Pleasant Lilly

Pleasant Lilly
BIRTH
1797
Giles County, Virginia, USA
DEATH
13 Aug 1887 (aged 89–90)
Raleigh County, West Virginia, USA
BURIAL
Pleasant Lilly Cemetery
Odd, Raleigh County, West Virginia,

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/66448243/pleasant-lilly

The 1850 Federal Census, District 42, Mercer, Virginia (now West Virginia) lists 1807 as the year of birth for Pleasant Lilly. From that point on the record of Pleasant Lilly and his wives, partners and children is fairly clearly defined in the official records. The following story is from a member tree on Ancestry dot com. I have rewritten it to indicate where there is doubt about the true record of Pleasant Lilly. Understand that much of what has been proffered as true in this story cannot be confirmed by hard record evidence.

Pleasant Lilly was born in Giles, Virginia and died on 2 March 1887 in Raleigh, West Virginia. He is buried somewhere near Odd Road in Raleigh. Pleasant married about 1823 to Delilah Pittman, the daughter of Reuben Pittman, most likely in Giles, Virginia. Delilah was born 23 December 1801 and died 18 July 1877 - aged 75 years 6 months 12 days. Their youngest son William was born 16 December 1832 in Giles. Sometime later things turned sour between Delilah and Pleasant, after which time Pleasant found companionship with Emelia (Millie) and Nancy Solesbury after moving them onto his farm. Pleasant was soon raising two additional families. The first child of this new arrangement arrived sometime in 1836 when Nancy bore a daughter Jane. This was followed in 1837 by the birth of Green Solesberry to Millie. Over the next twenty years the sisters birthed in total at least twenty-one Solesberry children, the last being William Edward Solesberry born 16 July 1857 to Nancy. Millie birthed eleven known children and Nancy birthed ten. The story goes that Pleasant's will named all his children still living at the time of his death.

It has been variously reported that sometime prior to 1850 Pleasant's lawful wife Delilah moved away from the farm. It has also been reported she was listed with her sixteen year old son Christopher on the 1850 Raleigh, Virginia Federal Census. Other sources say Delilah died sometime in 1845. So far these varying versions of the story have not been confirmed or refuted. One tale goes that the Solesberry sisters told Delilah they were going to kill her, but the truth of the true situation may never be known. Again, according to the story, Delilah refused to give Pleasant Lilly a divorce.

When Delilah died it is claimed that Pleasant married Millie, but to date no record has been found. Following the death of Millie, Pleasant married Nancy Solesberry on 6 Aug 1881 in Raleigh, West Virginia. It is claimed that as he left the court house Pleasant said, "Now all my children are legal."

Millie and Nancy appear to be the daughters of Thomas Solesbury and Lucy Maxey, married in Franklin, Virginia on 7 January 1801. The Solesberry name was recorded with several different spellings including "Salsbury" in the marriage record, additionally Sollsbury, Shrewsbury, Shrewsberry and others in census documents. When Thomas and Lucy married, her mother was recorded as Phoebe and the Surety was John Maxey. Information for their marriage was taken from "Marriage Bonds of Franklin County, VA 1786-1858" by Wingfield. [errata: I have searched for all relevant names and terms in this reference and can find not mention of Pleasant Lilly or Delilah Pittman.]

Lilly, P. F. BATTLE UNIT NAME: 60th Regiment, Virginia Infantry (3rd Regiment, Wise Legion) SIDE: Confederacy COMPANY: I
SOLDIER'S RANK IN: Private SOLDIER'S RANK OUT: Private ALTERNATE NAME: Pleasant H./Lilly FILM NUMBER: M382 ROLL 34 PLAQUE NUMBER: NOTES: General Note - Original filed under Pleasant H./Lilly

GEDCOM Source

@R803693187@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=162244276&pi...

GEDCOM Source

@R803693187@ Ancestry Family Trees Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com. Original data: Family Tree files submitted by Ancestry members.

GEDCOM Source

Ancestry Family Tree http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=162244276&pi...