Railroading on Gentry's Creek

The Party Gathers 

Col Vance and Major B Collins arrived on the 19th and they all went to Captain Isaac Weaver's They were General Joseph McDowell Col David Vance Major Mussendine Mathews commissioners John Strother and Robert Henry surveyors Messers B Collins James Hawkins George Penland Robert Logan Geo Davidson and J Matthews chain bearers and markers Major James Neely commissary two pack horse men and a pilot. 

They camped that night on Stag creek On the night of the 23d of May they camped at a very bad place in a low gap at the head of Laurel Fork of New river and Laurel Fork of Holston at the head of a branch after having passed through extreme rough ground and some bad laurel thickets. 

A road now runs through that laurel thicket built since the Civil War and runs from Hemlock postomce where there is now a narrow gauge lumber railroad and an extract plant to Laurel Bloomery in Tennessee.

A small hotel now stands half on the North Carolina and half on the Tennessee side of the line those men then ran and the gap is called Cut Laurel gap because it is literally cut through the laurel for a mile or more.  

Thousands of gallons of blockade whiskey used to be carried through that gap when there was nothing but a trail there It is called by Mr Strother a low gap but it is one of the highest in the mountains 

The Damascus Lumber Company Railroad 

In 1902 the Hemlock Extract Company, DK Stouffer manager, was built and several years afterwards the Damascus Lumber Company built a narrow gauge railroad from Laurel Bloomery in Tennessee on the Laurel Railway Company's line over the Cut Laurel gap. 

It is operated exclusively as a logging road but the grade generally is good enough for a standard road and there is no reason why it should not be electrified and operated as it is for freight and passengers Its terminus at Hemlock is only 19 miles from Jefferson the county seat of Ashe county. 

The grade down Laurel creek to the North Fork of the New river is good and the road should be extended to Jefferson at least the principal barrier to mountain roads having been overcome in the passage of the Cut Laurel gap.

From:

Western North Carolina: A History (1730-1913)

 By John Preston Arthur, National Society Daughters of the American Revolution of North Carolina. Edward Buncombe Chapter, Asheville

http://books.google.com/books?id=rHNtrkPD8UMC&pg=PA39&dq=cut+laurel+gap&hl=en&sa=X&ei=C4HVT86HJOO-0AHaxemrAw&ved=0CEEQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=cut%20laurel%20gap&f=false

The walk home from Laurel Bloomery

Twenty mile walk from Cut Laurel Gap to Trout and home.

With several children and carrying one.

The walk from Laurel Bloomery to home in Trout.

Looking down the Cut Laurel Gap towards Laurel Bloomery from Cut Laurel Gap Road on the NC side.
Original road was the path of a narrow gauge logging railroad line.

Where Laura Greer Grew Up

Near Trout, Creston township, NC

Three Top Church Trout, NC

Three Top Church Trout, NC

Snowy Range Snow removal

Andrew and Joseph Greer

The Messenger
Joseph Greer is known as the Kings Mountain Messenger for his personal delivery of the message to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia of the victory over the British at the Battle of Kings Mountain, South Carolina, fought on October 7, 1780. His claim to fame as the Kings Mountain Messenger came at the conclusion of the Battle of Kings Mountain when he was dispatched by Col. John Sevier to carry the message of victory to George Washington and the Continental Congress meeting in Philadelphia. It took him some thirty days on foot and horse while enduring the wilds of the country, the threat of hostile Indians, and the snow and rain of a severe winter to arrive with musket and compass on November 7, 1780 at the session of Congress, a 600 mile trip. It is said that the Indians shot his horse from under him and on one occasion was hiding inside a hollow log while the Indians sat on it. His entry to the Congress was restrained because he was unknown, however he pushed his 6 foot 7 inch frontiersman stature through the door and delivered his message to a stunned and disbelieving Congress. Seeing his size and courage, they were heard to say “with men of his size and strength, no wonder the frontier patriots won.”

Joseph Greer was the second son of Andrew and Ruth Greer who came from Gaughwaugher, Londonderry County, Ireland in 1750. They settled in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Andrew and Ruth had 3 sons and 2 daughters. They were Alexander 1752-1810, Joseph 1754-1831, Andrew II 1756- , Jane 1758- , and Ruth 1760-1831. Andrew’s first wife, Ruth Kincaid, died about 1761.

Andrew’s second wife was Mary Vance of a renowned family of North Carolina. She bore him 3 sons and 3 daughters. They were Margery Johnson 1768- , Thomas 1770- , John 1775- , twins David and Vance (birth date unknown), and Mary Vance (Polly) 1786- . Therefore Joseph was one of eleven children including one set of twins. Interestingly, later Joseph also had 11 children, including one set of twins.

Joseph Greer was born at Philadelphia on August 8, 1754. In his early years, Joseph moved with his parents to Staunton, Virginia, and his father traded with the Indians in lower Virginia and western North Carolina, areas which later became eastern Tennessee. In about 1766, at the age of 12, the family moved to the Watauga River area. It is known that his father, Joseph, and his brothers, Alexander and Andrew II, along with John Sevier were among forty defenders of Fort Watauga in 1769 who defeated some 300 Indians. The conflict was in the vicinity of the Town of Elizabethton.

Joseph’s first marriage was to the widow Carter of Knoxville in 1792. They had no children. Living in Knoxville, they owned a store until 1804 when his wife died and he moved to Lincoln County, Tennessee. He was a big buyer and seller of land, the first of which was acquired by grant of 2,566 acres with a warrant from North Carolina for his services during the war. This land was located south of the Elk River near Fayetteville, Lincoln County, Tennessee.

After marrying his second wife, Mary Ann Harmon of Kentucky in 1810 they settled and raised their family at Hannah’s Gap in the area of Petersburg. They had 6 sons and 5 daughters. They were: Joseph H. 1811-1858; Margaret Ruth 1813-1854; Eliza Joe 1815-1887; Alexander A. 1817-1883; Katherine Sarah 1820-1854; Jane Caroline 1821-1874; twins John Jacob 1824-1912 and Thomas Vance 1824-1917; Jefferson 1826- ; Julia Eglantine 1828- ; and George Wilson 1830-1850. Joseph had 38 grandchildren.

Joseph Greer died in 1831 of pneumonia at the age of 77. He became ill after traveling through a winter storm getting home from a trading trip to see his new-born son, George. After his death some 7000 acres were distributed by will to his heirs.

Joseph Greer’s grave can be found in a pasture field of his old home place which is located about 4 miles east of the Town of Petersburg, Tennessee, about a thousand yards north of state highway 129 near the intersection of Bledsoe Road and Three Hundred Dollar Road. His wife, Mary Ann and their last son, George, are buried next to him. The inscription on his crypt reads:
Here lies the body of Joseph Greer.He was, while living, and example ofevery virtue, distinguished for hisbenevolence and humanity. Hedied on the 23rd day of February1831, in the 77th year of his age,lamented by all who knew him.

A bronze plaque was placed at his grave site about 1930. The plaque was stolen and his crypt desecrated. In 2004 the plaque reappeared and for preservation, security, and historic recognition it is now prominently located on the Lincoln Courthouse lawn in Fayetteville, Tennessee. The plaque reads:
KINGS MOUNTAINMESSENGERJOSEPH GREER CARRIEDTHE MESSAGE OF THEVICTORY AT KINGSMOUNTAIN TO THECONTINENTAL CONGRESSAT PHILADELPHIATHEREBY TURNING THETIDE OF THE REVOLUTIOND.A.R.

Joseph Greer, the Kings Mountain Messenger, was truly a hero of the Revolution for Freedom for delivering the message of an unknown victory to a down hearted Congress that turned the tide of the war for independence against the British.

The Battle

The Battle of Kings Mountain of the American Revolution was fought on October 7, 1780 in York County, South Carolina, which is near Gastonia, North Carolina. It took place on a small, narrow, isolated plateau that rose some 150 feet above the surrounding areas of forested slopes and ravines that led to the nearly treeless summit. The Kings Mountain battle was the beginning of the successful end to the Revolution for Independence that began on April 19, 1775 at Lexington and Concord. For the most part American Patriots fought American Loyalists troops to determine their destiny in this battle.

The British under General Lord Cornwallis and Major Patrick Ferguson recruited a thousand American Loyalist Tories and trained them to fight in European open-field tactics (which would prove to be a big mistake at Kings Mountain). Cornwallis, who was mounting an invasion of North Carolina, ordered Ferguson and his Loyalists to move north into western North Carolina. Ferguson sent a message to the over-mountain back-water patriots in the Watauga settlements threatening “that if they did not desist from their opposition to the British arms, and take protection under his standard, he would march his army over the mountains, hang their leaders, and lay their country waste with fire and sword.” The threat proved to be his undoing.
Enraged, Isaac Shelby and John Sevier organized a force to go east over the mountains and strike Ferguson before he had a chance to get to them. Quick to join them were Col. Charles McDowell, leader of 160 North Carolina Whigs and Col. William Campbell commander of 400 riflemen from the east side mountains of Virginia. These 1000 riflemen met at the appointed gathering place, Sycamore Shoals on the Watauga River on September 25, 1780. They took three days crossing the Blue Ridge and at Quaker Meadows were joined by an additional 350 Whigs under Col. Benjamin Cleveland and Col. Joseph Winston. At this point Campbell was given overall command. On October 6th after days of exhausting travel they were joined at Cowpens by Col. James Williams and 400 South Carolinians. Learning that Ferguson was only 30 miles away at Kings Mountain, they chose 900 of their best men and horses and made their way there overnight.

Surrounding the mountain with Campbell and Shelby on the interior and Sevier on the right flank and Cleveland on the left flank, they moved toward the summit and the battle began at about three p.m. on the afternoon of October 7, 1780. A number of bayonet charges were made by Ferguson but were repelled by the sharpshooters of Shelby and Campbell. Meanwhile Sevier and Cleveland were gaining a foothold on the summit. As the net now was closing in on Ferguson, he was shot and killed and the fight went out of his remaining soldiers. Of the British Tory troops, 157 were killed, 163 were severely wounded and 698 were captured. The Patriots lost only 28 killed and 62 wounded. The Battle of Kings Mountain lasted only about one hour.
The site of the battle is now the 3,950 acre Kings Mountain National Military Park which celebrated its 225th Anniversary of the historic battle on October 7, 2005. Congress established the National Military Park in 1931.

Research and Credits
The forgoing information was gleaned through the cooperation, advisement, and writings of many people including but not limited to: Published records of the National Society DAR; Tennessee Society DAR; Sequoyah District TSDAR; Kings Mountain Messenger Chapter records and its members of the year 2005; writings of Mark Whitaker, a descendant of Joseph Greer; findings in the Public Library of Fayetteville-Lincoln County TN; the Public Records of Lincoln County, Tennessee; the Staff and Publications of the Kings Mountain National Military Park; the Genealogical Society of Lincoln County; and people having historical and genealogical creditability of Lincoln County; and Bettye M. Silvey, Chapter Regent 2004-2006.

JOSEPH GREER

JOSEPH GREER After the battle on Kings Mountain in what is now Blackburg, S.C., Joseph Greer was picked to deliver news of the victory to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia. Historians say he made most of the 600-mile, one-month trip on foot with just a compass to guide him, passing through hostile territory on the way.The war for control of America had reached a stalemate in the north in early 1780, and England's military strategy was to move into the Southern colonies and increase their troop size before returning north. Historians say the October battle halted the British advance into the Carolinas, changing the course of history and pushing the Continental Army toward its eventual victory. Nobody in the congress knew about the battle or knew of Greer until he arrived, historians said. Greer, at least 6-foot-7, had to force his way in on Nov. 7, 1780, to tell the tale of the battle, earning the nickname of the "Kings Mountain Messenger." Greer moved to what is now East Tennessee with land given to him as payment from North Carolina's military officials after the war. He later bought up to 10,000 acres of land near Petersburg in Middle Tennessee. A widower, Greer met and married Mary Ann Harmon in 1808 after moving to Petersburg. They had 11 children before his death in 1831, at the age of 77.

SOURCE: Tennessee Daughters of the American Revolution research; U.S. Department of the Interior documents; writings of Mark Whitaker, a Greer descendant Kate Howard can be reached at 726-8968 or_kahoward@tennessean.com_

On Horseback

Excerpts pertaining to the Laurel Bloomery area from

ON HORSEBACK
By Charles Dudley Warner


(The following excerpts are from a series of articles published in The Atlantic Monthley: A Magazine of Literature, Science, Art, and Politics in July and August, 1885. The articles detail a trip by a small group from Connecticut through the Southern Appalachians, from Abingdon, Virginia down to the Smokey Mountains.)

.....
With this amicable adjustment we forded the Holston, crossing it twice within a few miles. This upper branch of the Tennessee is a noble stream, broad, with a rocky bed and a swift current. Fording it is ticklish business except at comparatively low water, and as it is subject to sudden rises there must be times when it seriously interrupts travel. This whole region, full of swift streams, is without a bridge, and as a consequence, getting over rivers and brooks and the dangers of ferries occupy a prominent place in the thoughts of the inhabitants. The life necessarily had the "frontier" quality all through, for there can be little solid advance in civilization in the uncertainties of a bridgeless condition. An open, pleasant valley the Holston, but cultivation is more and more negligent and houses are few and poorer as we advance.

We had left behind the hotels of "perfect satisfaction," and expected to live on the country, trusting to the infrequent but remunerated hospitality of the widely scattered inhabitants. We were to dine at Ramsey's. Ramsey's had been recommended to us as a royal place of entertainment, the best in all that region; and as the sun grew hot in the sandy valley, and the weariness of noon fell upon us, we magnified Ramsey;'s in our imagination, --the nobility of its situation, its cuisine, its inviting restfulness, --and half decided to pass the night there in the true abandon of plantation life. Long before we reached it, the Holston River which we followed had become the Laurel, a most lovely, rocky, winding stream, which we forded continually, for the valley became too narrow much of the way to accommodate a road and a river. Eagerly as we were looking out for it, we passed the great Ramsey's without knowing it, for it was the first of a little settlement of two houses and a saw-mill and barn. It was a neat log house of two lower rooms and a summer kitchen, quite the best of the class that we saw, and the pleasant mistress of it made us welcome. Across the road and close to the Laurel was the spring-house, the invariable adjunct to every well-to-do house in the region, and on the stony margin of the stream was set up the big caldron for the family washing; and here, paddling in the shallow stream, while dinner was preparing, we established an intimacy with the children and exchanged philosophical observations on life with the old negress who was dabbling the clothes. What impressed this woman was the inequality in life. She jumped to the unwarranted conclusion that the Professor and the Friend were very rich, and spoke with asperity of the difficulty she experienced in getting shoes and tobacco. It was useless to point out to her that her al fresco life was singularly blessed and free from care, and the happy lot of any one who could loiter all day by this laughing stream, undisturbed by debt or ambition. Everybody about the place was barefooted, except the mistress, including the comely daughter of eighteen, who served our dinner in the kitchen. The dinner was abundant, and though it seemed to us incongruous at the time we were not twelve hours older when we looked back upon it with longing. On the table were hot biscuit, ham, pork, and green beans, apple-sauce, blackberry preserves, cucumbers, coffee, plenty of mild, honey, and apple and blackberry pie. Here we had our first experience, and I may say new sensation, of "honey on pie." It has a cloying sound as it is written, but the handmaiden recommended it with enthusiasm, and we evidently fell in her esteem, as persons from an uncultivated society, when we declared our inexperience of "honey on pie." Where be you from?" It turned out to be very good, and we have tried to introduce it in families since our return, with indifferent success. There did not seem to be in this family much curiosity about the world at large, nor much stir of social life. The gayety of madame appeared to consist in an occasional visit to paw and maw and grandmaw, up the river a few miles, where she was raised.

Refreshed by the honey and fodder at Ramsey's, the pilgrims went gaily along the musical Laurel, in the slanting rays of the afternoon sun, which played upon the rapids and illumined all the woody way. Inspired by the misapprehension of the colored philosopher and the dainties of the dinner, the Professor soliloquized:--

"So am I as the rich, whose blessed key
Can bring him to his sweet up-locked treasure,
The which he will not every hour survey,
For Blunting the fine point of seldom pleasure.
Therefore are feasts so solemn and so rare
Since seldom coming, in the long year set,
Like stones of wealth they thinly placed are,
Or captian jewels in the carcanet."

Five miles beyond Ramsey's the Tennessee line was crossed. The Laurel became more rocky, swift, full of rapids, and the valley narrowed down to the river-way."with standing, room, however, for stately trees along the banks. The oaks, both black and .white, were, as they had been all day, gigantic in size and splendid in foliage. There is a certain dignity in riding in such stately company, and the travelers clattered along over the.stony road under the impression of possible high adventure in a new world of such freshness. Nor was beauty wanting. The rhododendrons had, perhaps, a week ago reached their climax, and- now began to strew the water and the ground with their brilliant petals, dashing all the way with color; but they were still matchlessly beautiful. Great banks of pink and white covered the steep hillsides; the bending stems, ten to twenty feet high, hung their rich clusters over the river;' avenues of glary opened away in the glade of the stream; and at every turn of the winding way vistas glowing with the hues of romance wrenched exclamations of delight and wander from the Shakespearean sonneteer and his humble Friend. In the deep recesses of the forest suddenly flamed to the view, like the splashes of splendor on the somber canvas of an old Venetian, these wonders of color, tbe glowing summer-heart of the woods.'

It was difficult, to say, meantime whether the road was laid out in the river, or the river in the road. In the few miles to Egger's (this was the destination of our great expectations for the night) the stream was crossed twenty-seven times. Where the road did not run in the river, its bed was washed out and as stony as the bed of the stream. This is a general and accurate description of all the roads in this region, which wind along and in the streams, through narrow valleys, shut in by low and steep hills. The country is full of springs and streams, and between Abingdon and Egger's is only one (small) bridge. In a region with scarcely any level land or intervale, farmers are at a disadvantage. All along the road we saw nothing but mean shanties, generally of logs, with now and then a decent one-story frame, and the people looked miserably poor.

As we picked our way along up the Laurel, obliged for the most part to ride single-file, or as the Professor expressed it, --

"Let me confess that we two must be twain,
Although our undivided loves are one,"-

We gathered information about Egger's from the infrequent hovels on the road which inflamed our imaginations. Egger was the thriving man of the region and lived in syle in a big brick house. We began to feel a doubt that Egger would take us in, and so much did his brick magnificence impress us that we regretted we had not brought apparel fit for the society we were about to enter.

It was half past six, and we were tired and hungry, when the domain of Egger towered in sight, --a gaunt two-story structure of raw brick, unfinished, standing in a narrow intervale. We rode up to the gate, and asked a man who sat in the fron door porch if this was Egger's, and if we could be accommodated for the night. The man, without moving, allowed that it was Egger's, and that we could probably stay there. This person, however, exhibited so much indifference to our company, he was such a hairy, unkempt man, and carried on face, hands, and clothes so much more of the soil of the region than a prudent proprietor would divert from raising corn, that we set him aside as a poor relation, and asked for Mr. Egger. But the man, still without the least hospitable stir, admitted that that was the name he went by, and at length advised us to "lite" and hitch our horses, and set on the porch with him and enjoy the cool of the evening. The horses would be put up by and by and in fact. things generally would come round some time. This turned out to be the easy way of the country. Mr. Egger was far from being inhospitable, but was in no hurry, and never had been in a burry. . He was not exactly a gentleman of the old school. He was better than that. He dated from the time: when there. were no schools at all, and he lived in that placid world which is without information and ideas. Mr. Egger showed his superiority by a total lack of curiosity about any other world.

This brick house, magnificent by comparison with other dwellings in this country, seemed to us, on nearer acquaintance, only a thin, crude shell of a house, half unfinished, with bare rooms, the plastering already discolored. In point of furnishing it had not yet reached the "God bless our Home" stage in. crewel. In the narrow meadow, a strip of vivid green south of the house, ran a little, stream, fed by a copious spring, and over it was built the inevitable spring-house. A post, driven into the bank 'by the stream, supported a tin wash-basin, and here we performed our ablutions.. The traveler gets to like this freedom and primitive luxury.

The farm of Egger's produces corn, wheat, grass, and sheep; it is a good enough farm, but most of it lies at an angle of thirty-five to forty degrees. The ridge back of the house, planted in corn, was as steep as the roof of his dwelling. It seemed incredible that it ever could have been ploughed, but the proprietor assured us that it was ploughed with mules, and I judged that the harvesting must be done by squirrels. The soil is. Good enough if it would stay in place, but all the hillsides are seamed with gullies. The discolored state of the streams was accounted for as soon as we saw this cultivated land. No sooner is the land cleared of trees and broken up than it begins to wash. We saw more of this later, especially in North Carolina, where we encountered no stream of water that was not muddy, and saw no cultivated ground that was not washed. The process of denudation is going on rapidly wherever the original forests are girdled (a common way of preparing for crops), or cut away.

As the time passed and there was no sign of supper, the question became a burning one, and we went to explore the kitchen. No sign of it there. No fire in the stove, nothing cooked in the house, of course. Mrs. Egger and her comely young bare-footed daughter had still the milking to attend to, and supper must wait for the other chores. It seemed easier to be Mr. Egger; in this state of existence; and. sit on the front porch and. meditate on the price of mules and the prospect of a crop, than to be Mrs. Egger, whose work was not limited from sun to sun; who had, in fact, a day's work to do after the men-folks had knocked off; whose chances of neighborhood gossip were scanty, whose amusements were confined to a religious meeting once a fortnight. Good; honest people these, not unduly puffed up by the brick house, grubbing away year in and year out. Yes, the young girl said, there was a neighborhood party, now and then, in the winter. What a price to pay for mere life!

Long before supper was ready, nearly nine o'clock, we had nearly lost interest in it. Meantime two other guests had arrived, a couple of drovers from North Carolina, who brought into the circle --by this time a wood-fire had been kindled in the sitting-room, which contained a bed, an almanac, and some old copies of a newspaper-- a rich flavor of cattle and talk of the price of steers. As to politics, although a presidential campaign was raging, there was scarcely an echo of it here. This was Johnson County, Tennessee, a strong Republican county; but dog-gone it says Mr. Egger, it's no use to vote; our votes are overborne by the rest of the State. Yes, they'd got a Republican member of Congress, --he'd heard his name, but he'd forgotten it. The drover said he'd heard it also; but he didn't take much interest in such things, though he wasn't any Republican. Parties is pretty much all for office, both agreed. Even the Professor, who was traveling in the interest of Reform, couldn't wake up a discussion out of such a state of mind.

Alas! the supper, served in a room dimly lighted with a smoky lamp, on a long table covered with oil-cloth, was not of the sort to arouse the delayed and now gone appetite .of a Reformer, and yet it did not lack variety; cornpone (Indian meal stirred up with water and heated through), hot biscuit .slack-baked and livid, fried salt-pork swimming in grease, apple-butter, pickled beets, onions and cucumbers raw, coffee, so-called, buttermilk, and sweet milk when specially asked for (the correct taste, however, is for buttermilk), and pie. This was not the pie of commerce, but the pie of the country, - two thick slabs of dough, with a squeezing of apple between. The profusion of this supper staggered the novices, but the drovers attacked it as if such cooking were a common occurrence, and did justice to the weary labors of Mrs. Egger.

Egger is well .prepared to entertain strangers, having several rooms and several beds in each room. Upon consultation with the drovers, they said they'd just as soon occupy an apartment by themselves, and we gave up their society for the night. The beds in our chamber had each one sheet, and the room otherwise gave evidence of the modern spirit; for in one corner stood the .fashionable aesthetic decoration of our Queen Anne drawing-rooms, --the spinning-wheel. Soothed by this concession to taste, we crowded in between the straw and the home-made blanket and sheet, and soon ceased to hear the barking of dogs and the horned encounters of the drover's herd.

We parted with Mr. Egger after breakfast (which was a close copy of the supper) with more respect than regret. His total charge for the entertainment of two men and two horses-supper, lodging, and breakfast-was high or low, as the traveler chose to estimate it. It was $1.20: that is, thirty cents for each individual, or ten cents for each meal and lodging.

Our road was a sort of by-way up Gentry Creek and over the Cut Laurel Gap to Worth's, at Creston Post Office, in North Carolina, --the next available halting place, said to be fifteen miles distant, and turning out to be twenty-two, and a rough road. There is a little settlement about Egger's, and the first half mile of our way we had the company of the school-mistress, a modest, pleasant-spoken girl. Neither she nor any other people we encountered had any dialect or local peculiarity of speech. Indeed, those we encountered that morning had nothing in manner or accent to distinguish them. The novelists had led us to expect something different; and the modest and pretty young ladies, with frank and open blue eyes, who wore gloves and used the common English speech, had never figured in the fiction of the region. Cherished illusions vanish often on near approach. The day gave no peculiarity of speech to note, except the occasional use of "hit" for "it."

The road over Cut Laurel Gap was very steep and stony, the thermometer mounted up to 80 degrees, and notwithstanding the beauty of the way the ride became tedious before we reached the summit. On the summit is the dwelling and distillery of a colonel famous in these parts. We stopped at the house for a glass of milk; the colonel was absent, and while the woman in charge went for it, we sat on the veranda and conversed with a young lady, tall, gent, well-favored, and communicative, who stood in the doorway.

"Yes, this house stands on the line. Where you sit you are in Tennessee; I'm in North Carolina."

"Do you live here?"

"Law, no; I'm just staying a little while at the colonel's. I live over the mountain here, three miles from Taylorsville. I thought I'd be where I could step into North Carolina easy."

"How's that?"

"Well, they wanted me to go before the grand jury and testify about some pistol-shooting down by our house, --some friends of mine got into a little difficulty, --and I didn't want to. I never has no difficulty with nobody, never says nothing about nobody, has nothing against nobody, and I reckon nobody has nothing against me."

"Did you come alone?"

"Why, of course. I come across the mountain by a path through the woods. That's nothing."

A discreet, pleasant, pretty girl. This surely must be the Esmeralda who lives in these mountains, and adorns low live by her virgin purity and sentiment. As she talked on, she turned from time to time to the fireplace behind her, and discharged a dark fluid from her pretty lips, with accuracy of aim, and with a nonchalance that was not assumed, but belongs to our free-born American girls. I cannot tell why this habit of hers (which is no worse than the sister habit of "dipping") should take her out of the romantic setting that her face and figure had placed her in; but somehow we felt inclined to ride on further for our heroine.

"And yet," said the Professor, as we left the site of the colonel's thriving distillery, and by a winding, picturesque road through a rough farming country descended into the valley, --"and yet why fling aside so readily a character and situation so full of romance, on account of a habit of this mountain Helen, which one of our best poets has almost made poetical, in the ease of the pioneer taking his westward way, with ox-goad pointing to the sky, --

"He's leaving on the pictured rock
His fresh tobacco stain."

"To my mind the incident has Homeric elements. The Greeks would have looked at it in a large, legendary way. Here is Helen, strong and lithe of limb, ox-eyed, courageous, but woman-hearted and love-inspiring, contended for by all the braves and daring moonshiners of Cut Laurel Gap, pursued by the gallants of two States, the prize of a border warfare of bowie knives and revolvers. This Helen, magnanimous as attractive, is the witness of a pistol difficulty on her behalf, and when wanted by the areopagus, that she may neither implicate a lover nor punish an enemy (having nothing, this noble type of her sex, against nobody) skips away to Mount Ida, and there, under the aegis of the flag of her country, in a Licensed Distillery, stands with one slender foot in Tennessee and the other in North Carolina" -

"Like the figure of the Republic itself, superior to state sovereignty," interposed the Friend.

"I beg your pardon," said the Professor, urging up Laura Matilda (for so he called the nervous mare, who fretted herself into a fever in the stony path), "I was quite able to get the woman out of that position without the aid of a metaphor. It is a large and Greek idea, that of standing in two mighty States, superior to the law, looking east and looking west, ready to transfer her agile body to either State on the approach of messengers of the court; and I'll be hanged if I didn't think that her nonchalant rumination of the weed, combined with her lofty moral attitude, added something to the picture."

The Friend said that he was quite willing to join in the extremest defense of the privileges of beauty, --that he even held in abeyance judgment on the practice of dipping; but when it came to chewing, gum was as far as he could go as an allowance for the fair sex.

"When I consider everything that grows
Holds in perfection but a little moment"-

The rest of the stanza was lost, for the Professor was splashing through the stream. No sooner had we descended than the fording of streams began again. The Friend had been obliged to stipulate that the Professor should go ahead at these crossings, to keep the impetuous nag of the latter from throwing half the contents of the stream upon his slower and uncomplaining companion.

What a lovely country, but for the heat of noon and the long wearisomeness of the way!-not that the distance was great, but miles and miles more than expected. How charming the open glades of the river, how refreshing the great forests of oak and chestnut, and what a panorama of beauty the banks of rhododendrons, now intermingled with the lighter pink and white of the laurel! In this region the rhododendron is called laurel, and the laurel (the sheep-laurel of New England) is called ivy.

At Worth's, well on in the afternoon, we emerged into a wide, open farming intervale, a pleasant place of meadows and streams and decent dwellings. Worth's is the trading centre of the region, has a post office and a sawmill and a big country store; the dwelling of the proprietor is not unlike a roomy New England country-house. Worth's has been immemorially a stopping place in a region where places of accommodation are few. The proprietor, now an elderly man, whose reminiscences are long ante bellum, has seen the world grow up about him, he the honored, just centre of it, and a family come up into the modern notions of life, with a boarding-school education and glimpses of city life and foreign travel. I fancy that nothing but tradition and a remaining Southern hospitality could induce this private family to suffer the incursions of the wayfaring man. Our travelers are not apt to be surprised at anything in American life, but they did not expect to find a house in this region with two pianos and a bevy of young ladies, whose clothes were certainly not made on Cut Laurel Gap, and to read in the books scattered about the house the evidences of the finishing schools with which our country is blessed, nor to find here pupils of the Stonewall Jackson Institute at Abingdon. With a flush of local pride, the Professor took up, in the roomy, pleasant chamber set apart for the guests, a copy of Porter's Elements of Moral Science.

"Where you see the Elements of Moral Science," the Friend generalized, "there'll be plenty of water and towels;" and the sign did not fail. The friends intended to read this book in the cool of the day; but as they sat on the long veranda, the voice of a maiden reading the latest novel to a sewing-group behind the blinds in the drawing room; and the antics of a mule and a boy in front of the store opposite; and the arrival of a spruce young man, who had just ridden over from somewhere, a matter of ten miles' gallop, to get a medicinal potion for his sick mother, and lingered chatting with the young ladies until we began to fear that his mother would recover before his return; the coming and going of lean women in shackly wagons to trade at the store; the coming home of the cows, splashing through the stream, hooking right and left, and lowing for the hand of the milker, --all these interruptions, together with the generally drowsy quiet of the approach of evening, interfered with the study of the Elements. And when the travelers, after a refreshing rest, went on their way next morning, considering the Elements and the pianos and the refinement, to say nothing of the cuisine, which is not treated of in the text-book referred to, they were content with a bill double that of brother Egger in his brick magnificence.

The simple truth is that the traveler in this region must be content to feed on natural beauties. And it is an unfortunate truth in natural history that the appetite for this sort of diet fails after a time, if the inner man is not supplied with other sort of food. There is no landscape in the world that is agreeable after two days of rusty bacon and slack biscuit.

"How lovely this would be," exclaimed the Professor, "if it had a background of beefsteak and coffee!"

We were riding along the west fork of the Laurel, distinguished locally as Three Top Creek, --or rather we were riding in it, crossing it thirty-one times within six miles; a charming wood (and water) road, under the shade of fine trees, with the rhododendron illuminating the way, gleaming in the forest and reflected in the stream, all the ten miles to Elk Cross Roads, our next destination. We had heard a great deal about Elk Cross Roads; it was on the map, it was down in the itinerary furnished by a member of the coast survey. We looked forward to it as a sweet place of repose from the noontide heat. Alas! Elk Cross Roads is a dirty grocery store, encumbered with dry-goods boxes, fly-blown goods, flies, loafers. In reply to our inquiry, we were told that they had nothing to eat, for us, and not a grain of feed for the horses. But there was a man a mile further on, who was well to do and had stores of food-old man Tatem would treat us in bang-up style. The difficulty of getting feed for the horses was chronic all through the journey. The last corn crop had failed, the new oats and corn had not come in, and the country was literally barren. We had noticed all along that the hens were taking a vacation, and that chickens were not put forward as an article of diet.

We were unable, when we reached the residence of old man Tatem, to imagine how the local superstition of his wealth arose. His house is of logs, with two rooms, a kitchen and a spare room, with a low loft accessible by a ladder at the side of the chimney. The chimney is a huge construction of stone, separating the two parts of the house; in fact, the chimney was built first, apparently, and the two rooms were then built against it. The proprietor sat in a little railed veranda. These Southern verandas give an air to the meanest dwelling, and they are much used; the family sit here, and here are the wash-basin and pail (which is filled from the neighboring spring-house) and the row of old milk-pans. The old man- Tatem did not welcome us with enthusiasm; he had no corn, --these were hard times. He looked like hard times, grizzled times, dirty times. It seemed time out of mind since he had seen comb or razor, and although the lovely New River, along which we had ridden to his house, --a broad, inviting stream, --was in sight across the meadow, there was no evidence that he had ever made acquaintance with its cleansing waters. As to corn, the necessities of the case and pay being dwelt on, perhaps he could find a dozen ears. A dozen small ears he did find, and we trust that the horses found them.

We took a family dinner with old man Tatem in the kitchen, where there was a bed and a stove, a meal that the host seemed to enjoy, but which we could not make much of, except the milk; that was good. A painful meal, on the whole, owing to the presence in the room of a grown-up daughter with a graveyard cough, without physician or medicine, or comforts. Poor girl! just dying of "a misery."

In the spare room were two beds; the walls were decorated with the gay-colored pictures of patent-medicine advertisements --a favorite art adornment of the region; and a pile of ancient illustrated papers with the usual patent-office report, the thoughtful gift of the member for the district. The old man takes in the Blue Ridge Baptist, a journal which we found largely taken up with the experiences of its editor on his journeys roundabout in search of subscribers. This newspaper was the sole communication of the family with the world at large, but the old man thought he should stop it, --he didn't seem to get the worth of his money out of it. And old man Tatem was a thrifty and provident man. On the hearth in this best room --as ornaments or memento mori --were a couple of marble grave-stones, a short head-stone and foot-stone, mounted on bases and ready for use, except the lettering. These may not have been so mournful and significant as they looked, nor the evidence of simple, humble faith; they may have been taken for debt. But as parlor ornaments they had a fascination which we could not escape.

It was while we were bathing in the New River, that afternoon, and meditating on the grim, unrelieved sort of life of our host, that the Professor said, "Judging by the face of the Blue Ridge, Baptist, . he will charge us smartly for the few nubbins of corn and the milk." The face did not deceive ,us; the charge was one dollar. At this rate it would have broken us to have tarried with old man Tatem (perhaps he is not old, but that is the name he goes by) over night.

It was a hot afternoon, and it needed some courage to mount and climb the sandy hill leading us away from the corn-crib of Tatem. But we entered almost immediately into fine stretches of forest, and rode under the shade of great oaks. The way, which began by the New River, soon led us over the hills to the higher levels of Watauga County. So far on our journey we had been hemmed in by low hills, and without any distant or mountain outlooks. The excessive heat seemed out of place at the elevation of over two thousand feet, on which we were traveling. Boone, the county-seat of Watauga County, was our destination, and, ever since morning, the guide-boards and the trend of the roads had notified us that everything in this region tends towards Boone as a centre of interest. The simple ingenuity of some of the guide-boards impressed us. If, on coming to a fork, the traveler was to turn to the right, the sign read,
To BOONE 10M.

If he was to go to the left, it read,
.M01 ENOOB oT (Editor's Note: the letters were all backward)
....

Awesome book!

This is a really interesting book about pond mountain and the cut laurel gap area.
You can read some of it on google print or buy a copy at Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0786403918/102-4663867-0409710

Three Top School 1901

Would Laura Alice Greer be in this picture? The little girl 3rd from left?
Click on the picture to enlarge.

Oren and Alice Greer

A Short History of Laurel Bloomery

Where the World Ended and Tennessee Began
Written by Thomas Gentry (County Historian)



The year was 1749 when a survey party was engaged by the British Parliament to establish the boundary lines between the two colonies of North Carolina and Virginia. As the surveyors finished the task, they came to an area now know as Pond Mountain. The area is also called three corners since it is the point where Tennessee joins both Virginia and North Carolina.
When the leader of the party came to a high knob where he viewed White Top Mountain, the Unaka Range, and into the wilderness valley that is known as Taylor's Valley, Sugar Creek, and Fodderstack Ridge, he made a decision. He called the members of the party together, and packed up the instruments and equipment. He later recorded these comments
" I came to a place I call steep rock (today called Cat Face) and this is where we stop because this is as far in the wilderness as any white man will go." It's interesting to note that the leader of the survey party was Peter Jefferson, father of Thomas Jefferson, the 3rd president of the United States. Jefferson would be the one to make the Louisiana Purchase and send Lewis and Clark to the Pacific.
Contrary to what Peter Jefferson believed just 20 short years passed before Daniel Boone left The Yadkin in North Carolina and blazed a trail through the area.
So this is where the great state of Tennessee began in what became the first Civil District of Johnson County, Tennessee.
When you leave the top of Pond Mountain at 5000 feet above sea level, you can follow Rogers Ridge down to Gilbert's Branch, on down to where Kate's Branch joins in and you will encounter the beautiful natural double water falls known as Gentry's Falls. This is the beginning of Gentry's Creek, the first tributary in Northeast Tennessee. This area is in the Cherokee National Forest and is still basically in its undisturbed natural beauty passable by foot only. You will travel down Gentry's Creek another 3-1/2 miles before you reach the first residents.
Rogers Ridge was named after John Rogers who is believed to have built the first white man's cabin in the Gentry's Creek area. A property deed from 1800 makes reference to Roger's cabin which had already burned.
You may be a direct descendent of some of the early pioneers if your last name is Keys, Ward, Gentry, Wills, Doran, McCann, McQueen, Wilson, Cutburt, Judd, Warden, Smith, Farris, Greer, Cornett, Grace, Morefield, Worley, Michael, Mock, Johnson, Eggers, Stone, Sutherland, Reid, Sexton, Venable, Mink, Jenkins, Gilbert, Widner, Speer, Edmondson, Snoodgrass, Roe, Robinson, Owens, Abel, Blevins, Dinkens, Hawkins, Neely, Ray, Fritts, Debusk, or Simmons since these were some of the early settlers in the area.
The first community in the first district was originally named Wards Forge. It was named for Major John Ward, an iron ore businessman and War of 1812 veteran. Iron ore was the primary enterprise in the early years with Joseph Gentry and Lewis Wills being two of the first in the business. In 1882 Joseph H. Grace, also in the iron ore business opened a post office and renamed the community Laurel Bloomery. The name reflected the abundance of Laurel growth in the area and Bloomery was the term for smelling iron ore.
As the number of residents increased from 1798 through 1890, the number of products grew. The virgin timber was the source for many wood products. For instance another nearby community produced an abundance of wood roofing shingles and thus became known as Shingletown and is still called that today. Other products of the area included rifle barrels for the long rifles used by the early pioneers and civil war soldiers. There were small farms, and water wheel mills for grinding flour, making molasses and producing iron.
As the iron ore was depleted during the 1880's, the timber business grew and created a need for a railroad. A narrow gage track was constructed which eventually extended to Mountain City. There were depots at Dollarsville, (named after Monroe, John and Roby Dollar who operated a lumber camp) Eurica, (at the Ackerson Creek cutoff) Silver Lake and the end of the line was at the depot located just across the creek behind the present Rite Aid Pharmacy.
The train track as well as the roadbed followed the Laurel creek through the mountains. The route was 14 miles long with the road fording back and forth across the stream 28 times in that short distance.
Silver Lake was a prominent area during those early years. It was first called Deep Springs after the Governor of Virginia who mistakenly thought the land was part of Virginia had awarded it to Mr. Alexander Doran. It was the location of the Methodist campgrounds at the present location of Clinton Presbyterian Church.
Irvin J. Warden and his son Arthur generated the first electric power (DC) in Laurel Bloomery at their mill (where the Old Mill Park is today) in the early 1920's. It supplied some of the homes, stores and schools as well as an ice house. When Mountain Electric Cooperative brought power to the community during the early 1940's customers was mailed a postcard each month. They would then read their own meters and pay their bill of approximately $1.00 when they came to Mountain City. The meter readers would go by every 6 months or so and assure that the customers were reading their meters correctly. This was the beginning of the wilderness but it was also the beginning of the great state of Tennessee. If England was our mother country then North Carolina was our mother state since Tennessee came from the original North Carolina colony.

Greer Geneology

Descendants of Elijah Greer


Generation No. 1

1. ELIJAH5 GREER (JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)1,2 was born 1806 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died July 04, 1870 in Watauga County, North Carolina. He married (1) SARAH SALLIE HAWKINS, daughter of WILLIAM TUGMAN and MARY HAWKINS. She was born 1808 in Ashe County, North Carolina. He married (2) MARY A. SHAW3,4 February 08, 1857 in Ashe County, North Carolina5,6, daughter of THOMAS SHAW and ELIZABETH KING. She was born Abt. 18207,8.

Notes for ELIJAH GREER:
1860 Ashe County, North Carolina census, North Fork Post Office, Family/Dwelling #332/332: Elijah Greer, 52, m, farmer, NC; Mary Greer, 38, f, NC; Rebecca Greer, 27, f, NC; Neal Greer, 13, m, NC; Nancy Greer, 14, f, NC; Sarah Greer, 11, f, NC; Gaston Greer, 7, m, NC; Albert Greer, 1, m, NC.

Elijah Greer was born about 1806 in Ashe County, North Carolina. He died on 4 Jul 1870 in Watauga County, North Carolina. He was buried in Greer Cemetery, Bald Mountain - Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina. 1860 Ashe County, North Carolina census, North Fork Post Office, Family/Dwelling #332/332: Elijah GREER, 52, m, farmer, NC; Mary GREER, 38, f, NC; Rebecca GREER, 27, f, NC; Neal GREER, 21, m, NC; Thomas GREER, 16, m, NC; John GREER, 15, m, NC; Washington GREER, 13, m, NC; Nancy GREER, 14, f, NC; Sarah GREER, 11, f, NC; Gaston GREER, 7, m, NC; Albert GREER, 1, m, NC. (NOTE FROM RALPH TERRY: I am not sure if this Mary is a second wife of Elijah, or his daughter, with in incorrect age. I would appear that she is a second wife, if Sarah Hawkins died in 1853, and the last two children would have been the children of the second wife, Mary.)

"James Greer, son of Edgar, said in a letter dated 10/15/1990 to Ray Blackburn that Elijah and children lived in a place called "Three Tops". Presumably this is somewhere along Three Top Creek." (Douglas Blackburn, email: .)

Additional children and information of Elijah Greer added by Diana Harrison , 2001.
He was married to Sarah Hawkins (daughter of William Tugman and Mary Hawkins) about 1828. Sarah Hawkins was born in 1810 in North Carolina. She died in Sep 1853 in North Carolina. She was buried in Greer Cemetery, Bald Mountain - Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina. Elijah Greer and Sarah Hawkins had the following children:

i. Nancy Greer.
ii. Jefferson "Jeff" Greer.
iii. David Greer died on 20 Apr 1871. He was born in Zionville, Watauga County, North Carolina.
iv. Mary "Polly" Jones Greer.
v. Andrew Greer.
vi. Rebecca Greer.
vii. Jane Greer.
viii. Noah (or Neal) Greer.
ix. Frances "Frankie" Greer.
x. Thomas "Tom" Greer.
xi. John Greer was born about 1845 in Ashe County, North Carolina.
xii. Washington Greer was born about 1847 in Ashe County, North Carolina.
xiii. Sarah Greer.

He was married to Mary A. Shaw (daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth Shaw) about 1854. Mary A. Shaw was born about 1802. She died after 1880 in Watauga County, North Carolina. She was buried in Greer Cemetery, Bald Mountain - Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina. Elijah Greer and Mary A. Shaw had the following children:

i. Gaston Shaw Greer.
ii. Albert T. Greer.


More About ELIJAH GREER:
Burial: Greer Cemetery, Bald Mountain - Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina

Notes for MARY A. SHAW:
Bastardy Bond - Mary Shaw and Alexander Jones
North Carolina}
Ashe County}
To any Lawful officer to execute and return according to Law Whereas information has been given by Elizabeth Shaw to us Stephen Thomas and David Worth two accting justices of the peace of sd county that Mary Shaw Single woman has been delivered of a child born of her Body, which may become chargeable to the county you are hereby commanded to take the Body of sd Mary Shaw and her here Before same two acting justices of the peace of sd county to be further dealt with according to Law. Given under our hands & seals May 1st 1847.
S.Thomas (official)
D.Worth (seals)

North Carolina}
Ashe County}
To any Lawful officer to execute and return according to Law you are hereby commanded to take the Body of Alexander Jones if to be found and him have Before same two acting justices of the peace of sd county to answer the state in a case of Bastard wherein Mary Shaw single woman has charged sd Jones with being the reputed child [sic] Born of her Body April 2nd 1847 herein fail not given under our hands and seals May 1st 1847.
D. Worth (seal)
S. Thomas (seal)



More About MARY A. SHAW:
Burial: Greer Cemetery, Bald Mountain - Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina
Married by: February 08, 1857, S. Thomas9,10

Children of ELIJAH GREER and SARAH HAWKINS are:
i. NANCY6 GREER, b. 1826.
ii. JEFFERSON GREER, b. 1829.
iii. MARY GREER, b. 1831.
iv. REBECCA GREER, b. 1833.
2. v. ANDREW GREER, b. 1835.
vi. JANE GREER, b. 1837.
3. vii. FRANCES JEAN GREER, b. September 01, 1839, Zionville, Watauga County, North Carolina; d. May 17, 1917.
4. viii. NOAH GREER, b. 1840.
ix. THOMAS GREER, b. 1844.
x. JOHN GREER, b. 1845, Ashe County, North Carolina.
xi. WASHINGTON GREER, b. 1847, Ashe County, North Carolina.
xii. SARAH GREER, b. 1849.


Children of ELIJAH GREER and MARY SHAW are:
5. xiii. GASTON6 SHAW-GREER, b. January 19, 1855, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. December 14, 1925, Ashe County, North Carolina.
6. xiv. ALBERT T. GREER, b. June 1858, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. Aft. 1930.


Generation No. 2

2. ANDREW6 GREER (ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born 1835. He married CATHERINE LAWRENCE.

Notes for ANDREW GREER:
"Big Andy Greer" per Orva Long Shaw as told by Arthur Shaw son of Creedy Shaw.

Child of ANDREW GREER and CATHERINE LAWRENCE is:
7. i. WILBORN7 GREER.


3. FRANCES JEAN6 GREER (ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born September 01, 1839 in Zionville, Watauga County, North Carolina, and died May 17, 1917. She married ALFRED THOMAS SHAW11 April 08, 1859 in Ashe County, N.C., son of THOMAS SHAW and ELIZABETH KING. He was born April 30, 1837 in Guilford County, North Carolina11, and died March 22, 1911 in Ashe County, N.C..

More About FRANCES JEAN GREER:
Burial: McKinney Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee

More About ALFRED THOMAS SHAW:
Burial: McKinney Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee
Fact 1: 5 ft. 9 3/4 in. Tall, Weight 187 lbs

Children of FRANCES GREER and ALFRED SHAW are:
i. ELIJAH7 SHAW.
ii. LULA SHAW.
8. iii. MARY SHAW, b. February 1860, Jefferson, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. Bef. 1891.
9. iv. SARAH JANE SHAW, b. October 04, 1861, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. November 09, 1918, Damascus, Virginia.
10. v. NANCY MARGARET SHAW, b. January 1864, Ashe County, North Carolina.
11. vi. JOHN BAPTIST SHAW, b. 1867, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. 1924, West Virginia mines..
12. vii. MARTHA ELLEN SHAW, b. January 27, 1870; d. May 13, 1952, Burke County, North Carolina.
13. viii. LAURA SHAW, b. October 13, 1871, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. August 09, 1935.
14. ix. ALBERT SHAW, b. March 18, 1873, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. September 24, 1954, Grayson County, North Carolina.
15. x. JAMES WILEY SHAW, b. October 09, 1874; d. February 04, 1956.
16. xi. ALFRED BRADY SHAW, b. June 06, 1876, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. February 19, 1930, Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina.
17. xii. THOMAS CREEDY SHAW, b. October 17, 1878, Ashe County, N.C.; d. March 03, 1942, Ringgold, Virginia.


4. NOAH6 GREER (ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)12,13 was born 1840. He married NANCY JANE SHAW JONES14,15 Bef. 186716,17, daughter of ALEXANDER JONES and MARY SHAW. She was born April 02, 1847 in North Carolina18,19, and died January 30, 1919 in Watauga County, North Carolina20,21.

More About NANCY JANE SHAW JONES:
Burial: Greer Cemetery, Bald Mt., Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina22,23

Children of NOAH GREER and NANCY JONES are:
18. i. EMILY J.7 GREER, b. April 1869, North Carolina; d. 1945, Watauga County, North Carolina.
19. ii. MARY ELLEN GREER, b. 1870, North Carolina; d. July 10, 1918, Watauga County, North Carolina.
20. iii. LAURINDA E. GREER, b. December 1872, North Carolina.
21. iv. THOMAS JEFFERSON GREER, b. March 01, 1874, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. December 01, 1962, Ashe County, North Carolina.
22. v. SARAH EVELINE GREER, b. May 09, 1877, Watauga County, North Carolina; d. October 25, 1934, Hopewell Cemetery.
23. vi. ELIJAH FRANKLIN GREER, b. May 25, 1878, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. June 04, 1960, Watauga County, North Carolina.
24. vii. GEORGE FINLEY GREER, b. July 11, 1880, North Carolina; d. June 21, 1931, Watauga County, North Carolina.
25. viii. ROSE ALICE GREER, b. July 14, 1886, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. January 16, 1961, Salisbury, North Carolina.
ix. MARTHA L. GREER24,25, b. January 13, 1887, North Carolina26,27; d. January 16, 1963, Ashe County, North Carolina28,29; m. JAMES MACK JOHNSON30,31.

More About MARTHA L. GREER:
Burial: Thomas H. Sutherland Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina32,33


5. GASTON6 SHAW-GREER (ELIJAH5 GREER, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)34,35 was born January 19, 1855 in Ashe County, North Carolina36,37, and died December 14, 1925 in Ashe County, North Carolina38,39. He married MARY GREER40,41 187742,43.

More About GASTON SHAW-GREER:
Burial: Cranberry Methodist Church Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina44,45

Children of GASTON SHAW-GREER and MARY GREER are:
i. WILEY HAMILTON7 GREER46,47, b. October 14, 1878, Ashe County, North Carolina48,49.
ii. WILLIAM CALEB GREER50,51, b. February 18, 1880, Ashe County, North Carolina52,53; m. JENNIE RAY54,55.


6. ALBERT T.6 GREER (ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)56,57 was born June 1858 in Ashe County, North Carolina58,59, and died Aft. 193060,61. He married MARTHA WILCOX62,63 1877 in Ashe County, North Carolina64,65.

More About ALBERT T. GREER:
Burial: Isiah S. Wilcox Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina66,67

Children of ALBERT GREER and MARTHA WILCOX are:
26. i. MARTHA (MARY) G.7 GREER, b. 1878, North Carolina; d. Bef. 1900.
ii. JOSEPH FRANKLIN GREER68,69, b. January 06, 1881, Ashe County, North Carolina70,71; m. IDA DAVENPORT72,73, December 23, 1905, Watauga County, North Carolina74,75.
27. iii. ELLEN GREER, b. 1883, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. January 31, 1944.
iv. WILLIAM GREER76,77, b. March 188678,79.
28. v. CARL ELLISON GREER, b. January 21, 1890, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. April 11, 1962, Watauga County, North Carolina.
vi. LERUSIA HESTER GREER80,81, b. September 189382,83.
vii. FRONNIE GREER84,85, b. May 189686,87.
29. viii. AMY TRESSIE FRANCES GREER, b. May 21, 1898, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. August 16, 1995, Ashe County, North Carolina.
ix. VINEY GREER88,89, b. April 189990,91.
30. x. RUTH GREER, b. September 06, 1902, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. June 25, 1979, Ashe County, North Carolina.
31. xi. CLEO GRACE GREER, b. November 22, 1904, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. March 31, 1969.


Generation No. 3

7. WILBORN7 GREER (ANDREW6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) He married MARY LOUISE PRATHER.

Child of WILBORN GREER and MARY PRATHER is:
32. i. OREN ANDREW8 GREER, b. October 23, 1881, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. November 06, 1947, Laurel Bloomery.


8. MARY7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born February 1860 in Jefferson, Ashe County, North Carolina, and died Bef. 1891. She married JESSE MILBURN PRICE October 22, 1882 in Johnson County, Tennessee. He was born March 1863 in Ashe County, North Carolina.

Notes for MARY SHAW:
1880 Census Ashe, Staggs Creek Township, County, NC listed as servant.

Children of MARY SHAW and JESSE PRICE are:
i. FLOYD MILTON8 PRICE, b. August 1883, Ashe County, North Carolina.
ii. ROBERT SMITH PRICE, b. June 20, 1885, Ashe County, North Carolina; m. MAGGIE JANE FOSTER, July 02, 1909, Ashe County, North Carolina; b. Abt. 1892.
iii. LULA JANE PRICE, b. November 1888, Ashe County, North Carolina.


9. SARAH JANE7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born October 04, 1861 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died November 09, 1918 in Damascus, Virginia. She married PETER AGUSTUS SHELLEY October 27, 1879 in Ashe County, North Carolina.

More About SARAH JANE SHAW:
Burial: Mock Cemetery, Damascus, Virginia

Children of SARAH SHAW and PETER SHELLEY are:
i. ELLA MAE8 SHELLEY.
ii. HELEN SHELLEY, m. COX.
iii. WILLIAM SHELLEY.
iv. ROBY SHELLEY, b. July 1883; d. 1938, Virginia; m. ORA; b. Abt. 1890, Virginia.
v. RICHARD SAMPSON SHELLEY, SR., b. October 26, 1885; d. November 10, 1970, Johnson City, Washington County, Tennessee; m. (1) DORAS PARDUE, March 01, 1904; b. April 05, 1889, Wise County, Virginia; d. October 07, 1916; m. (2) MAUDE BESSIE ARNOLD, November 07, 1919, Johnson County, Tennessee; b. August 02, 1902; d. January 17, 1998.
vi. DINAH SHELLEY, b. July 1889.
vii. CLAUDE MANSFORD SHELLEY, b. April 24, 1892, Washington County, Virginia; d. June 13, 1974; m. BERTHA MAY WRIGHT, January 23, 1918, Johnson County, Tennessee; b. May 01, 1900; d. March 17, 1972.
viii. ROBERT L. SHELLEY, b. March 1896.
ix. MARY ROSE ELLA SHELLEY, b. February 02, 1900; m. (1) LOTT D. CLONTZ, 1918, Wise County, Virginia; m. (2) THOMAS G. INGERBRETSEN, 1925, Wise County, Virginia; b. February 1879, Arendal, Norway; d. 1946, San Francisco, California; m. (3) JOHN THOMAS WOODS, 1944; d. 1975.
x. BERTHA SHELLEY, b. January 06, 1908, Johnson City, Washington County, Tennessee.


10. NANCY MARGARET7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born January 1864 in Ashe County, North Carolina. She married HENRY LEWIS Abt. 1880. He was born November 1854 in Tennessee.

Children of NANCY SHAW and HENRY LEWIS are:
i. JAMES W.8 LEWIS, b. August 1882, Ashe County, North Carolina.
ii. MATTIE E. LEWIS, b. February 1885, Ashe County, North Carolina.
iii. WALTER T. LEWIS, b. September 1890, Ashe County, North Carolina.
iv. ROBY A. LEWIS, b. March 1892, Ashe County, North Carolina.
v. BRADY CLIFFORD LEWIS, b. September 1893, Ashe County, North Carolina.
vi. KELLY L. LEWIS, b. February 1898, Ashe County, North Carolina.
vii. EULA PEARL LEWIS, b. Abt. 1900.
viii. CLAUDE LEWIS, b. Abt. 1903.


11. JOHN BAPTIST7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born 1867 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died 1924 in West Virginia mines.. He married (1) MARY CATHERINE LATHAM March 09, 1890 in Ashe County, North Carolina, daughter of DAVID LATHAM and ELIZABETH GRAYBEAL. She was born 1861 in Staggs Creek, Twp., Ashe County, North Carolina, and died December 1890. He married (2) MARY GRACE SHUTTLES October 07, 1893 in Bristol, Tennessee, daughter of JOHN SHUTTLE and ELIZABETH. She was born November 1866, and died 1937.

Notes for JOHN BAPTIST SHAW:
Notes for JOHN SHAW:
According to 1870 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- HH # 164, Staggs Creek Twsp
- Age 4, living with parents
- Born in NC
Marriage Notes for MARY LATHAM and JOHN SHAW:
According to Ashe County, North Carolina Marriage - 1800-1900 by Elizabeth Caulder, page 131:
- Married Mar 9, 1890, Shaw, John & Mary C. Luthans by H. M. Pranters


Notes for MARY CATHERINE LATHAM:
Notes for MARY C. LATHAM:
According to 1880 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- HH # 16, Staggs Creek Twsp
- Age 9, single living with parents
- Born in NC, father in NC, mother in NC


More About MARY GRACE SHUTTLES:
Burial: Beeler Cemetery, Sullivan County, Tennessee

Child of JOHN SHAW and MARY LATHAM is:
33. i. LAURA ALICE8 SHAW, b. May 06, 1890, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. March 14, 1973.


Children of JOHN SHAW and MARY SHUTTLES are:
ii. WALTER JAMES8 SHAW, b. June 15, 1884; d. May 1966.
iii. LULA E. SHAW, b. March 1896.
iv. IDA M. SHAW, b. January 1898.
v. ANNE L. SHAW, b. Abt. 1901.


12. MARTHA ELLEN7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born January 27, 1870, and died May 13, 1952 in Burke County, North Carolina. She married MILBURN FRANKLIN JONES Abt. 1886 in Probably Ashe County, North Carolina. He was born May 19, 1866 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died December 21, 1904 in Mountain Grove Church Cemetery, Catawba County, North Carolina.

More About MARTHA ELLEN SHAW:
Burial: Mountain Grove Church Cemetery, Catawba County, North Carolina

Children of MARTHA SHAW and MILBURN JONES are:
i. JOHN FRANKLIN8 JONES, b. August 13, 1887, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. January 21, 1964; m. (1) ANNER REBECCA KELLER, June 10, 1906, Hickory, North Carolina; b. September 06, 1886, Caldwell County, North Carolina; d. March 05, 1930; m. (2) NINA JONES, Aft. 1930; b. February 15, 1902; d. April 22, 1996, Avery County, North Carolina.

More About JOHN FRANKLIN JONES:
Burial: Yellow Mountain Cemetery, Avery County, North Carolina

More About ANNER REBECCA KELLER:
Burial: Colliers Church Cemetery, Caldwell County, North Carolina

More About NINA JONES:
Burial: Yellow Mountain Cemetery, Avery County, North Carolina

ii. ROSA EMMA JONES, b. August 01, 1889, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. January 13, 1959; m. ROBERT HENRY FRYE; b. October 24, 1884; d. April 23, 1950.

More About ROSA EMMA JONES:
Burial: Oakwood Cemetery, Concord, Cabarrus County, North Carolina

iii. CHARLES MARION JONES, b. March 06, 1891, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. October 21, 1975, Hickory, Catawba County, North Carolina; m. CLARISSA CLEMETINE MITCHELL; b. March 16, 1892, North Carolina; d. August 14, 1971.

More About CHARLES MARION JONES:
Burial: Catawba Memorial Park

More About CLARISSA CLEMETINE MITCHELL:
Burial: Catawba Memorial Park, Catawba County, North Carolina

iv. LAURA LUDELLA JONES, b. October 31, 1892, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. July 29, 1995, Hopewell, Virginia; m. WILLIAM HALL MARLEY; b. April 01, 1891; d. January 16, 1966.

More About LAURA LUDELLA JONES:
Burial: Pine Hill Cemetery

v. JAMES ALFRED JONES, b. December 29, 1895, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. March 19, 1961; m. ZULA ?; b. November 03, 1893; d. December 1969.

More About JAMES ALFRED JONES:
Burial: Highland Burial Park, Danville, Virginia

vi. SARAH ELVERDA JONES, b. May 08, 1897, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. July 24, 1985, Hickory, Catawba County, North Carolina; m. HOBART LEE DIETZ, December 16, 1916, Catawba County, North Carolina; b. February 27, 1892, Catawba County, North Carolina; d. June 17, 1976.

More About SARAH ELVERDA JONES:
Burial: Catawba Memorial Park, Catawba County, North Carolina

More About HOBART LEE DIETZ:
Burial: Catawba Memorial Park, Catawba County, North Carolina

vii. ARTHUR GLENN JONES, b. May 22, 1900, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. June 23, 1969, Richard Baker Hospital, Hickory, Catawba County, North Carolina; m. LETTIE ETHEL GRAGG, November 03, 1922, Caldwell County, North County, North Carolina; b. April 01, 1905; d. January 30, 1997.

More About ARTHUR GLENN JONES:
Burial: Catawba Memorial Park, Catawba County, North Carolina

More About LETTIE ETHEL GRAGG:
Burial: Catawba Memorial Park, Catawba County, North Carolina

viii. LON HARLESS JONES, b. June 12, 1902, Ashe or Catawba County, North Carolina; d. July 14, 1983, Burke County, North Carolina.

More About LON HARLESS JONES:
Burial: Burke Memorial Park, Burke County, North Carolina

ix. FLORENCE ETHEL JONES, b. May 02, 1905, Catawaba County, North Carolina; d. December 09, 1993; m. (1) WILLIAM HENSLEY, Abt. 1927; b. Abt. 1891; m. (2) MELVIN JONES SPAKE, Aft. 1937; b. April 15, 1883, Cleaveland County, North Carolina; d. March 04, 1953.

More About FLORENCE ETHEL JONES:
Burial: Burke Memorial Park, Burke County, North Carolina

More About MELVIN JONES SPAKE:
Burial: Zion Hill Baptist Church, Burke County, North Carolina


13. LAURA7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born October 13, 1871 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died August 09, 1935. She married WILLIAM JAMES WARD November 10, 1898 in Ashe County, North Carolina, son of REEVES WARD and SAFRONIA WILLIAMS. He was born March 28, 1878 in Johnson CountyTennessee, and died December 27, 1924 in Marion County, Oregon.

More About LAURA SHAW:
Burial: McKinney Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee

Children of LAURA SHAW and WILLIAM WARD are:
i. CLYDE WARD8 WARD, b. October 12, 1899; d. April 1900.
ii. ROSA NELL WARD, b. November 10, 1901, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. September 17, 2002; m. STEVEN JETT DRUGGER, May 21, 1916, Carter County, Tennessee; b. March 08, 1896, Carter County, Tennessee; d. May 1963.

Notes for ROSA NELL WARD:
Mrs Nell Ward Dugger, 100, 121 Tester Road, Elezabethton, died Tuesday, September 17, 2002. Dugger was a native of Ashe County, N. C. and had resided in Carter County since 1905. She was the daughter of the late William and Laura Shaw Ward. Dugger was a homemaker and a member of Zion Baptist Church. She was preceded in death by her husband, Stephen "Jett" Rugger in 1962; one son, Clarence The Elizabethton Star:

Dugger; one daughter Virginia Wilson; one sister, Clide Ward; one brother, Honard Ward; three grandsons, Ralph and Jimmy Whitehead and Louie Pate; aqnd one great-great-grandaughter, Sierra Dawn Waycaster. Survivers include one son, James Dugger, Elizabethton; five daughters Joice Sue Dugger, Artha Loveless, Anna Pate, Hannah Whitehead, and Laura Taylor, all of Elezabethton; eight grandchildren, Terry Whitehead, Steve Whitehead, Gary Dugger, Barbara Taylor, Joann Whitehead, Phyllis Merritt, Elaine Wilson, and Kathy Lethcoe, also of Elizabethton; twelve great-grandchildren, David Taylor, Chris Whitehead, Marc Merritt, Travis Whitehead, Tim Whitehead, Joshua Pate, Lance Riddle, Shane Riddle, Gavin Duggur, Susan Whitehead, Amy Jones and Jordan Dugger; three great-great-grandsons, Chris Whitehead, Caleb Riddle, and Hunter Jones; and two great-granddaughters, Falin Whitehead and Norhe Riddle. Hathaway-Percy Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. www.funeral-plans.com/Hathaway-Percy.

Dugger -- Funeral services for Mrs Nell Ward Dugger, 100, 121 Tester Road, Elezabethton, who died Tuesday, will be conducted at 8 p.m. Thursday, September 19, 2002 in Sunset Chapel of Hathaway-Percy Funeral Home with Rev. C. W. Snodgrass officiating. Graveside services and internment will be conducted at 11 a.m. Friday, September 20, 2002 in Hyder Cemetery. Active pallbearers will be Terry Whitehead, Steve Whitehead, David Taylor, Tom Jones, Gary Dugger, Kenny Lethcoe, Ralph Ward, Raymond Ward, Christopher Whitehead, David Jones, Lynn Greenwell, and Ray Loveless. Honorary pallbearers will be Zane Loveless, Nicholas Loveless, Bobby McKeehan, Steve Hyder, Marc Merritt, Shane Riddle, Lance Riddle, Gavin Dugger, Housecall and Adventa Hospice, and special friends Betty Ellis and Myrtle Heaton. The family will receive friends at the funeral home from 6 tto 8 p.m. on Thursday or at the residence of a daughter, Hannah Whitehead, 2128 Gap Creek Road, Elizabethton, at any time. Everyone will meet at the funeral home at 10:15 a. m. on Friday to go in poscession to the cemetery. Condolences may be e-mailed to the family at hathaway-pearce@funeral-plans.com/Hathaway-Pearcy.

More About ROSA NELL WARD:
Burial: September 20, 2002, Hyder Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee

More About STEVEN JETT DRUGGER:
Burial: Hyder Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee

iii. HONARD BRADY WARD, b. October 05, 1902; d. June 12, 1992; m. MARY SUE PATTON; b. September 04, 1910, Avery County, North Carolina; d. December 23, 1993.

More About HONARD BRADY WARD:
Burial: Patton-Simmons Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee

More About MARY SUE PATTON:
Burial: Patton-Simmons Cemetery, Carter County, Tennessee


14. ALBERT7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born March 18, 1873 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died September 24, 1954 in Grayson County, North Carolina92. He married REBECCA JONES June 30, 1895 in Johnson County, Tennessee, daughter of SAMUAL JONES and CATHERINE LEWIS. She was born March 21, 1877 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died November 14, 1954 in Grayson County, North Carolina.

More About ALBERT SHAW:
Burial: Rye-Cole Cemetery (Burnt Schoolhouse)

More About REBECCA JONES:
Burial: Rye-Cole Cemetery (Burnt Schoolhouse)

Children of ALBERT SHAW and REBECCA JONES are:
i. ALICE8 SHAW, b. April 16, 1896, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. April 17, 1976, Chester, Pennsylvania; m. (1) ALONZO VANOVER, April 29, 1917; b. September 11, 1896, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. December 24, 1934; m. (2) HAMILTON, Aft. 1934.

More About ALONZO VANOVER:
Burial: Green Valley Area, Ashe County, North Carolina

ii. ROBY THOMAS SHAW, b. July 07, 1899, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. July 11, 1967, Cannon Memorial Hospital, Avery County, North Carolina; m. CARRIE LAWERENCE, January 09, 1919, Ashe County, North Carolina93; b. Abt. 1901, Ashe County, North Carolina.

More About ROBY THOMAS SHAW:
Burial: Burnt Sshoolhouse Cemetery, Grayson, North Carolina

iii. ANDY SHAW, b. January 27, 1902, North Carolina; d. September 17, 1970, Todd, Ashe County, North Carolina; m. CALLIE HODGSON, September 27, 1926, Ashe County, North Carolina; b. May 24, 1904; d. May 12, 1968.

More About ANDY SHAW:
Burial: Burnt Sshoolhouse Cemetery, Grayson, North Carolina

More About CALLIE HODGSON:
Burial: Bedsoe Cemetery, Todd, North Carolina

iv. SALLIE SHAW, b. May 09, 1907, Trout, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. April 15, 1996, Maryland; m. JAMES WILEY PERRY, February 02, 1923; b. May 18, 1904, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. January 1954.
v. VONNIE SHAW, b. June 29, 1912; d. October 08, 1934.

More About VONNIE SHAW:
Burial: Rye-Cole Cemetery (Burnt Schoolhouse)

vi. CARL LEE SHAW, b. December 10, 1915; d. September 27, 1999, Pennsylvania; m. HATTIE LEWIS, December 25, 1934, Ashe County, North Carolina; b. September 23, 1915; d. April 08, 1993.


15. JAMES WILEY7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born October 09, 1874, and died February 04, 1956. He married ALVERDA LOUISE LEWIS August 24, 1896 in Johnson County, Tennessee, daughter of JACOB LEWIS and ELIZABETH STURGILL. She was born June 28, 1879 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died April 20, 1962.

Notes for JAMES WILEY SHAW:
Shaw Family Data given to Orva Long Shaw by Uncle Wiley Shaw at his home in Johnson City, Tenn. in summer of 1955 when he was 80 years old.

Arthur's Great Grandma King (Shaw) and Great Grandpa Shaw parents of Alfred Shaw both were around one hundred years old when they died.

Alfred Shaw was born April 30, 1836 and died March 11, 1911. He was born lived and died in Ashe County, North Carolina.

Alfred married Frankie Greer who was born in 1840, in Creston, North Carolina, and died in 1917.

Alfred Shaw was in Civil War. He was 5 ft. 9 3/4 in. tall then and weighed 187 lbs..

Uncle Wiley told Orva that Brady was 6 ft. 4 in. tall. Arthur said his dad always said Brady was 6 ft. 4 1/2 in. tall.


More About JAMES WILEY SHAW:
Burial: Happy Valley Memorial Park, Carter County, Tennessee

More About ALVERDA LOUISE LEWIS:
Burial: Happy Valley Memorial Park, Carter County, Tennessee

Children of JAMES SHAW and ALVERDA LEWIS are:
i. ROMIE8 SHAW, b. April 24, 1897; d. May 27, 1982; m. IRIS RANGE; b. February 28, 1909; d. December 17, 1999.

Notes for ROMIE SHAW:
Rommy or (Romney), Fred, and Forest visited Ida's home on July 22, 1965 from 4:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.. Art, James, and Orva went up there, so did Glenn. Ida fixed supper for them.

More About ROMIE SHAW:
Fact 1: July 22, 1965, Visited Ida

ii. FRED RUSSELL SHAW, b. September 02, 1899, Carter County, Tennessee; d. November 20, 1981, Florida; m. MATTIE HATHAWAY.

Notes for FRED RUSSELL SHAW:
Rommy or (Romney), Fred, and Forest visited Ida's home on July 22, 1965 from 4:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.. Art, James, and Orva went up there, so did Glenn. Ida fixed supper for them.

iii. FORREST BRANTLEY SHAW, b. May 20, 1902; d. June 12, 1987, Blowing Rock, North Carolina; m. ELISE WILCOT.

Notes for FORREST BRANTLEY SHAW:
Rommy or (Romney), Fred, and Forest visited Ida's home on July 22, 1965 from 4:30 P.M. to 10:00 P.M.. Art, James, and Orva went up there, so did Glenn. Ida fixed supper for them.

iv. RAYMOND SCOTT SHAW, b. February 11, 1908, Carter County, Tennessee; d. March 10, 1991; m. CATHERINE LOMATHE.
v. EARL LEONARD SHAW, b. March 21, 1913, Carter County, Tennessee; m. MARTHA OPAL JONES, January 31, 1932; b. October 25, 1912; d. May 17, 2001.


16. ALFRED BRADY7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born June 06, 1876 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died February 19, 1930 in Morganton, Burke County, North Carolina. He married SARAH JANE TAYLOR February 23, 1896 in Ashe County, North Carolina, daughter of HENRY TAYLOR. She was born April 1875 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died Bet. 1910 - 1920.

More About ALFRED BRADY SHAW:
Burial: State Hospital Cemetaty, Burke County, North Carolina
Fact 1: 6 ft. 4 - 4 1/2 in. Tall

Children of ALFRED SHAW and SARAH TAYLOR are:
i. FRANK8 SHAW, m. TRULA HANDY; b. January 09, 1908; d. September 1978.
ii. JOHN H. SHAW, b. May 1897, North Carolina.
iii. IDA ELLA SHAW, b. November 1898, North Carolina; d. September 02, 1977; m. (1) GUY HOLDER; m. (2) PINE MEDLEY, October 23, 1915, Ashe County, North Carolina; b. Abt. 1897.
iv. CHARLES EDWARD SHAW, b. August 25, 1901; d. December 13, 1982; m. (1) ALICE ADA BLIVINS, October 29, 1923, Ashe County, North Carolina; b. December 15, 1903; d. September 15, 1955; m. (2) ROXIE, Aft. 1955; m. (3) UNKNOWN, Aft. 1955.

More About CHARLES EDWARD SHAW:
Burial: Baptist Chapel Church, Ashe County, North Carolina

More About ALICE ADA BLIVINS:
Burial: Baptist Chapel Church, Ashe County, North Carolina

v. FLORENCE M. SHAW, b. April 24, 1906, Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. December 28, 1986; m. (1) LUKE MILLARD WOOD, February 15, 1921, Ashe County, North Carolina; b. June 06, 1900, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. January 24, 1957; m. (2) ZEB WEAVER, Aft. 1957; m. (3) DOTSON, Aft. 1957.

More About FLORENCE M. SHAW:
Burial: Samual Sapp Family Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina


17. THOMAS CREEDY7 SHAW (FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born October 17, 1878 in Ashe County, N.C., and died March 03, 1942 in Ringgold, Virginia. He married ERMA ALBINA PRATHER April 18, 1897, daughter of NEHEMIAH PRATHER and MARTHA LATHAM. She was born September 02, 1878 in Ashe County, N.C., and died July 24, 1956 in Danville, Virginia.

More About THOMAS CREEDY SHAW:
Burial: Highland Burial Park, Danville, Virginia

Notes for ERMA ALBINA PRATHER:
Notes for EMMA A. PRATHER:
According to 1880 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- HH # 117, Jefferson Twsp
- Age 1, single living with parents
- Born in NC, father in VA, mother in NC

1954 Ringgold Baptist Church Announcement
Mrs. Bina Shaw wishes to thank each of you for the gifts and donations since her great loss in the fire. We are glad that another house is on the way up for her.

More About ERMA ALBINA PRATHER:
Burial: Highland Burial Park, Danville, Virginia

Children of THOMAS SHAW and ERMA PRATHER are:
i. ROSA8 SHAW, b. Abt. 1898, Born Dead; d. Abt. 1898, Ashe County, North Carolina.
34. ii. JAMES ARTHUR SHAW, b. March 14, 1899, Ashe County, N.C.; d. November 21, 1981, Danville, Virginia.
35. iii. ALONZO FRANKLIN SHAW, b. March 18, 1901; d. 1972.
iv. ELIJAH SHAW, b. 1903.

Notes for ELIJAH SHAW:
Elija Shaw, while playing in a building near a railroad track, found some blasting powder - TNT . He put some in his pockets, someone struck a match (maybe he did) , the fire flared up all around and on him, burning him so badly that he died. It is not known where they were living at the time. Maybe seven years old.

More About ELIJAH SHAW:
Cause of Death: Burns
Fact 1: Died of gunpowder wounds age about seven.

36. v. ADA LOUEMMA SHAW, b. March 30, 1906; d. June 18, 1987.
vi. GEORGE SHAW, b. 1908, Damascus, Virginia; d. Abt. 1916, Abingdon, Virginia.

Notes for GEORGE SHAW:
George Shaw died at about age seven, prob. near 1915. Died of what is now thought to be a ruptured appendix, in a hospital in Abingdon, Virginia. He is buried in Damascus, Virginia. Arthur went with him on a train to Abington but it was too late.

37. vii. CARL THOMAS SHAW, b. September 13, 1910, Damascus, Virginia.
viii. IDA LILLIAN SHAW, b. October 19, 1912, Johnson City, Tenn.; d. October 28, 1984, Danville, Virginia; m. ERNEST HOLLIFIELD; b. 1902; d. 1985.
38. ix. MAUDE LEE SHAW, b. January 28, 1917, Damascus, Virginia; d. October 23, 1968, Memorial Hospital, Danville, Virginia.
39. x. GLENN WILLARD SHAW, b. February 25, 1915, Damascus, Virginia; d. June 16, 1982, Pauley Island, South Carolina.


18. EMILY J.7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)94,95 was born April 1869 in North Carolina96,97, and died 1945 in Watauga County, North Carolina98,99. She married SQUIRE H. STEPHENS100,101 1888102,103.

More About EMILY J. GREER:
Burial: Blackburn/Howell Cemetery, Watauga County, North Carolina104,105

Children of EMILY GREER and SQUIRE STEPHENS are:
i. WILLIAM8 STEPHENS106,107, b. April 1890108,109.
ii. GENERAL G. STEPHENS110,111, b. April 1891112,113.
iii. MILLARD STEPHENS114,115, b. May 1891116,117.
iv. WESLEY O. STEPHENS118,119, b. December 1894120,121.
v. JOSEPH S. STEPHENS122,123, b. November 1896124,125.
vi. LENORA A. STEPHENS126,127, b. August 1899128,129.


19. MARY ELLEN7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)130,131 was born 1870 in North Carolina132,133, and died July 10, 1918 in Watauga County, North Carolina134,135. She married ARTHUR PHILLIPS136,137.

More About MARY ELLEN GREER:
Burial: Greer Cemetery, Bald Mt., Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina138,139

Child of MARY GREER and ARTHUR PHILLIPS is:
i. MARY ELLEN8 PHILLIPS140,141, m. ELLIS COFFEY142,143.


20. LAURINDA E.7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)144,145 was born December 1872 in North Carolina146,147. She married (1) WILLIAM JACKSON STEPHENS148,149. She married (2) JIM PHILLIPS150,151.

Children of LAURINDA GREER and WILLIAM STEPHENS are:
i. ELIJAH F.8 STEPHENS152,153, b. May 1889154,155.
ii. NOAH T. STEPHENS156,157, b. February 1893158,159.


21. THOMAS JEFFERSON7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)160,161 was born March 01, 1874 in Ashe County, North Carolina162,163, and died December 01, 1962 in Ashe County, North Carolina164,165. He married ZOLA OR ZORA WINEBARGER166,167 May 31, 1895 in Ashe County, North Carolina168,169.

More About THOMAS JEFFERSON GREER:
Burial: Thomas H. Sutherland Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina170,171

Children of THOMAS GREER and ZOLA WINEBARGER are:
i. ALLIE8 GREER172,173, m. MILLER174,175.
ii. ROBY GARNER GREER176,177, b. August 08, 1897, Watauga County, North Carolina178,179; m. GEORGIA MABLE WARD180,181.
iii. GEORGE GREER182,183, b. August 1899184,185.
iv. MATTIE M. GREER186,187, b. 1903, Watauga County, North Carolina188,189; m. BROWN190,191.
v. ROSALLE M. GREER192,193, b. 1906, Watauga County, North Carolina194,195.
vi. NOAH M. GREER196,197, b. 1908198,199.
vii. WILLIAM FRANKLIN GREER200,201, b. January 24, 1910, Watauga County, North Carolina202,203; d. October 19, 1996, Watauga County, North Carolina204,205; m. DOCIA SHELTON206,207.
viii. BULAH GREER208,209, b. 1913, Watauga County, North Carolina210,211; m. MILLER212,213.
ix. ELIJAH GREER214,215, b. 1915, Watauga County, North Carolina216,217.
x. LULA B. GREER218,219, b. 1916, Watauga County, North Carolina220,221.
xi. VIOLA E. GREER222,223, b. 1919, Watauga County, North Carolina224,225.


22. SARAH EVELINE7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)226,227 was born May 09, 1877 in Watauga County, North Carolina228,229, and died October 25, 1934 in Hopewell Cemetery230,231. She married SQUIRE MONROE CHURCH232,233 October 24, 1897 in Watauga County, North Carolina234,235.

Children of SARAH GREER and SQUIRE CHURCH are:
i. MAE VERDIE8 CHURCH236,237.
ii. NOAH FRANKLIN CHURCH238,239, b. April 26, 1899, Watauga County, North Carolina240,241; d. 1990, Watauga County, North Carolina242,243; m. VIRGINIA DARE COFFEY244,245.
iii. MARY ALICE CHURCH246,247, b. January 25, 1901, Watauga County, North Carolina248,249; d. January 05, 1997, Watauga County, North Carolina250,251; m. JAMES EMORY LEWIS252,253, November 18, 1917, Watauga County, North Carolina254,255.

More About MARY ALICE CHURCH:
Burial: Hopewell Methodist Church Cemetery, Watauga County, North Carolina256,257

iv. LELA ENDA CHURCH258,259, b. May 16, 1916, Watauga County, North Carolina260,261.
v. CONLEY WILLIAM CHURCH262,263, b. August 09, 1916, Watauga County, North Carolina264,265.


23. ELIJAH FRANKLIN7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)266,267 was born May 25, 1878 in Ashe County, North Carolina268,269, and died June 04, 1960 in Watauga County, North Carolina270,271. He married NETTIE ELIZABETH GREER272,273 July 05, 1908 in Watauga County, North Carolina274,275.

More About ELIJAH FRANKLIN GREER:
Burial: Blackburn/Howell Cemetery, Watauga County, North Carolina276,277

Child of ELIJAH GREER and NETTIE GREER is:
i. PAULINE BLANCH8 GREER278,279, b. May 19, 1910, Ashe County, North Carolina280,281.


24. GEORGE FINLEY7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)282,283 was born July 11, 1880 in North Carolina284,285, and died June 21, 1931 in Watauga County, North Carolina286,287. He married DORA B. GREER288,289 November 18, 1906 in Watauga County, North Carolina290,291.

More About GEORGE FINLEY GREER:
Burial: Greer Cemetery, Bald Mt., Long Hope, Watauga County, North Carolina292,293

Children of GEORGE GREER and DORA GREER are:
i. PEARLE E.8 GREER294,295, b. 1912296,297.
ii. EARL W. GREER298,299, b. 1917, Watauga County, North Carolina300,301; m. OPAL ROBINETTE302,303, July 23, 1938, Watauga County, North Carolina304,305.


25. ROSE ALICE7 GREER (NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)306,307 was born July 14, 1886 in Ashe County, North Carolina308,309, and died January 16, 1961 in Salisbury, North Carolina310,311. She married (1) BEELER COFFEY312,313. She married (2) JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR314,315 June 30, 1901 in Watauga County, North Carolina316,317, son of FELIX TAYLOR and SARAH BARE. He was born July 08, 1880 in Todd, Ashe County, North Carolina, and died April 04, 1925 in Todd, Ashe County, North Carolina. She married (3) PETER CABLE318,319 March 31, 1927 in Watauga County, North Carolina320,321. She married (4) GEORGE HAMILTON HAYES322,323 August 20, 1942 in Watauga County, North Carolina324,325.

More About JOHN THOMAS TAYLOR:
Cause of Death: Pneumonia

Children of ROSE GREER and JOHN TAYLOR are:
i. GEORGE F.8 TAYLOR326,327, b. 1901; m. JEANNIE PHILLIPS.
ii. GREEK JOSEPH TAYLOR328,329, b. August 07, 1909; d. July 1988; m. MINNIE MCGUIRE; b. Beaver Dam, North Carolina.
iii. CHARLES LESTER TAYLOR330,331, b. August 10, 1905; m. VELMA HICKS.

Notes for VELMA HICKS:
From Cherryville, North Carolina.

iv. WILLIAM THOMAS TAYLOR332,333, b. March 08, 1912; d. June 26, 1937, Statesville, North Carolina.

Notes for WILLIAM THOMAS TAYLOR:
Never married. Died in car accident.

40. v. LOUISE MINNIE TAYLOR, b. August 12, 1914, Ashe County, North Carolina; d. July 16, 1993, South Boston, Virginia.
vi. OLA BESSIE TAYLOR334,335, b. April 13, 1903; m. JOHN BROWN.

Notes for JOHN BROWN:
From Rich Mountain, North Carolina.

vii. ROBERT WORTH TAYLOR336,337, b. March 03, 1918; d. June 05, 1968, Salisbury, North Carolina.

Notes for ROBERT WORTH TAYLOR:
Never married.
Rose Alice Greer Taylor lived with Worth after fourth husband died.

viii. NANCY SARAH HETTIE TAYLOR338,339, b. May 07, 1907; m. (1) CLINE HARRISON340,341; b. 1908; d. 1930; m. (2) ELLIS COFFEY342,343; b. Watauga County, North Carolina.
ix. LAURA ELLEN TAYLOR, b. January 02, 1920; d. 1990, Jacksonville, Florida.


26. MARTHA (MARY) G.7 GREER (ALBERT T.6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)344,345 was born 1878 in North Carolina346,347, and died Bef. 1900348,349. She married JAMES SMITH LAWRENCE350,351 March 10, 1897 in Ashe County, North Carolina352,353.

Child of MARTHA GREER and JAMES LAWRENCE is:
i. WALTER DEWEY8 LAWRENCE354,355, b. October 13, 1897, Ashe County, North Carolina356,357; d. October 19, 1983, Ashe County, North Carolina358,359; m. VERGIE HOUCK360,361, January 18, 1924, Ashe County, North Carolina362,363.

More About WALTER DEWEY LAWRENCE:
Burial: Woodford Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina364,365


27. ELLEN7 GREER (ALBERT T.6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)366,367 was born 1883 in Ashe County, North Carolina368,369, and died January 31, 1944370,371. She married (1) HARVEY W. TEMPLETON372,373. She married (2) FOSTER JONES374,375 May 27, 1900 in Ashe County, North Carolina376,377.

Children of ELLEN GREER and FOSTER JONES are:
i. ESTELLA8 JONES378,379.
ii. GRACE BELL JONES380,381, m. GRAHAM382,383.
iii. PERION JONES384,385.
iv. CHESSIE JONES386,387.
v. BULAH JONES388,389.
vi. RUBY JONES390,391.


28. CARL ELLISON7 GREER (ALBERT T.6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)392,393 was born January 21, 1890 in Ashe County, North Carolina394,395, and died April 11, 1962 in Watauga County, North Carolina396,397. He married BEULAH BELLE MCGUIRE398,399 October 10, 1909 in Watauga County, North Carolina400,401.

More About CARL ELLISON GREER:
Burial: Samual A. Wilcox Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina402,403

Children of CARL GREER and BEULAH MCGUIRE are:
i. FRANK8 GREER404,405.
ii. HOWARD GREER406,407.
iii. BERTIE GREER408,409, b. 1911410,411.
iv. INES GREER412,413, b. 1914414,415.
v. ELLEN GREER416,417, b. 1915418,419.
vi. JOSEPH GREER420,421, b. 1919422,423.
vii. LULAR GREER424,425, b. August 05, 1926426,427.
viii. OTIS RALPH GREER428,429, b. September 18, 1933430,431; m. BEULAH JONES432,433.


29. AMY TRESSIE FRANCES7 GREER (ALBERT T.6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)434,435 was born May 21, 1898 in Ashe County, North Carolina436,437, and died August 16, 1995 in Ashe County, North Carolina438,439. She married WILLIAM MACK TUCKER440,441.

More About AMY TRESSIE FRANCES GREER:
Burial: Isiah S. Wilcox Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina442,443

Children of AMY GREER and WILLIAM TUCKER are:
i. OLEN H.8 TUCKER444,445, b. October 21, 1918446,447; d. October 22, 1996448,449.

More About OLEN H. TUCKER:
Burial: Stevens L. Family Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina450,451

ii. ERNEST ALBERT TUCKER452,453, b. November 07, 1923454,455; d. January 28, 1990456,457.

More About ERNEST ALBERT TUCKER:
Burial: Isiah S. Wilcox Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina458,459

iii. BURL TUCKER460,461, b. December 28, 1934462,463; d. February 16, 1935464,465.

More About BURL TUCKER:
Burial: Isiah S. Wilcox Cemetery, Ashe County, North Carolina466,467


30. RUTH7 GREER (ALBERT T.6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)468,469 was born September 06, 1902 in Ashe County, North Carolina470,471, and died June 25, 1979 in Ashe County, North Carolina472,473. She married JESSIE DARMON RAY474,475 June 02, 1916 in Ashe County, North Carolina476,477.

More About RUTH GREER:
Burial: Zion United Methodist Church Cemetery, Ashe County, Norrth Carolina478,479

Children of RUTH GREER and JESSIE RAY are:
i. GRACE8 RAY480,481.
ii. LETCHER RAY482,483.
iii. GERTY RAY484,485.
iv. CHARLES RAY486,487.
v. MATTY MAGDELINE RAY488,489, b. October 05, 1920, Ashe County, North Carolina490,491; m. RAY WEHUNT492,493.
vi. JOHN RAY494,495, b. May 04, 1922, Ashe County, North Carolina496,497.
vii. HARRISON HOWARD RAY498,499, b. April 08, 1932500,501; m. SALLY DELORES PERRY502,503, June 18, 1955504,505.


31. CLEO GRACE7 GREER (ALBERT T.6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)506,507 was born November 22, 1904 in Ashe County, North Carolina508,509, and died March 31, 1969510,511. She married ISAAC MCKINLEY GRUBB512,513.

More About CLEO GRACE GREER:
Burial: Stephens Family Cemetery, Laurel Knob514,515

Child of CLEO GREER and ISAAC GRUBB is:
i. BILLY MCKINLEY8 GRUBB516,517, b. November 13, 1932, Ashe County, North Carolina518,519; m. BETTY WOOD520,521, December 25, 1954, Ashe County, North Carolina522,523.


Generation No. 4

32. OREN ANDREW8 GREER (WILBORN7, ANDREW6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born October 23, 1881 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died November 06, 1947 in Laurel Bloomery. He married LAURA ALICE SHAW October 23, 1912 in Ashe County, North Carolina, daughter of JOHN SHAW and MARY LATHAM. She was born May 06, 1890 in Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina, and died March 14, 1973.

Notes for OREN ANDREW GREER:
Johnson County News, Mountain City, TN; Thursday, Dec. 4, 1947 page 1

Oren Andrew Greer, aged 66 years and eight days, died November 5, at his home at Laurel Bloomery.

He was the son of the late Wilburn and Mary Prather Greer. He is survived by the widow, mrs Laura Shaw Greer, and these children: Bruce W. of Pennsylvania; Mrs. Robert Mosier of Bristol, Virginia; Mrs W. M. Shaw of Falls Church, Virginia; Paul Greer of Elizabethton; Mrs Orvil Crowder of Raeford, N.C.; Jean Ernest, and Ralph of Laurel Blomery; and six grandchildren. Also by brothers and sisters: Quency of Pennsylvania; Mrs Emory Trivet, Todd, N.C.; Mrs Frank Greer, Boone, N.C.; John of Glen Rogers, W. Va.; Joe of Bakersville, N.C.; and Edward of Conowingo, Md.

Funeral services were held Friday afternoon at the home of Rev. Clinton Blevins. Burial followed at Acre Field Cemetery.

More About OREN ANDREW GREER:
Burial: Acres Field Cemetery, Johnson County, Tennessee

Notes for LAURA ALICE SHAW:
According to 1900 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- Page 95
- David Latham
- Age 61, married to Elizabeth for 43 years
- Born Jun 1838
- Born in NC
- Has Laura A. Shaw, granddaughter, age 10, living in household

Notes for LAURA A. SHAW:
According to 1910 Ashe Co, NC census (microfilm):
- HH # 72, Creston Twsp
- Age 19, single living with grandparents David and Elizabeth Latham
- Born in TN, father in NC, mother in NC
- Speaks english
- Can read and write

According to 1900 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- Page 95
- Age 10, single living with grandparents David and Elizabeth Latham
- Born May 1890
- Born in NC.


More About LAURA ALICE SHAW:
Burial: Acres Field Cemetery, Johnson County, Tennessee

Children of OREN GREER and LAURA SHAW are:
i. LULA GREER9 GREER, b. May 01, 1915, North Carolina; d. 2002; m. ROBERT MOSIER, June 25, 1938, Elizabethton, Tennessee.
ii. ARDNA E. GREER, b. August 21, 1916; m. WILLIAM SHAW, June 27, 1947.

Notes for ARDNA E. GREER:
Served as Navy Lt JG (nurse) during WWII.

Notes for WILLIAM SHAW:
Deceased.

iii. JOHN PAUL GREER, b. December 30, 1918, Trout, North Carolina; m. (1) LENA JANE COOKE, April 17, 1937, Elizabethton, Tennessee; b. October 1919, North Carolina; d. June 1987; m. (2) HILDRED PARR, November 1987.

Marriage Notes for JOHN GREER and LENA COOKE:
Married by Rev. Vallbach

Marriage Notes for JOHN GREER and HILDRED PARR:
Married by Rev. Sherman Bailey.


33. LAURA ALICE8 SHAW (JOHN BAPTIST7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born May 06, 1890 in Creston, Ashe County, North Carolina, and died March 14, 1973. She married OREN ANDREW GREER October 23, 1912 in Ashe County, North Carolina, son of WILBORN GREER and MARY PRATHER. He was born October 23, 1881 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died November 06, 1947 in Laurel Bloomery.

Notes for LAURA ALICE SHAW:
According to 1900 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- Page 95
- David Latham
- Age 61, married to Elizabeth for 43 years
- Born Jun 1838
- Born in NC
- Has Laura A. Shaw, granddaughter, age 10, living in household

Notes for LAURA A. SHAW:
According to 1910 Ashe Co, NC census (microfilm):
- HH # 72, Creston Twsp
- Age 19, single living with grandparents David and Elizabeth Latham
- Born in TN, father in NC, mother in NC
- Speaks english
- Can read and write

According to 1900 Ashe Co, NC census (abstract):
- Page 95
- Age 10, single living with grandparents David and Elizabeth Latham
- Born May 1890
- Born in NC.


More About LAURA ALICE SHAW:
Burial: Acres Field Cemetery, Johnson County, Tennessee

Notes for OREN ANDREW GREER:
Johnson County News, Mountain City, TN; Thursday, Dec. 4, 1947 page 1

Oren Andrew Greer, aged 66 years and eight days, died November 5, at his home at Laurel Bloomery.

He was the son of the late Wilburn and Mary Prather Greer. He is survived by the widow, mrs Laura Shaw Greer, and these children: Bruce W. of Pennsylvania; Mrs. Robert Mosier of Bristol, Virginia; Mrs W. M. Shaw of Falls Church, Virginia; Paul Greer of Elizabethton; Mrs Orvil Crowder of Raeford, N.C.; Jean Ernest, and Ralph of Laurel Blomery; and six grandchildren. Also by brothers and sisters: Quency of Pennsylvania; Mrs Emory Trivet, Todd, N.C.; Mrs Frank Greer, Boone, N.C.; John of Glen Rogers, W. Va.; Joe of Bakersville, N.C.; and Edward of Conowingo, Md.

Funeral services were held Friday afternoon at the home of Rev. Clinton Blevins. Burial followed at Acre Field Cemetery.

More About OREN ANDREW GREER:
Burial: Acres Field Cemetery, Johnson County, Tennessee

Children are listed above under (32) Oren Andrew Greer.

34. JAMES ARTHUR8 SHAW (THOMAS CREEDY7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born March 14, 1899 in Ashe County, N.C., and died November 21, 1981 in Danville, Virginia. He married (1) VINNIE CAIN. He married (2) ORVA LONG October 18, 1930 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, daughter of ORVILLE LONG and LEONA MAYS. She was born March 12, 1909 in Cedar County, Missouri.

More About JAMES ARTHUR SHAW:
Fact 1: Born in Creston, N.C. , Near West Jefferson, Creston No Longer has post office.

Children of JAMES SHAW and VINNIE CAIN are:
i. CLARA BELLE9 SHAW, b. November 25, 1919, Danville, Virginia; d. March 13, 1985, Danville, Virginia; m. TOM BOYD, Danville, Virginia.

Notes for CLARA BELLE SHAW:
Mrs Boyd
Clare Belle Shaw Boyde, 65, a resident of Riverside Health Care Center for 10 months, died Wednesday in the Memorial Hospital of Danville, where she had been a patient for 12 days. She had been declining in health for seven years.
Borne Nov. 25, 1919 in Danville, she was a daughter of the late James A. Shaw and Vinnie Cain Shaw. She had lived her entire life in the Danville Area and was of the Baptist faith.
Survivors include three daughters, Lydia Slone, Sheila Hardy and Jenifer Chavez, all of Danville; one sister, Mary Lou Lowe, Danville; two brothers, James Paul Shaw, Danville, and William A. Shaw; step-mother, Mrs J. A. Shaw, Danville; and one grandchild.
A graveside service will be conducted Saturday at 11 a. m. in Mountain View Cemetery by Rev. Robert L. Vermillion.
The family is at 1007 West Paxton Ave. Swicegood Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

More About CLARA BELLE SHAW:
Burial: Mountain View Cemetery, Danville, Virginia

ii. GRACE ELLEN SHAW, b. April 02, 1922, Danville, Virginia; d. October 26, 1969, Norfolk, Virginia; m. EDD DIX, Danville, Virginia.


Children of JAMES SHAW and ORVA LONG are:
iii. WILLIAM ARTHUR9 SHAW, b. July 19, 1935, Pittsylvania County, Virginia; d. January 30, 1987, Virginia Beach, Virginia; Adopted child; m. (1) BRENDA MARABLE; m. (2) BARBARA SHIPMAN, Unknown, Virginia Beach, Virginia; b. September 19, 1942, Norfolk Virginia.
iv. MARY LOU SHAW, b. September 04, 1942, Community Hospital, Danville, Virginia; m. LACY FORREST LOWE JR., March 25, 1973, North Carolina.
v. JAMES PAUL SHAW, b. January 28, 1946, Memorial Hospital, Danville, Virginia; m. FRANCIS DANIEL, August 04, 1969.


35. ALONZO FRANKLIN8 SHAW (THOMAS CREEDY7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born March 18, 1901, and died 1972. He married (1) MAE FARMER. She was born July 14, 1905, and died March 1976. He married (2) MAUDE NOONCESTER.

Child of ALONZO SHAW and MAUDE NOONCESTER is:
i. RUSSELL9 SHAW.


36. ADA LOUEMMA8 SHAW (THOMAS CREEDY7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born March 30, 1906, and died June 18, 1987. She married RUFUS CAIN. He was born December 09, 1904, and died March 02, 1991.

Children of ADA SHAW and RUFUS CAIN are:
i. DOUG9 CAIN, b. February 14, 1940.
ii. MARY CAIN, b. Unknown; m. TALBOT; b. Unknown; d. Unknown.

Notes for MARY CAIN:
11-21-95, Mary lives with Amy off 729 on 656 to 110 - @nd house on right.
Amy's Phone 822-8680

iii. PEARL CAIN, b. Unknown.
iv. BEA CAIN, b. Unknown; m. DANNY EWING; b. Unknown; d. Unknown.


37. CARL THOMAS8 SHAW (THOMAS CREEDY7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born September 13, 1910 in Damascus, Virginia. He married FAYE TOMMIE GILBRETH 1938. She was born May 16, 1911 in Erath County, Texas.

Child of CARL SHAW and FAYE GILBRETH is:
i. JIM9 SHAW, b. November 12, 1938; Adopted child; m. CLARE DISNEY; b. June 06, 1947.


38. MAUDE LEE8 SHAW (THOMAS CREEDY7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born January 28, 1917 in Damascus, Virginia, and died October 23, 1968 in Memorial Hospital, Danville, Virginia. She married JOHNNY WILSON. He was born December 04, 1918, and died August 06, 1970.

Notes for MAUDE LEE SHAW:
Mrs. Wilson, 51 Dies in Hospital
Mrs. Maude Shaw Wilson, 51 of Ringgold Rt. 1, died in Memorial Hospital last night at 11:55. She had been in declining health for several years and had entered the hospital Tuesday.
Mrs. Wilson was birn Jan. 28, 1917 in Washington County, a daughter of the late Thomas C. Shaw and Erma Prather Shaw. She spent most of her life in the Ringgold area and worked in the spinning room of Dan River Mills in her early life. At the time of her death, she was a member of Memorial Faith Baptist Church. She was married to Johnny Wilson Jr. who surviives her.
In addition to her husband, she leaves one daughter, Miss Judy Wilson, and two sons, Richard and Howard Wilson, all of the home; two sisters, Mrs. Ida Hollifield of Danville and Mrs. Ada Cain of Vienna; and four brothers, J. A. and A. F. Shaw both of Danville, Glenn Shaw of Ringgold Rt. 1 and Carl Shaw of Devine, Tex.
The body is at Swicegood funeral Home pending completion of final arrangements. The family is at the home of Mrs. Hollifield, 698 Jefferson St.

More About MAUDE LEE SHAW:
Burial: October 25, 1968, Schoolfield Cemetery, Danville, Virginia

Children of MAUDE SHAW and JOHNNY WILSON are:
i. RICHARD9 WILSON.
ii. JUDY WILSON.

More About JUDY WILSON:
Fact 1: Married Black

iii. HOWARD WILSON.


39. GLENN WILLARD8 SHAW (THOMAS CREEDY7, FRANCES JEAN6 GREER, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1) was born February 25, 1915 in Damascus, Virginia, and died June 16, 1982 in Pauley Island, South Carolina524. He married MARGARET ELIZIBETH ROBINSON October 03, 1936, daughter of DALLY ROBINSON and LILLIE BURKE. She was born August 14, 1917.

Notes for GLENN WILLARD SHAW:
[Genealogy.com, Family Archive #110, Vol. 2 L-Z, Ed. 9, Social Security Death Index: U.S., Date of Import: May 3, 2003, Internal Ref. #1.112.9.92545.17]

Individual: Shaw, Glenn
Social Security #: 224-10-6415
Issued in: Virginia

Birth date: Feb 25, 1915
Death date: Jun 1982


Residence code: Virgina

ZIP Code of last known residence: 24586
Location associated with this ZIP Code:

Ringgold, Virginia

Obituary:
Glenn W. Shaw, 67, Route 1, Ringgold, died Wednesday morning of an apparent heart attack while vacationing in South Carolina. Born Feb. 25, 1915, at Damascus, he was a son of the late Thomas C. Shaw and Bina Prather Shaw. He spent most of his life at Ringgold and was employed as a supervisor at Dan River for 45 years. He was a member of Ringgold Baptist Church, where he began the church's first nursery. He was married to Margaret Robinson, who survives. In addfition of his wife of the home, survivors include, Gary Glenn Shaw, Route 1, Ringgold; one daughter, Beverly K. Shaw, Route 1, Ringgold; one brother, Carl T. Shaw, Devine, Texas; two sisters, Ada Cain, Vienna, and Ida Hollifield, Danville; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Swicegood Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements, which are incomplete. The family will receive friends at the residence, Route 1, Ringgold.

Glenn Shaw:
The funeral for Glenn W. Shaw, 67, or Ringgold Route 1 will be held 4 p.m. Saturday at Swicegood Funeral Chapel by Rev. John J. Groff. Interment will be in Highland Burial Park. Shaw died Wednesday morning. He was born in Damascus on Feb. 25, 1915, a son of the late Thomas C. Shaw and Bina Prather Shaw. He spent most of his life in the Ringgold community and was a retired Dan River, Inc. supervisor. Shaw was a member of Ringgold Baptist Church, where he began the first nusery. He also was instrumental in the formation of the Shawnee Girl Scout Park in Ringgold. He was a former member of the Ringgold Volunteer Fire Department. Surviving are his wife, Margaret Robinson Shaw, of the residence; one son Gary Glenn Shaw, Ringgold Route 1; one daughter, Beverly K. Shaw, Ringgold Route 1; one brother Carl T. Shaw, Devine, Texas; two sisters, Ada Cain, Vienna, and Ida Hollifield, Danville; five grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. The family will receive friends at the funeral home 7:30-9 p.m. Friday and at other times, will be at the residence.


More About GLENN WILLARD SHAW:
Burial: June 19, 1982, Highland Burial Park, Danville, Virginia524
Cause of Death: Probable death by drowning
Medical Information:

More About MARGARET ELIZIBETH ROBINSON:
Burial: Highland Burial Park, Danville, Virginia

Children of GLENN SHAW and MARGARET ROBINSON are:
i. DONALD WAYNE9 SHAW, d. Ringgold, Virginia.
ii. GARY GLENN SHAW525, b. February 02, 1939, Community Hospital, Danville, Virginia525; m. (1) GISELA SCHEU-BOLLSTERLING, Sembach, Germany; b. March 08, 1940, Winweiler, Germany; m. (2) HIROKO ZAMAMI; b. October 01, 1929, Okinawa, Japan; m. (3) JANET MARIE STONE, April 13, 1995, Martinsville, Virginia; b. May 22, 1944, Martinsville, Virginia.
iii. BEVERLY ANNE SHAW, b. May 06, 1954.

More About BEVERLY ANNE SHAW:
Adoption: 1954


40. LOUISE MINNIE8 TAYLOR (ROSE ALICE7 GREER, NOAH6, ELIJAH5, JOHN4, BENJAMIN3, JOHN2, JOHN1)526,527 was born August 12, 1914 in Ashe County, North Carolina, and died July 16, 1993 in South Boston, Virginia. She married WILBER KINGREE November 1944 in Washington DC. He was born December 19, 1904 in Columbia Furnace, Shenandoah County, Virginia.

Notes for LOUISE MINNIE TAYLOR:
My mother's hair started turning grey when she was in her very early 20's which is a Greer trait. Most of the Greer family gray early and have blue eyes. I should say, the ones that I have known. My mother's mother had blue eyes, was short and she had white hair. My mother's father was tall, dark and had dark brown eyes and black hair. His mother Sarah Bare Taylor was part Indian. John died when my mother was 12 years old, but my mother said everybody always talked about what a good man he was.

Emma Kearns

Child of LOUISE TAYLOR and WILBER KINGREE is:
i. EMMA9 KINGREE, b. September 15, 1948, Woodstock, Virginia; m. KEARNS.




Gary G. Shaw
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