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.

by Glenn N. Holliman

From the Scrapbook of Bruce and Torrence Donnelly....

Cousin Jennifer Leigh Knight Bundy, left, recently has made available some mid-20th Century photographs of the Wilson and Donnelly families of Sutherland, North Carolina.  What follows is her family lineage and snapshots from the Bruce and Torrence Wilson Donnelly scrapbook held by Jennifer's family. 

Jennifer's lineage is as follows. She is the daughter of Meredith Lewis Knight and Jackie Ruth Lewis Farrington. Jackie Ruth Lewis Farrington is the daughter of Master Sgt. Morris Franklin  (a Bataan Death March Survivor) and Virginia Dare Donnelly Lewis. Virginia Dare Donnelly Lewis is the daughter of Bruce and Torrence Wilson Donnelly. Torrence Wilson Donnelly is the daughter of Bob and Ellen Wilson. Bob Wilson is the son of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson.

Jennifer, her husband and son, and twenty other cousins toured Sutherland, the Wilson Cemetery and the Donnelly Store in June 2012.  These Wilson photographs augment the numerous family pictures printed in Neighbor to Neighbor (2007) available at the Appalachian State University book store.

Today the original mid-19th Century farm of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson is subdivided into several homes and farm steads.  The topographical maps name the road into the cove as the Oscar Wilson Road, leading off State Highway 88 in Ashe County, North Carolina. - GNH

Isaac (12/16/1822-6/17/1864) and Caroline Greer Wilson (12/16/1828-9/8/1911) had seven children, one being Robert 'Bob' Wilson.  Caroline had an 8th child, Sarah Marilla Wilson Osborne, several years after her husband's murder by 'bushwhackers' in June 1864.  In this article, we trace one branch of the family. 

Bob Wilson (1/4/1860-2/7/1949) married a cousin, Sara Ellen Wilson (1866-1952).  One of their children was Torrence Wilson who married a neighbor, Bruce Donnelly.  Bruce's parents were Gustavous and Flora Latham Donnelly who lived in Sutherland. 
Bob and Ellen Wilson lived at Green Valley.  Their house and the one Torrence was raised in is still there.

Above taken prior to Bob Wilson's death in 1949, left to right are Flora Latham Donnelly, Gustavus Donnelly, Robert Wilson, the son of Isaac and Caroline Greer Wilson, and Robert's wife, Ellen Wilson, mother of Torrence Wilson who married Bruce Donnelly.

Above the children of Robert and Ellen Wilson in 1956.  Left to right are Lee Wilson, Grover DeWitt Wilson (2/4/1885-3/24/1957), Edna Wilson Osborn, Edgar Wilson, Neva  Wilson Hashe (7/7/1905-11/23/2003), Oscar T. Wilson (2/24/1889- 8/28/1985) and Torrence Wilson Donnelly.  Torrence is the great grandmother of Jennifer Bundy.  

Another photograph of same children left to right back row - Witt, Oscar, Edgar, Lee and front row - Torrence, Edna and Neva.  These photographs are believed taken at the Wilson-Donnelly farm in Sutherland.  Below a chimney and barn still stand at the site of the old homeplace. The photo was taken by Jennifer Bundy in 2010.

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Next post, more photographs from the Bruce and Torrence Donnelly Scrapbook....

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.