The 2014 Wilson, Greer and Associated Families Forum 4

by Glenn N. Holliman

With retirement this year, cousin Gary O. Hodges of Virginia is rapidly becoming one of the most prolific researchers of the Wilcoxson-Boone-Greer family lines.  Those of you descended from Caroline Greer Wilson (1828-1911), as am I, are direct descendants of most of the persons recorded by Gary below.  With his wry sense of humor, Gary shares some important information with us.- GNH

Greers, Boones and Wilcoxsons by Gary O. Hodges

It’s time to set the record straight about the cousins who attended the family reunion this July in Boone, North Carolina. Not all of the attendees were Wilsons. Several of us have no direct blood line connections to the Wilsons.

At the dinner Friday night my wife Elogene, my daughter Wendy and I crashed the party and weren’t thrown out. Saturday Wendy and I attended the get together at the library, though I had to sneak in disguised as John Wilcoxson. Don’t put all the blame on me for crashing the reunion. Glenn spilled the beans and inadvertently let me know about the gathering.  Now I say all this with my tongue firmly planted in my cheek, next to a chew of tobacco.

Below, Gary, far left, shares information at the July Wilson/Greer and Associated Families Forum in Boone, North Carolina.  

So who am I? I am your cousin Gary Hodges. I am a Boone/Wilcoxson/Greer/Wilcoxson. I haven’t found any Wilson members in my direct line, but I hope you won’t hold that against me. But I am a Greer. I am a direct descendant of Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, her husband John Wilcoxson and two of their children; Samuel Wilcoxson and his sister Nancy Wilcoxson Greer. It’s through Nancy that I have my Greer blood line.

How is it that I am descended from two of Sarah and John’s children? Well, that is what can happen when second cousins marry. Their grandson Isaiah Wilcoxson married their great granddaughter Frances “Fanny” Greer.  Isaiah and Fanny’s son Rev. William M. “Billy” Wilcoxson/Wilcox is my 2^nd great grandfather. Through Sarah and John’s son Samuel my Wilcoxson/Wilcox family surname is unbroken to my mother Rosa Jean Wilcox Hodges. Through their daughter Nancy my line takes the Greer twist with their son William Greer and his daughter Fanny Greer.

When I started this article I tried to figure out just what to include. I decided to concentrate on our Wilcoxson and Greer families connection to the American Revolutionary War. Maybe I need to do another article that is more personal to my family line, post Rev. Billy Wilcox, but let’s concentrate on our families participation in the Revolutionary War.

Most of us have four documented Revolutionary War Patriot ancestors through the Boone/Wilcoxson Greer line. If you are a descendant of William Greer and his wife Hannah Cartwright then you have five. 

The first Patriot Ancestors I want to talk about are Sarah Boone and her husband John Wilcoxson. Sarah was the first child of Squire Boone and Sarah Morgan. Her brother, Daniel Boone, was Squire and Sarah’s sixth child. But being a sister of Daniel Boone is not why Sarah is designated as a RW Patriot. Sarah and her husband John Wilcoxson were some of the earliest settlers of Fort Boonesborough in Kentucky County Virginia.  

The Sarah and John Wilcoxson house in Mocksville, North Carolina in the 1980s, still standing over 200 years old.

She was at the fort when it was attacked in September of 1778 by over 400 Indians allied with the British and 12 Tory Militiamen. Since Sarah was at the fort during this 10 and a half day siege, she has been designated by the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) and the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) as a Patriot Ancestor. Her designation is “Defender of the Fort”. Sarah’s husband John was not present at the time of the siege. John, a member of the Kentucky County Virginia Infantry, was away fighting Indians allied with the British. John’s designation is as a “Soldier” in the Revolutionary War.  

Ft. Boonesborough in a 1901 sketch.

The next two Patriot Ancestors I submit are John Greer (Grier) and his son Benjamin Greer (Grier). When the Wilkes County NC court first met in March of 1778 John was appointed one of the first Justices of the Peace. John served in this capacity for over a year. He swore allegiance to the State of North Carolina the first day the court met. His designation is as a “Civil Servant”. 

John’s son Benjamin was appointed as the first Constable of the Moravian Creek (now Moravian Falls) community of Wilkes County. This appointment and his swearing the oath of allegiance to North Carolina was done on that same day. In addition to serving as a “Civil Servant” in Wilkes County, Benjamin Greer also served in the North Carolina Infantry and the Wilkes County Militia. Ben attained the rank of Captain in the Wilkes Militia, serving under Col. Benjamin Cleveland. Benjamin Greer has two RW Patriot designations, both as a “Civil Servant” and a “Soldier”. I won’t go into Ben’s exploits in the rescued of Col. Cleveland or the famous “Greer Hint”. Cousin Glenn Holliman has covered those in previous articles.

Ben Greer, my 5th great grandfather, was an Indian fighter also, as was his kinsman of the same time period, Daniel Boone.  This dramatic picture interprets an episode in the long and exciting life of our ancestor.  GNH

The fifth Patriot Ancestor some of you may share with me is Joseph Cartwright. Joseph was the father of Hannah Cartwright and  the grandfather of Fanny Greer. There is little information available about Joseph Cartwright and his wife Eve Miller. Eve apparently died in 1777 and Joseph died in 1778, leaving Hannah and her brother Joseph M. Cartwright orphaned. Hannah was six and Joseph was five. Joseph Cartwright served in the Wilkes County Militia under Capt. William Lenoir. His designation is that of a “Soldier”.

For those of you interested in these five Patriot Ancestors, I have documentation proving their service and my blood line to each of them. Some of this documentation comes from the records of the SAR and DAR. At least one person has successfully filed applications to one of these organizations through their direct blood line to one or more of them. 

I successfully filed applications to the SAR under both Sarah Boone Wilcoxson and her husband John Wilcoxson. I have an application (supplemental) for John Greer (Grier) that is being reviewed by the SAR at the National level. It has already been reviewed and approved at the State (Virginia) level. I presently serve as the Chaplain of the Thomas Nelson Jr. Chapter of the SAR in Newport News Virginia.  I know some of our cousins are members of the DAR. Maybe it’s time more cousin joined the SAR or DAR, Hint-Hint. And that’s not a “Greer Hint” I won’t hit any cousin, even if they steal my tobacco.

A few years ago I became very interested in researching my blood line. I started looking for ancestors who served in the American Civil War. Now I call it the War of Northern Aggression. I found two direct ancestors who served in the 65^th NC Troops (6^th NC Cavalry) and several collateral ancestors (multi great uncles) who served. Some were members of the Wilcoxson/Wilcox family, including one multi great uncle and his son who were Yankee soldiers. Those of you who are familiar with the Journal of Francis Marion Wilcox have read about him and his father serving in the 450^th KY Vol. Infantry (USA). But I digress. 

A Daniel Boone portrait of a man perhaps age 35 to 40, lean and hardy from years as a hunter, explorer and soldier.   

When I started my research I was fortunate to get in contact with the senior genealogist of The Boone Society, Dorthy Grissom Mack. Cousin Dorthy is a direct descendant of Sarah Boone Wilcoxon’s younger brother Edward Boone. Cousin Dorthy had a lot of research information on our family and she also created some family line documents just for me. 

I say just for me but Dorthy encourages me to share her work with my cousins, which I do at every opportunity. She guided me in how to research my family line and continues to help me and offer encouragement. Another Wilcox cousin once told me “family history without documentation is just a bunch of folk tales”. Document everything you can”. 

When I was appointed the de-facto genealogist for my first and second cousins, on my Hodges and Wilcox sides, I decided to amass as many documents as I could. I grab hold of and file every document I come across. Some of them have been furnished by cousins. A few aren’t in my direct blood line but anything a cousin gives me goes in the appropriate file. I try to keep everything on a thumb drive so I can attach information to e-mails. That’s another non “Greer Hint” hint that I share everything I have with my cousins. Most of my close cousins aren’t interested in detailed information about our family but I don’t let that discourage me. I just keep plugging on sharing more with cousins who really want the stuff I have.

If I don’t get nasty comments about this article, ha-ha-ha, maybe I will write more for our family site. Cousin Glenn is encouraging me to write an article on the 2014 Boone Society family reunion held at Pine Mountain State Resort Park in Kentucky. There were over 100 Boone family members there including at least eight direct descendants of Sarah Boone and her husband John Wilcoxson.

Gary O. Hodges

Boone/Wilcoxson/Greer/Wilcox families 

Our thanks to Gary for his full and factual presentation of some important family history. For information on Gary Hodges' email address, write me at glennhistory@gmail.com. GNH, seventh great grandson of Squire and Sara Morgan Boone.

When We Were Boones, Part VIII

by Glenn N. Holliman

I In 2011, my wife and were driving I-40 east through western North Carolina, when we came upon the Mocksville exit.  As we approached the town, I asked if she would like to see the Squire and Sarah Boone graves.  She said yes, so we took Exit 168 and just east of the intersection came up on the following historical sign which I had not seen in my previous visit to the area.

Hmm...I had taken Exit 170 the previous spring.  A little exploring and I realized the Boone cemetery is only a mile or two from the Boone farmstead historical sign, as the 'crow flies'.  Much of the area is still farmland, but the 'urbanization' of the area due to the Interstate is eating into the original land deeded to the Boones over 250 years ago.

Ironically, just a hundred yards or so away from the Boone tract is another sign commemorating another local resident, who lived a hundred years later.  Hinton Rowan Helper is generally known only to southern historians today, but his book damning slavery in the late 1850s added to the passions that unleashed the Civil War, a conflict that brought devestation to many of the descendants of Squire and Sarah Boone.

Below, my wife, Barb, snapped this picture of yours truly comtemplating my 7th great grandparents grave sites.  Squire was born in Devonshire, England in 1696s and immigrated through Bristol, England to Philadelphia and the Welsh settlement.  Later he moved to a farm near Pottsville, Pennsylvania until in the 1750s. An old man for the time, he migrated south to the Granville Tract of North Carolina.  There he died in 1765 and rests today on the edge of his former property.

Sarah Morgan Boone entered life in the Welsh settlement outside of Philadelphia, her parents from Wales.  She died in 1777. One historian believes her death 'freed' her youngest son, Daniel, to finally leave the area and open the settlement of what became Kentucky. Perhaps, but my 6th great uncle and his parents had been demonstrating wander-lust for some time.

After the above snapshot, we went back to the car, drove through a sprawl of fast food stores, gasoline stations et al, entered I-40 at Exit 170 and continued our journey to family further east.  We American families still do considerable 'wandering', especially at holiday times.

When We Were Boones, Part VII

The Resting Place of Squire and Sarah Boone
by Glenn N. Holliman


Above is the memorial to the Boones in the background of a 18th and 19th Century cemetery in Mocksville, North Carolina.  Below is an ingenious marker showing in metal the locations of the Boone and Wilcoxson family farms, our ancestors, in Wilkes County.  The first photo is the entire plaque and the second a close up of the map.  So next time, with more time, one must visit the old homesteads!

One of my great uncles, a brother of Daniel Boone and our 6th great grandmother, Sara Boone Wilcoxson, was Israel Boone who is buried beside his parents.


Daniel himself lies buried at the state capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky.

When We Were Boones, Part VI

The Final Resting Place of Squire and Sarah Boone
by Glenn N. Holliman

A number of years ago, I pulled off I-85 at Mocksville, North Carolina, drove east a mile toward town, and found the cemetery of my generation's 7th great grandparents.  These are my own photos and several reveal new insights into our family history.

Below is the reconstructed memorial with embedded original grave stones of Squire (1696 - 1765) and Sarah (1700 - 1777).

This is Squire's original marker.

Below is Sarah's rustic marker.

We Are Also Wilcoxsons - Part I

by Glenn N. Holliman

From Nottingshire to North Carolina...

Sources for this posting from Pat Hagan, Wilcoxson scholar and the Willcockson Genealogy Library

One of my generation's 8th great grandfather was John Wilcoxson, born about 1666 in Cossal, Nottingshire, England. We do not have the name of his wife, but on March 10, 1691/92 when Pennsylvania was only a decade old, one George Wilcoxson, my generations' 7th great grandfather, was born. The home was in Haverford, Pennsylvania. (see maps below)

(If my math is correct one has the potential for 512 8th great grandparents, or 256 8th grand fathers. So above is one of 256!)

Below is a map of parts of Derbyshire and Nottingshire, England. The yellowed area is Cossal, now just off the M 1, the major north - south artery for automobile and lorry traffic from London to Scotland. The fabled Sherwood Forest (now a feeble recreation of the medieval woodlands of Robin Hood) is a few miles to the northeast of this map. London is approximately 90 miles to the south of this map.

Breadsall, the red circled area, is the location of a fabulous Marriott Hotel located in an old country house and priory. Breadsall Priory Hotel is highly recommended as my wife and I have stayed there numerous times. Ironically I had no idea we were only a few miles from the home of my generation's 8th great grandfather.

John Wilcoxson must have been a Quaker because George would marry one Elizabeth Powell, my generation's 7th great grandmother in a Quaker ceremony April 15, 1719. Elizabeth was the daughter of Rowland Powell (another 8th great grandfather!) of Haverford Township in Chester, County.

By 1730 and perhaps earlier, George and Elizabeth Wilcoxson settled in Uwchlan, PA, a Welsh settlement, now located on Highway 100, just off the Pennsylvania Turnpike. George worked as a weaver and a farmer. Eventually, the family owned 95 acres.

Unfortunately, death came early to both George and Elizabeth (1739 and 1740). At least four children survived, Mary, age 5, who was taken in by a friend, and two sons, John and George, who went to live with Squire Boone and his wife Sarah Morgan Boone. Both George and Squire were weavers, and lived 15 to 20 miles apart. Another son, Isaac Wilcoxson (1724 - 1766) followed the extended family to North Carolina, as he is buried in the same cemetery as Squire and Sarah Morgan Boone.

Uwchland (spelled by the U.S. Post Office as Uwchland) means in Welch - upland. Ironically, for a Welsh Quaker settlement, the two places of worship in the township today are Jewish and Roman Catholic.

Below circled and yellowed are three locations of the Wilcoxson family in Pennsylvania from 1691 to 1750. The black circle, far right, is Haverford, now one of the most wealthy townships in America. Founded in 1691, the word in Welsh is reported to mean 'goat crossing'. Double click on the map and it will enlarge.


The center black circle is Uwchlan, the 95 acre farm of George and Elizabeth Powell Wilcoxson. The top left circle is the Squire Boone homestead. In the late 1600s and early 1700s, this area of Pennsylvania was very much the frontier line.

As we know, the Boones and Wilcoxsons will move together to North Carolina. In our next posting, we will follow the lives of John and Sarah Boone Wilcoxson, my generations 6th great grandparents....

We Are Also Boones, Part 5

by Glenn N. Holliman

The Boones and Wilcoxsons Locate to North Carolina

By the late 1740s, Squire Boone had had enough of the Quaker Church disciplining him for this children marrying outside of the faith. In 1750 in somewhat of a huff, he sold his land, burned some of his belongings, and with children and in-laws, moved down the Shenandoah Valley, first stopping in Virginia and eventually settling in the Yadkin Valley in North Carolina. Although Cherokee wars sent the family back to Culpepper, Virginia in the 1760s, the families eventually settled in the rolling hills of Rowan County.

Map from Boone, A Biography by Robert Morgan. For educational purposes only and not for commercial gain.

For Squire and his wife, Sarah, this was their last stop. Squire, who was born in Devonshire, England in 1696, died in 1765. Lying next to him is Sarah Morgan Boone, who died in 1777. This monument is to my generation's 7th great grandparents.
Photo from In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone, for educational purposes only.

The cemetery is located just one mile off I -40 near Mocksville, North Carolina. What was once the wild frontier is now Interstate Exit 170 half way between Winston-Salem and Statesville. The graveyard is 1/2 mile northwest of Mocksville on US 601.

We Are Also Boones, Part 3

by Glenn N. Holliman

Sources include the Boone Society web site and members; History of the Boone, Bryan and Morgan Families by Roberta Stuart Sims, Shreveport, LA; web site - Daniel Boone, Berks County's Gift to the West; the excellent work, Boone, A Biography by Robert Morgan; and research by Pat Hagan on the Wilcoxson family.

In 1720 Squire Boone, a son of George and Mary Mogridge Boone married Sarah Morgan. Her father was a Welsh American planter of note, one Edward Morgan, my generation's 8th great grandfather.

The family tree below is from Robert Morgan's Boone, A Biography available from Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2008.

Double click to enlarge the document. This reproduction and others are intended for educational purposes only, and not for commercial gain.

The marriage of my 7th great grandparents took place in North Wales in Gwynned Township, where both Welsh and English Quakers had settled. Squire and Sarah first moved to a farm in Bucks County, PA, but finding the community too crowded for a Boone, Squire soon moved to what is now Berks Country, where he bought land adjoining this father, George Boone, the great grandparent who moved the family to America.

In the 1720s, Berks County was the frontier and Blue Mountains, a few miles to the north, were a wall between the Europeans and Indians. The Squire Boones built a house over a spring, as a precaution because of possible Indian attacks. Part of the building still stands and is a historical park near Reading, Pennsylvania.

The map below is from Robert Morgan's work, one of the best recent works on Daniel Boone with considerable information on my generation's 7th and 6th great grandparents. Double click the map and it should become larger. This writer lives 25 miles northwest of Harrisburg, formerly Harris's Ferry.

Squire and Sarah had 11 children, the first being my 6th great grandmother, Sarah Boone, born 4/7/1724 in New Britain Twp., PA. She died 1815 in Madison County, Kentucky.

Sarah, my 6th great grandmother, married John Wilcoxson on May 29, 1742 in Exeter, PA. Some genealogists believe she was with child at marriage. This plus the fact John was not a Quaker led to differences between Squire Boone and his local Quaker Church, difficulties which would eventually lead to Squire leaving the Quaker congregation and, in fact, leaving Pennsylvania!

John's father is believed to be George Wilcox, who lived in Philadelphia, a weaver, who died in 1739. John's mother was Elizabeth Powell, daughter of Rowland Powell from Haverford, Chester Co. The couple married in 1718, and John was born 9/6/1720.

This posting has been full of family tree information. Next posting we will discover more about the Boone family in Pennsylvania....