Another Daniel Boone, Greers and Wilcoxsons

by Glenn N. Holliman

We are fortunate to have another article by Gary O. Hodges, recently retired from civilian U.S. Navy service, and now sharing with us his continued research on the Greer, Wilcoxson and Boone families.  He is our go-to person for ancestral societies information and is generous in passing along lineages.  

In this new article, inspired by recent emails from distant cousins, he writes further on the Benjamin and  Boone Greer families.  Yes, descendants of Daniel Boone,  occasionally named their offspring after the famous frontiersman.  Here is the story of one distant cousin and also some information on Greer and Wilson ancestors.

Below left to right: Mr. and Mrs. P. Thompson, Gary and his daughter, Wendy Hodges and Mrs Gayle Raizor a meeting of the national Daniel Boone Society conference in 2014.  The picture is the famous one of Daniel and his family (including John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxson) at the Cumberland Gap.  For information on the Daniel Boone Society (and most reading this are eligible to join), please contact Gary at gary.hodges1@verizon.net.
 

"Cousins, do you ever wonder if anyone outside our small circle reads the family blog spot? Well, I am not the only person who ran across the family blog through a Google search. Recently three people contacted Glenn and he forwarded their queries to me. I am now in contact with them, helping them as much as I can in their research. 

The most recent new cousin is Amber. She “stumbled across” the blog and found it very

interesting. Amber is the newest member of the family who is looking for documentation on

the Greer family. Like the cousins mentioned in our most recent posting, she is a direct

descendant of Benjamin Greer’s son James (17 September 1783 - September 1869). In fact, she is descended from James' son Alexander Greer. So we add another cousin to those looking for documentation on the children of James Greer. 

A short time before Glenn got the e-mail from Amber, Dorothy was surfing the web and ran across our blog. She was excited to see the name of Daniel Boone. It seems her husband is a descendant of Daniel Boone who was born in Rowan County, North Carolina. Well, this particular Daniel is not the brother of our Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, but a son of Daniel and Sarah’s brother Jonathan Boone (December 1730-1818). I contacted cousin Dorthy Mack, the senior genealogist of The Boone Society,and she sent me this reply: 

'As to this Daniel Boone, he married first Marie Rose Benoit in August 1800 in Louisiana and she died 3 April 18 01. They had no children. He married secondly on 23 Nov 1801 to Ann Boudreaux, and they had 7 children. This Daniel died between November and December 1817 near Beaumont, TX killed by Indians. He was not killed at the Alamo as many stories say. 

He is the son of Jonathan Boone who married Mary Carter, he the son of Squire Boone, Sr. and Sarah Morgan. The children of Jonathan Boone and Mary Carter have been contrived and inflated through the years. I think the son Daniel escaped due to the fact that he went to Louisiana as a young man and sort of got lost in the Boone folly that intrigues so many to claim what they are not. His daughter, Uranie, was just two or so when he died, and her mother died when she was about age 15. Although I have completed a lot of census work on this line not much has ever been known about them in reality.' 

The downloads Dorthy Mack refers to are the ones Dorthy attached in her contact e-mail to

Glenn. Some of you may remember me mentioning Dorthy Mack before. She is a descendant of Sarah Boone Wilcoxson’s brother Nathaniel Boone. So Dorthy is one of our Boone cousins. Now we know at least one of our Boone family moved to Louisiana and it includes Cajuns. 

The next cousin who emailed recently is Nancy. She is also a descendant of James Greer (1783-1869) and his wife, Mary “Polly” Hampton (1789-February 1880).

Nancy is a descendant of Alfred Greer (b 1840) whose mother was Mary Greer (b 1815)

who married William Thomas of Ashe County, North Carolina. Nancy says Alfred is an illegitimate son of Mary. I have not gotten far enough in my research on the children of James and Mary so I have nothing on Mary other than her birth year and that she married William Thomas. 

I will continue researching James descendants gathering as much information on his children and grandchildren as possible. It’s a trip on a tree branch I hadn’t intended on taking until we started getting queries from cousins on James and Mary’s family. Now my interest is aroused on the children and grandchildren of my William Greer (21 January 1772, Rowan County, North Carolina - 1862, Ashe County, North Carolina) siblings. 

Another cousin contacted Glenn about the Wilson family wondering of this person is part of the Wilsons of this blog. Well, that cousin is me. I know in a former article I said I was not a Wilson but I was wrong. Call it old-timers but I had been looking at my Wilcox family line over and over again and it wasn’t till a few weeks ago I saw my great grandmother was Rebecca Iva Wilson Wilcox.

Great grandmother Iva was born in Ashe County, North Carolina in 1835-6. She died in the same county before 2 June 1880. Iva was the first wife of Martin Van Buren Wilcox. Glenn told me Iva’s parents were John Wilson (1812-1892) and Jane “Jenny” Norris (1812-1895). I refer to great grandmother by her middle name Iva because that the given name shown on her son, General Grant Wilcox’s death certificate. So she may have gone by either Rebecca or Iva. 

Great grandmother Iva does not show on the Ashe County cemetery records under either given name. Not sure why this is the case. Any help on my Wilson family line will be helpful. 

So take heart cousins. Our family blog is getting a lot of attention. I would venture to take a wild educated guess and say there are probably several people who peruse the blog for every one who contacts Glenn. I think it is exciting that all the hard work Glenn does maintaining the blog and posting articles is bearing fruit. Who knows how many more contacts we will get in the future. Remember our blog is only as good as the information we have on it. You don’t have to be a wordsmith. Just give the information to Glenn and me and one of us will turn it into an article or articles. 

Recently I made another presentation at my Sons of the American Revolution chapter representing myself as John Wilcoxson.  Similar to the one I gave at our July 2014 family forum in Boone, North Carolina, but I added information on John's brother-in-law, the Daniel Boone.

That same night I received a supplemental certificate from the Sons of the American Revolution for our ancestor John Greer (1714, Baltimore County, Maryland - May 1782, Wilkes County, North Carolina.  John was Benjamin Greer's father.  Again, I was in period attire, complete with a new long waist coat and tri-corn hat.  My daughters Leigh Ann Workman and Wendy Hodges were present to hear the talk."

Respectfully

Cousin Gary O. Hodges

4th Great Grandson of Benjamin Greer and Nancy Wilcox

Searching for Grandchildren of Benjamin Greer

by Glenn N. Holliman

Below, Gary O. Hodges interpreting the common great grandfather of many reading this posting, John Wilcoxson (1720-1782) at the July 2014 Boone, North Carolina Greer-Wilson and Associated Families seminar.  In the foreground, left to right are Shirley Sorrell, Connie Burns and Bina Ankers.
One of the delights of the Internet is to work with distant cousins to 'fine tune' family lineages.  Gary O. Hodges of Virginia and I share a common 5th great grandfather, Benjamin Greer (1745-1816).  From February to June 2011 in this space I posted a number of articles on Ben's amazing life fighting Native Americans, Tories and British.  His life was as large but not so famous as his kinsman, Daniel Boone.  As Ben had fifteen children by two wives, he also had to deal with an occasional recalcitrant child, one being my 4th great grandfather, Jesse Greer, Sr, of whom I have written also in this space.

Here is a list of Ben's children which I published in February 2011.  Blogs are recorded in chronological order, so if you are interested, return to my previous articles.

"My 5th great grandmother, Nancy Wilcoxson Greer, was born May 17, 1745, and died October 31, 1790, at the age of 45.  The children Benjamin and she had were:

Rachel Greer (sometimes spelled Grear) - b 1/16/1770
William Greer -  b 1/21, 1772  (Gary Hodges' 4th great grandfather)
Benjamin Greer - b 2/14/1774
Anna Greer - b 4/26/1776
Jesse Greer, Sr. -  11/14/1778 - 9/20/1869 (this writer's generation's 4th great grandfather)
David Greer - 2/2/1781
James Greer - 9/17/1783 (the person whose sons are in question)
Samuel Greer - 11/28/1785
Joshua Greer - 4/8/1788
John Greer - birth date unknown

A Wilkes County marriage bond in the State Archives in Raleigh, NC, dated 4/26/1791 lists Benjamin Greer and Sarah Jones as married.  This would be Mrs. Sallie Atkinson Jones, widow of Thomas Jones who died from a Revolutionary War wound.  She reared children by both husbands.

By widow Sallie, five children were fathered by Benjamin Greer.  They were:

Edmund Greer
Sally Greer
Elizabeth Greer
Mary Polly Greer
Aquilla Greer - b 1797"

Cousin Gary has been assisting other cousins in their search to clarify their blood line to Benjamin Greer.  Some are trying to document their line through two of his grandsons, Andrew S. and Alexander Greer, sons of James.  One is trying to discover her blood line through William Greer's daughter Elizabeth who married Larkin Owens. Gary writes the following of his recent research journey. Perhaps our readers can assist?

"The only help I have been able to render so far is obtaining a copy of Benjamin's handwritten will. I had already found an extract of his will so I had a head start. I then contacted Green County, Kentucky and asked if they had records going back that far. I was informed they did not, but the older records may have been sent to the state archive for safe keeping. 

I called up the Kentucky State Archive and sure enough Green County had sent their old records to them. The records they had for Green County go back to the year before Benjamin's will was filed. I sent off for the will and low and behold they had it. I got a certified copy of the will in the mail a couple of days ago. Took me a few days to get up the energy to scan the document and save it to my thumb drive.

Below is the first page of the Will of Benjamin Greer. The cover states it is in fragile condition.  At the bottom of this article is the 'translation' of the will from another source.  If one would wish the entire copy of the original document, one can email me at gary.hodges1@verizon.net.

Keep in mind, the Daughters of the American Revolution and Sons of the American Revolution do not always accept a transcript of a will without a copy of the original document.

So, I am still at an impasse trying to document the blood line of James Greer's two sons Andrew S. and Alexander and William's daughter Elizabeth Greer Owens. Ben's will lists James and William as sons of Benjamin, but I cannot find a will for James or documentation showing Elizabeth was William's daughter. 

Benjamin's will does help me with my War of 1812 research. It proves John Greer was a son of Benjamin and brother of my distant great grandfather, William Greer. John Greer was a member of the Militia and served in the War of 1812. 

Unlike the SAR and DAR, the Society of the War of 1812 allows men to join through co-lateral ancestors (for example multi-great uncles). I now have documentation for our one Greer family member who served and two Wilcoxson brothers who also enlisted. There were three Wilcoxson brothers but I can not find documentation to prove one of them. I did find records to prove all four of these uncles did serve in the North Carolina Militia in the War of 1812. 

 Here is that transcription of the Will of Benjamin Greer from 1816:

"In the name of God, Amen. I, Benjamin Greer, of the County of Green, State of Kentucky, being through the goodness and mercies of God though weak in body, yet of a sound mind and perfect understanding and memory, do constitute this my last will and testament and desire it may be recorded as such. I most humbly bequeath my soul to God who gave it, beseeching ... (page was torn and taped at this point and part missing) ... and my body buried like seed in the ground, not to be lost, but here buried to remain till the morning of the Resurrection through Jesus Christ our Lord. As to my burial, I do desire to be interred, at the discretion of my Executors, thereafter named, who, I doubt not will arrange it with prudence. 

As to my worldly estate, I will, and positively order that all my debts be paid. First, I do bequeath to my two youngest sons namely Aquilla and Edmond Greer, the two tracts of land I now live on to be equally divided between them: and the rest of my estate to be equally divided between my three daughters: namely Sally, Elizabeth and Polly Greer; but my wife, Sarah Greer, to hold the same in her hands during live; but the said children to have their equal part as they become of age or marry. At the discretion of my Executors to which I do appoint my wife Sarah Greer, Aquilla Greer and Robert Erwin, and do constitute the executors of this my last will and testament and trustees for my wife and children. 

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal this twenty first day of February in the year of our Lord one thousand Eight hundred and sixteen. N. B. and I do will that all my other children namely, John, Rachel, William, Benjamin, Ann, Jesse, David, Samuel, Joshua and James have one dollar each out of my estate. Signed Benjamin (X) Greer, witnesses: Benjamin Bayly, Christopher Hinker, James (X) Lile" (Green County, Kentucky Will Records.)

Hopefully someone reading this may be able to identify the children of James Greer (b 1783), and help some other cousins finalize their lineages. I found the Ben Greer will but have hit a brick wall with some of the next generation."  - Gary V. Hodges

All are invited to join in building the family tree at Wilson-Greer-Osborne-Forrester-Donnelly and Associated Families of Western NC at Ancestry.com.  Just write to glennhistory@gmail.com for an invitation.