The 2014 Wilson, Greer and Associated Families Forum 5

by Glenn N. Holliman

 In July 2014 a number of descendants of Greers, Wilsons and Osbornes gathered in Boone, North Carolina to share and learn more about their ancestors who had braved in the late 1700s the wilds of the southwestern Virginia and northwestern mountains of North Carolina.  Here are some photographs and lineages of those in attendance.  Any errors belong to this writer, and I welcome corrections and additions. - GNH

 Left, Gloria Wilson Heimburger and her husband, Wilbur, drove down from Illinois to attend the opening dinner.  Gloria is the daughter of Boyd (1911-1972) and Lexie Lawrence Wilson (1912-1982), grand daughter of Arlie G. (1885-1956) and Bessie Wilson (1887-1976), who was a daughter of John (1855-1928) and Rebecca Wilson (1862-1952). 

 Therefore, Gloria is of the generation of whom Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911) are great, great grandparents.

Right, back row, left to right: Gloria Wilson Heimburger as a young teenager with Robert Wilson, Lexie Wilson and Boyd Wilson. Front row kneeling: William 'Bill' Wilson and Ann Wilson Trivette.  This picture was taken on the 4th of July, 1950 at the Wilson farm.  Sadly Bob Wilson died on August 16, 1950 of leukemia, a few weeks short of his 18th birthday.
Photograph courtesy of Gloria W. Heimburger.

Below, a year later in 1951, Rebecca Wilson's surviving children met a year before Becky's death in Sutherland, North Carolina. Left to right sitting Conley (1882-1959), Rebecca and Bessie (Gloria's grandmother).  Standing left to right are Mayme (1892-1975), Preston (1900-1989), Robert (1906-1987, Ruth (1903-1999, Cal (1898-1999), 'Meg' Margaret 'Maggie' (1894-1992) , Don (1890-1975) and Minnie (1896-1997). Picture courtesy of Shirley Sorrell.

 Next posting, more on the lineages of those who attended the July 2014 gathering in Boone, North Carolina.

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.

From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 8

by Glenn N. Holliman


Shirley Sorrell, great great grand daughter of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, continues to share photographs she has collected of her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins.


Below, a picture in the 1940s of Roger Donnelly, left, followed to the right by Mayme Donnelly.  Next moving right is John T. Sutherland and his wife, Mayme's daughter, Rebekah Donnelly Sutherland.  The picture was taken at the Mayme Donnelly home in Sutherland, North Carolina.

Below, in 1937, in Sutherland, a picture was taken of the oldest children of Bessie and Conley Wilson, who are also the grandchildren of John (1855-1928) and Rebecca Wilson (1862-1952) who is sitting center on the front row. 


Back row, left to right are:  Bessie's oldest son, Boyd Wilson and his wife, Lexie holding the baby named Gloria.  Then Coney's oldest son, Argus and his wife, Grace Wilson holding baby Betty.  Finally on the back row is Conley's daughter Marie and husband Don Marsh with baby Shirley Marsh. 


In the front, left is Bessie Wilson Wilson holding Boyd's son, Robert.  Then Rebecca Wilson Wilson and finally Conley Wilson. 

Robert James Wilson was born August 25, 1932 and died of leukemia on August 16, 1950.  Gloria Jeanette Wilson entered life on October 5, 1934, William Boyd Wilson March 9, 1936 and Annabel Wilson, July 31, 1938.

Corrections, additions and your own photos, most welcome.  GNH

We invite you to rediscover your heritage at a Wilson, Greer, Wilcoxson, Osborne, Forrester, Adams and other families Forum, Saturday, 9 :30 am, July 19, 2014 in the community room of the Boone, North Carolina public library.  Sunday, July 20th is also the annual Wilson Homecoming at Sutherland United Methodist Church in Ashe County.  Join us for dinner, 6 pm at the Rustica restaurant in Boone, NC on Friday, July 18th.

For details and schedule on the above event and web site, watch this space and/or contact glennhistory@gmail.com.  Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson are great, great grandparents of this writer.

From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 5

by Glenn N. Holliman

Continuing our Series of Wilson Photographs....

 Several cousins, Shirley Sorrell, Dale Wilson and Kathryn Wilson have made this article possible with their photographs and knowledge of ancestors who were born and for many, lived their lives in the North Fork of the New River in Ashe County, North Carolina.    We continue the series with more on John Wilburn Wilson (1855-1928), a son of Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson's (1828-1911).

John and Rebecca Wilson Wilson (1862 - 1954) had ten children who lived to maturity,  and while some descendants still reside in the Western North Carolina mountains, many have dispersed across the United States. 

One son of John and Rebecca's was Thomas Conley Wilson, born Feb 18, 1882 and died Dec 9, 1957. He married Verde M. Barlow, (1880 - 1969). Their children are Marie Wilson (1908-2001), Conley Argus Wilson (October 3, 1909 - January 3, 1994) and Thomas Earl Wilson (October 22, 1913 - July 23, 1977).  Earl married Neva Howard ( b. Aug 12, 1912).


Conley lived all his life on a farm that was part of the Issac Wilson home place. The house still stands on the right just before Wilson cemetery on Oscar Wilson Road, Sutherland, North Carolina.  John and Rebecca, his parents, lived a little further up the road from him. He died of what appeared to be a heart failure in his barn, where his son Argus found him.

 
Robert Wilson was the last child of John and Rebecca, born June 4, 1906 and died May 18, 1987 and is buried in Guildford Memorial Park in Greensboro, NC. As a young man, he went out west with his nephew, Earl Wilson (son of his brother Conley). Robert was a bachelor for a long time, but later married Imogene (last name unknown) from Galax, Virginia.  There were no children from the marriage. The coupled lived in High Point, North Carolina where Robert worked at Sears in Greensboro for years. Imogene worked at Pilot Life Insurance.

He loved horses but Imogene did not want him spending money on them. So he would buy one, and say it was his nephew's, Clyde Wilson. Clyde was the oldest son of Robert's sister, Bessie Wilson.  They did have dogs and cats at home.  Clyde Wilson, his wife Tincy and their daughter Kathryn lived in High Point also. Robert ‘s youngest sister, Ruth Wilson Hurt, lived in Greensboro within miles of Robert. Reportedly Imogene and Ruth had their differences and 'fought like cats and dogs'!

 

Above, recently in my sister's attic I found my mother's (Geraldine Stansbery Holliman Feick, b 1923) baby book kept by her mother, Mayme Osborne Stansbery (1896-1943).  They lived in Bristol, Tennessee, and visited John W. Wilson and families in Sutherland in July 1924.  According to the above entry my mother first crawled at her great Uncle John's home.  The photograph to the right, appears to be my great grandmother, Frances Wilson Oborne (1851-1924) holding my mother while her two siblings, Frances Louise Stansbery Sherwood (1915-2006) and Charles Stansbery (1981-2006) mount a horse in Wilson Cove. 

Below are the obituaries concerning John Wilburn Wilson and his death in 1928.  This is has become a comprehensive treasure chest of family names and relations. Notice the reference to the bushwhacking in 1864 of Isaac Wilson by Leonard Columbus Wilson, a cousin by marriage. Click on the pages twice and they should enlarge.

The 2013 Wilson-Greer Reunion, Part 2

by Glenn N. Holliman

A 2013 Gathering at the Ancestral Home of Earl and Mayme Wilson Donnelly....

This is the second of several posts on the Wilson ancestors that gathered in July 2013 deep in the mountains of Ashe County, North Carolina.  Below, two cousins reuniting are Peggy Sue Huber, left, and Shirley Sorrell.  In this post, a word or two concerning Peggy Sue's lineage.

Peggy Sue's mother is Mary Wilson Barlow, b. 1923, who is a daughter of Oscar (1889-1985) and Olive Kilby Wilson (1904-1976).  Oscar, for whom the road to the original Isaac (1822-1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911) farm is named, is a son of Robert Boyd (1860-1949) and Ellen Wilson Wilson (1866-1952).  Robert (Bob) is one of the son's of Isaac and Caroline.  Peggy Sue now makes her home in Pennsylvania.

Below, a 1955 photograph of Oscar Wilson, Peggy Sue's grandfather.

From the Diary of Frances Wilson Osborne, who lived in 1928 in Bristol, Tennessee, we have this entry.  'Frankie' is this writer's great grandmother.

“May 6 1928…Went to Damascus, stayd a Week…Went to NC to Mrs. J W Wilsons at Sutherland the 12th.  I wast church for mother day the 13…nice day…ate diner with Oscar Wilson.”

Frankie noted in her Diary that the bus from Bristol to Damascus cost $1.25 and from Damascus, Virginia to Trade, Tennessee 75 cents.  From Trade to Sutherland, North Carolina, another 50 cents. One wonders when bus service began and what company provided the transportation?  When Frankie and her family migrated from Cove Creek, NC in 1897 to Tennessee, they traveled by horse and wagon, there being no train service.  Several decades later, Frankie was able to return regularly by motorized vehicle to these less isolated mountain valleys along the North Fork of the New River. 

Jackie Farrington, a grand daughter of Torrence Wilson, remembers traveling alone by bus from Virginia as a child in the early 1950s, changing buses in Jefferson for Sutherland!  Unfortunately, no  commercial bus service is available today for the area.

Below is a picture of Oscar's mother, Ellen and his Aunt Rebecca Wilson Wilson taken at a different time.  Rebecca was married to Bob's brother, John Wilson.  Judging from Frankie's Diary, Becky Wilson was a good friend of hers.

Below the graves of Peggy Sue's grandparents, Oscar and Olive who lie in the Wilson Cemetery adjacent to their former home.

 

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. 

 

From the Scrapbook of Shirley Sorrell 3

by Glenn N. Holliman


In this post, we present more photographs from the family of John (1855-1928) and Rebecca Wilson (1862-1954) who raised ten children to adulthood in their isolated farm cove in Sutherland, North Carolina. John's father, Isaac Wilson, settled the high mountain land prior to the Civil War, and died by bushwhackers while plowing his corn in June 1864. 

After Isaac's death, the land was divided amongst his widow, Caroline Greer Wilson, and the seven children.  John and Rebecca remained on their portion of the land for the rest of their lives.

John and Rebecca would have 14 children, a not terribly unusual number in Ashe County in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, but a family size becoming increasing rare for the United States as a whole.  Urban families and mechanized farm families did not need so many children to help with the family agricultural enterprise.  To this day, the uplands of Ashe County, except for bottom lands, remain generally unsuited for large farming equipment.

Four children Nora (1881-1887), Edgar (1883-1885), Boyd (1885) and Nancy (1912) died in infancy or early childhood.   Ten made it to adulthood and lived long lives. 

 Below front row left to right is John holding Preston (1900-1989), his wife Rebecca, holding Ruth (Hurt, 1903-1999).  Far right is Conley (1882-1957).

 Back row with her hand on her father is Mayme (Donnelly, Shirley Sorrell's grandmother) (1892-1975), William Don (1890-1975), Bessie (Wilson, 1887-1976), Maggie (Duncan, 1894 -1992), Minnie  (Osborne, 1896-1987) and Callie Frances (Wilson, 1898-1999).  Robert Earl Wilson is not present, being born in 1906, died in 1987.

 

A few years later in their finest white dresses, the girls gathered around their mother, Rebecca, for a formal photograph. Front row left to right would be Callie, Rebecca, Ruth and Minnie. Back row are Mayme, Margaret (Maggie) and Bessie.

 

 

From 1881 until 1912, a period of 31 years from ages 18 to 49, Rebecca Wilson Wilson gave birth to 14 children of whom only 10 lived to adulthood.  Despite the many pregnancies and the labor of the farm, Rebecca lived to be 92 years old! 

 

If a child of John and Rebecca's made it to adulthood, they lived a long life.  The four sons averaged 82.5 years at death.  The daughters averaged a staggering 93 years at passing!

 

Below Rebecca in later years.

 

 

 

 More information on the relationships of Greers, Wilsons, Osbornes, Stansberys, Forresters and others can be found at this writer's Ancestry.com site. Please write glennhistory@gmail.com for access or to add information. 

 

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.