torrence Donnelly, Part 3....

 by Glenn N. Holliman

A Look at the Lives of the Children of Bob and Sara Ellen Wilson....

 

In recent articles, we have been posting photographs from the scrapbook of Bruce and Torrence Wilson Donnelly courtesy of their great grand daughter, Jennifer Bundy.  Jennifer's mother, Jackie Ruth Lewis Farrington, has provided us short biographies of her great aunts and uncles.

 

Sara Ellen Wilson (3/6/1866 – 3/1/1952) left and her sister, Rebecca Wilson, married brothers - Bob and John Wilson, sons of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson. This photo was taken in the early 1950s. From the Shirley Sorrell collection.

 

 

 

 

 

Above the Bob and Sara Ellen Wilson Wilson house in Creston, North Carolina where they raised their children. The comments are composed by Jennifer Bundy from information provided by her mother. Jennifer's great grandparents, Bruce and Torrence Wilson Donnelly, eloped from this house in 1916 and lived to celebrate over 50 years of marriage!  Interestingly, three of their sons left North Carolina and moved to the West Coast.

 

Above "Ed Wilson went west and first worked for a large sheep and/or cattle ranch. Later he bought his own ranch there and ran it successfully. He married twice, but had no children. Mom stayed with Ed and his second wife Hattie a lot as a child in Oregon, and remembers them as wonderful loving people who were very good to her. She learned about Ed’s first marriage many years later. She thinks he met Hattie when he worked on the first ranch, and said Hattie was a cook on that ranch.  The first marriage ended when Ed's wife began running, well, a very risque road house!" 

 

Above "Witt also went west and worked for a while, but he came back to NC and farmed on Bob’s farm.  He and Neva lived at home with Bob and Ellen and farmed and took care of their parents."

Above "Neva lived at home until her parents and Witt had died. She was about 50 when she married a Hash and moved to Tennessee with her husband. After his death, she came back to NC and lived in Jefferson for many years."

 

Above "Edna married Charles Osborne and they lived on the Peak Rd. at Creston and farmed."

 

Above "Oscar farmed in the hollow at Sutherland, North Carolina where Isaac and Caroline had lived."
 



Below "Torrence and Bruce Donnelly farmed at Creston. Bruce also ran a small country store, but Mom thinks he quit the store after his children were all grown. She doesn’t remember the store when it was operating. The one there now was built where the old store was, by their son Joe. I can remember the old store building there when I was growing up, but we weren’t supposed to go inside as it was an old run down building."

 

 

Below "Lee went west and worked for one of the sheep ranches, near an Indian reservation but Mom doesn’t know which one. His wife and children lived in Creston and he came back periodically to see them but did not work in NC."

 

 

Below, the Bruce and Torrence Donnelly house in Creston in the 1970s.

 

 

Next Post, more Wilson photographs....

 

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.