More Photographs from my Sister's Attic

by Glenn N. Holliman

Last post, I placed pictures of The Rev. William A. Wilson, my grandmother's (Mayme Osborne Stansbery) uncle.  These were found in my sister's attic (Becky Holliman Payne) in Tennessee.  Below is one of the pictures posted of Will Wilson evidently outside of his Methodist school in Japan.

Cousin Shirley Sorrell,  descended through John Wilson, a brother of Will Wilson, had in her collection of family photographs a picture (see below) evidently made at the same time and place in Japan as the pictures held by my branch of the family!  Somewhat damaged, the clothing, flowers, building and setting are identical.  This was probably made in the 1920s, the last decade of Uncle Will's forty years of service in the mission field.

 

 

 In the same group of 'attic' pictures saved through the generations by my family branch are pictures of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, my generation's great great grandparents.  These two copies are 'rough' and seem to have had some hand drawn 'touch up'.  On the back of each, in my grandmother's handwriting is the following identification:

 "Caroline Greer Wilson, born Dec. 10, 1828, died Sept. 8, 1911.  Fell and broke hip June 8, 1907".  Many of my distant cousins have the same pictures, although in better condition.

 

  

 The 'touch up' is much more visible in the picture of Isaac Wilson.  Note his collar and front are basically a drawing. Written on the back of his photograph are the words: "Isaac Wilson, born Dec. 16, 1822.  Died June 17, 1864. Killed in Civil War."

 

 

The attic box revealed two photographs of my grandmother that I had not seen before.  The one below must have been taken ca 1897 when Mayme Osborne was only one year old.  It was about that time that G.W. and Frances Wilson Osborne (daughter of the above Isaac and Caroline Wilson) left Cove Creek in Watauga County, North Carolina and moved to Blountville, Tennessee in Sullivan County.  The county was wracked by a Depression during that time, and George Washington Osborne gave up farming and meager farm prices to run a general store.  

 

 Below is Mayme O. Stansbery ca 1940, a formal portrait taken when she was in her mid-40s. She was in ill health much of her adult life, and she passed away at age 47, December 1943.  She and Charles S. Stansbery, Sr. parented three children - Louise Frances Stansbery Sherwood (1914-2006), Charles S. Stansbery, Jr. (1918-2006) and Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick (1923-2015), this writer's mother).

 

 

For more information or to ask for an invitation, please contact Glenn N. Hollian at glennhistory@gmail.com. Or vvisit the Holliman-Long family tree in Ancestry.com.  Likewise the virtual archive www,bholliman.com.