Letter: James R Willson

The Greer Way West, the web page of the Nathaniel Hunt Greer Family Organization — This page was last updated on February 7, 2009.

Letter from Rev James Willson to James & Matilda Lane — 29 JUL 1868

Before it was discarded and lost, this document was procured in 2007 by Mr Ron Carlisle from a Matthew Simeon Greer descendant who cared little for genealogy or family history. We are deeply indebted to Ron Carlisle for saving this document and sharing it with us.

To view an image of page 1 of this letter, click here.
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[Transcription by William N Greer who added the footnotes that follow]

[page 1]

Troup County July 29^th 1868
James Lane & family I have concluded to try to write you one more letter I shall not be able to read it when I get it done I will shew a good well to talk with you we are all so very sick here now so near death our crops very sorry rain began 25 will help some for we ought to be thankful coldness in religion prevails ever since the comenced & and continus I cannot tell where we shall all get to unless the good Lord will raise up some dareing spirit that will cry against sin in every shape seperate the church from the world for we are surely closely united but I am looking out every day for the messenger to tell me to depart I do not expect to see you this side of the Celestiall and if we then meet we shall make a happy escape from a wicked world many have a name to live and are dead my daily prayer is we all may be alive and do the will of our blessed Saviour for it is only those that do the will of God that will be saved Not every one that saith Lord Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven again Whosoever doeth the will of my father which is in heaven the same is my mother my sister and brother I write those things not because you dont know them but because you do I still try to preach the same doctrine I always preached

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for the hurt of my people am I hurt Jeremiah! none of the connection dead since I wrote last but Elizabeth Dodson['s] husband Mr Phillips we are all poor your Aunt Atchison lives in Madison with Lee Willson your Aunt Susan in Griffen Ben in Randolph A.l.a. Coffman in Mississippi Fayett County near the Tennesee line Oxford their post office Joel Dodson s[t]ill in A.l.a. Caroline Hanes the west side of Chattehooche formby at the same place James in Arkan[s]as Columby County near Atlanta William with me every thing high corn $1.25 meal $150 wheat $2. to 2.50 frour [flour] [by?] to $9 some people have not suffered for rain when we heard of the nomination for Presedent the[re] was much firing of canon we had better been praying Freedmen generally doing poorly I have told you the general news of our people as far as I know the [Cherokees?] has but little disciplin[e] and I dont know why the[y] should have when they mix with the worst kind of characters so I shall bid you farewell till we meet I am very hearty if I could see I am quite stout again I say farewell yours truly

James Willson

James & Matilda Lane

1) James Addison Lane: (4 OCT 1814 – 14 MAR 1883) He was the patriarch of the Lane migration to Texas. In Jasper Co, GA, on 25 FEB 1837 he wed Matilda Susan Wilson.
2) Elizabeth Virginia Dodson: (25 APR 1844 – 28 SEP 1916) Lizzie was the seventh and last known child of Joel Warnock Dodson and Elvira Donna Willson. She wed twice.
3) Thomas W Phillips: (about 1840 – before 1868) Tom became Elizabeth Virginia Dodson's first husband in 1865. Their only child Thomas W Phillips, Jr was born about a year later. The nature and exact date of Tom senior's death is undetermined.
4) Lucinda Willson: (14 MAR 1794 – 11 OCT 1871) She was one of perhaps ten children born to Captain James Willson Sr (about 1745 – 14 SEP 1824) and Agniss Black (about 1750 – after 1825). She married twice in Jasper Co, GA. On 19 DEC 1816 she wed Thomas Shaw (18 JUL 1792 – 22 OCT 1825) and by the time of Thomas Shaw's death, they had one surviving child, Sarah (Sally) Shaw. On 8 MAY 1836, Lucinda Shaw wed James A Atchisson (16 NOV 1778 – 2 OCT 1865). They soon moved to Troup Co, GA, and later to Heard Co, GA.
5) Madison: There were many Madisons in the region. This one was the seat of Morgan, Co, GA.
6) Leroy (Lee) Montgomery Willson: (29 JAN 1809 – 1 JAN 1880) Lee's father was Lucinda's brother John Willson (about 1788 – SEP 1825). In addition to Lee being a nephew of Lucinda, on 20 DEC 1831 he married Lucinda's sister-in-law Tabitha Shaw (5 MAR 1809 – 16 JUL 1873). And previously on 22 JAN 1818, Lucinda's brother-in-law John Shaw had wed her sister Sophia Willson. After the death of her second husband James A Atchisson, Lucinda moved to Madison in Morgan Co, GA, to spend her remaining years with Leroy and Tabitha Willson.
7) Susan Willson: (mid 1790s – after 15 JUN 1880) She was one of perhaps ten children born to Captain James Willson Sr (about 1745 – 14 SEP 1824) and Agniss Black (about 1750 – after 1825). On 7 APR 1820 in Jasper Co, GA, she apparently wed William B Buchannon, a man several years her elder, and they had 3 sons and a daughter before 1830 — but this is unproven. At an unknown place before 1843, she wed a man named Hales by whom she had 1 known child Seaborn H Hales. Her undated tombstone of circa 1881 has her aged 82 years at death — but conflicting census reports listed her age as 54 in 1850, 50 in 1860, 73 in 1870, and 87 in 1880.
8) Griffin: By 1860 Susan (Willson) Hales was widowed and living in Griffin, seat of Spalding Co, GA, where she spent the rest of her life.
9) Benjamin Franklin Willson: (22 JUL 1824 – 1887) Ben was the seventh known child of James Willson and Margaret (Peggy) Green. He was the only known brother of Matilda Susan Willson to live to adulthood. On 23 JAN 1845 he wed Sarah Wise in Troup Co, GA. In birth order their known children were Emily Willson, Sarah J Willson, Margarett Willson, Mary L Willson, Prudence R Willson, Robert Willson, James L Willson, Catherine E Willson, Jonah Willson, Benjamin Franklin Willson Jr, John R Willson and Judsen G Willson.
10) Randolph Co, AL: Ben and Sarah lived in the Rock Mills/High Shoals area of southeast Randolph Co, AL.
11) John Coffman: (26 AUG 1806 – 1881) On 27 APR 1828 in Jasper Co, GA, he wed Orry, the eldest child of James Willson and Margaret Green. By the time of the 1880 census, he and Orry had returned to Tallapoosa Co, AL, where they were living with their daughter Sally and her husband Moses Craig Fincher.
12) Joel Warnock Dodson: (27 MAY 1806 – 31 JAN 1889) He was the eldest son of Elijah Dodson (20 NOV 1785 – 10 OCT 1844) and Leah Rowden (about 1790 – after 1850). On 24 DEC 1828 in Jasper Co, GA, he married Elvira Donna Wilson (19 JUN 1810 – 30 NOV 1894) who was the 2nd of 8 children of James Willson and Margaret (Peggy) Green (12 FEB 1878 – 27 DEC 1829).
13) Alabama: Joel and Elvira Dodson farmed in the Gold Branch area of southwest Tallapoosa Co, AL.
14) Sarah Caroline Dixon?: (about 1827 – after 16 JUL 1870) This identity is speculative. On 3 MAY 1840 in Troup Co, GA, she wed an overseer named Samuel Haynes and in the 1850 census she is listed as 25 years old with 5 children. At the time of this letter, James Willson places her "west of the Chattahoochee" (that is, in AL), but the Troup Co census of 16 JUL 1870 lists Caroline Hanes, aged 41, living alone and adjacent to James Willson. Her family is missing from the 1860 census and she is not found after 1870. Her relationship to James Willson is unknown, but she seems not to have been his daughter Sarah Caroline who was born in 1821 and wed Charles T Harrist.
15) John Acles Formby: (2 DEC 1836 – 11 JUN 1910) He was a son of Matthew Bates Formby (3 JAN 1801 – 11 NOV 1851) and Mary Meadows (7 OCT 1804 – 4 JAN 1871). In Troup Co, on 3 DEC 1857, he wed Lucinda Jane Cameron Willson (8 JAN 1834 – 12 JUL 1871), the fourth and final child born to James Riley Willson and his second wife Sarah Cameron (26 APR 1793 – 20 JAN 1862). According to every census throughout his adult life, John had a farm near Long Cane in Troup Co, GA — so apparently, James Willson refers to another Formby in this letter. After Lucinda died, John Formby took a second wife, Rebecca C____ (3 MAY 1835 – 29 JUN 1887), and they lived in Long Cane the rest of their lives. John's middle name is a corrupted form of his paternal grandmother's maiden name, Echols, and his surname evolved into Fomby. All of the Formby tombstones in Long Cane Cemetery have the surname spelled Fomby.
16) James Blanton Wilson, Sr: (23 MAY 1832 – after 8 JUN 1900) He was the third child of James Willson and Sarah Cameron. On 4 FEB 1858 in Troup Co, he wed Sarah Cassandra Early (22 SEP 1838 – 14 MAR 1929), daughter of Simeon R Earl[e]y and Elizabeth Emely (Elmira) Bird. For the first few years of their marriage, James and Sarah lived with her brother Thomas near Harrisonville in northern Troup Co.
17) Columbia Co, AR: By the date of this letter, Sarah had borne five children (one of whom possibly died young) to James who was farming near Calhoun in Columbia Co, AR. They would have five more children. In the 1870s, James moved the family about 30 miles NW to a farm near Spring Hill in Hempstead Co where he apparently spent the remainder of his life.
18) William Cameron Willson: (4 MAR 1831 – after 1870) He and his twin John Dodson Willson were the first children born to James Riley Willson and Sarah Cameron. In the mid-1850s William married Mary Wise (about 1838 – after ??), daughter of Riley Wise and Prudence Vickers.
19) Freedmen: This term was long in wide use for freed slaves in various countries, but applied especially during and after the American Civil War. The Freedmen's Bureau was established by the US Congress in MAR 1863 and ended in JUL 1872. During Reconstruction, various agency officials and many freedmen were attacked and some killed by bitter southerners. Despite inadequate funds and inept staff throughout its existence, the bureau gave medical assistance to more than 1,000,000 ex-slaves and distributed over 21,000,000 rations to impoverished blacks (and to some poor whites).
20) Reverend James Riley Willson: (25 NOV 1784 – 7 JUL 1881) The long-lived patriarch of the Willsons in GA survived two wives by which he had two families, the first yielding eight children and the second producing four. His obituary in the LaGrange Reporter affirmed that "Few better men ever lived on this earth."
21) Matilda Susan Wilson: (4 AUG 1819 – 21 NOV 1888) She was the fifth known child of Rev James Riley Willson and Margaret (Peggy) Green. In Jasper Co, GA, on 25 FEB 1837 she wed James Addison Lane and they migrated to Washington Co, TX, around 1846.