William Joseph Wilson

William Joseph Wilson, born September 24, 1777 in Lincoln County, North Carolina; died from a pain in the breast at breakfast table on February 05, 1854 in Gaston, North Carolina. He was the son of John Wilson III and Mary Wray. He married Sarah Baird October 22, 1799 in Gaston, North Carolina. She was born July 04, 1773; died September 18, 1851. She was the daughter of Adam Baird and Mary Adams. He and his wife are buried in Olney Presbyterian Church, Gaston Co., NC.

William Joseph was the eighth child of his parents and he succeded fis father as register of deed of Lincoln County. He held this position until gaston County was established. Living in the new county, he resigned his position at the March term of Court in 1847. He was a Justice of the Peace, was generally familiar with law and was known as Judge Wilso. His father had willed him his copy of Blackstone’s Commentaries. He was noted for getting parties who came onto his trial-justice court to compromise their differences instead of going to ttrial and such was his reputation for fairness that he was often appealed to arbitrate matters of dispute that ordinarily would have led to lawsuits. He waqs strong-willed and liked to have his way. As Major C. Q. Petty, one of his nearest neighbors, once told, adding that “the beauty about it was that Judge’s way was almost always the right way.” He was a whig and in 1833 was a delegate to choose a presidential elector on the Henry Clay ticket. At a political meeting then he listened quietly to the abusive arguments of a young man till they became too vituperative, when Judge Wilson interrupted by saying, “I perceive, young man, that what you lack in information, you make up by impertinence.” He was a land surveyor. There are several registers of the survays made by him. He was a Mason and member of a Royal Arch Chapter that met at Robert Winters’, in the king’s Mountain neighborhood in the period of 1810 to 1820. He steadly acquired land oth by purchase and by grant from the State until he owned several thousand acres. He said he never wanted any of his children to leave this coutry from wanting a home.

Thomas Price died leaving his plantation to four sons, Ezekiel, Isaac, John and Reese. William Joseph wanted to buy all four place, but, as his daughter Polly Torrence said many years later, “old Davy Watson sneaked in and bought Reese’s part and father never had any use for him from them on.” In 1824 he built a large square brick house with two stories and basement. This house still stands in good condition but has been modernized by addition of porches and a porte cochere. On the creek nearby his home he built a mill and slave quarters were added. About the time he married ha had made in Lincolntown, where there were some skilled cabinet makers, a dish and cupboard by John Hoke and a grandfather clock by John Bull Harry.

A contemporary glimpse of William Joseph Wilson and his home is gotten from the diary of Dr. Elisha Mitchell, state Geneologist, who made a geological tour in 1827 through the Rutherford and Lincoln Counties region. A quotation from this diary, published in James Sprunt Historical Monograph No. 6, University of North Carolina, 1905, pp. 67 and 68, is as follows:

“Got my dinner at old Lewis’ in Rutherford, went out to see Mr. Boggs’ gold mine which furnishes nothing but mica, then rode down to the county line to Jacob Fullen wider where I was hospitaly entertained. Afterexamining his forge on Friday morning, 20 of July of 1827, started with him for his ore bank or rather for Fall’s Lime kiln on Kings Creek where William Wilson has engaged to meet me. Country Granite. Did not find Wilson, examined the ore bank then started on foot for King’s Mountain about five or sis miles below, towards this I traveled for four miles and, understanding it was within the limits of South Caroline, returned. I, however, discovered a gold region along the creek. Wilson not being come on my return to the ore bank, I started for his house but he soon overtook me and told me gold had actually been found on this formation. He conducted me between King’s and Crowder’s Mountains along a very bad road to his house. We turned aside to see the sulphate of Barytes. He lives in a large brick house, four rooms to a floor. He is a plain man, said nothing of his return, but sent word to his wife by one of his sons that we should want some supper and nodded to her in a very kindly way when we descened into the underground roomto our repast. Saturday morning, Mr. Wilson accompained me some miles. We rode near the line, sometimes in North, and sometimes in South Carolina, five miles west of the catawba according to Mr. Wilson’s estimate, fell in with the gold country, and Wilson soon left me.”

In August, 1829, gold was discovered in the gravels along a branch near King’s Mountain. William Joseph Wilson formed a company of ten to mine it and bacame Secretary and Treasurer of the Company. In Frebruary of 1832, an injunction was served that stopped mining and resulted in a lawsuit that went to the State Supreme Court before mining could be resumed in 1838. Wilson had to go to Raleigh in connection with the suit. While there he was taken ill and Jack, and old negro belonging to major C. CC. He3nderson of Lincolntown, one of the Company, was sent to bring him home. This jack once went to Ohio with some of them and while there they tried to get him to stay by telling him he would be free, but Jack refused saying: “I have a master to depend on. When I am sick I have a doctor and my master feeds and clothes me.”

In reply to a query from Charlotte branch unit, William Joseph Wilson estimated that up to 1840 about U$ 60,000 of gold had been taken out. Wilson aquired in 1838 the one-thenth owned by Andrew Falls, the original owner of the land on which the gold had been found.. At hie death he owned a fifth of the Company. It was sold by Court order in 1867. We have some correspondence from James Oliver Holland, in Brazil, saying that Priscilla’s part shoud be sent in eight parts, in gold bank bills, one by month, and the next just after the confirmation of the prior one had been received.

The vein was soon discovered where it crossed the branch about 200 yards above where the alluvial gold had been found. They mined down for some distance in decomposed rock but had put in a stamp mill to crush hard rock encountered below water level, before 1849. In the California gold excitement the stamp mill was taken by wagons to charleston, shipped around the Horn and set up in Calofornia. After some time it was again shipped back around the Horn and once more installed at King’s Mountain.

William Joseph Wilson’s will gives an interesting picture of his possessions and of the home and farm life of the time among the better-to-do people of the region:

State of North Carolina, Gaston County: Be it known that I, William Joseph Wilson, of the County and State aforesaid, being in usual health and sound and disposing mind to make and publish this my last will and testament and dispose of all my estate, real and personal, that I may die seized and possessed of, in the following manner, viz. In the first place, I direct all my just debts and funeral expenses to be paid.

And as I have conveyed by deed to each of my sons, Ezra B. Wilson and Edwin Wilson, the land I intend for them, I hereby give and bequest to my son Ezra B. Wilson one negro girl named Maline to him, his heirs and assigns forever.

To my son Edwin Wilson I give and bequest a negro girl named Mary Ann to him, his heirs and assigns forever. To my daughter Eliza Wilson I will and bequest a portion of bedding, cupboard and kitchen furniture equal to what each of her sisters got when they moved from the family. One set silver teaspoons, a horse, saddle and brodle, spinning machine, the desk and bookcase and small table in her room, with her living off my home plantation and the use and control of two rooms in my dwelling house while she remains single; also the following negroes, viz: Sandy, Grace and Adaline, to her, her heirs and assigns forever, her mother’s chest, two cows and calves.

To my daughter Mary Torrence I give and bequest the following slaves, viz: George, Phillis and Elvira to her, her heirs and assigns forever.

To my daughter Sarah A. Torrence, wife of William Wilson Torrence, I give and bequest a negro man named Peter, also a girl called Jane now in their possession, also a negro girl called Rhina to her, her heirs and assigns forever.

To my son Lawson Wilson I give and bequest my home plantation, including my grist and saw mill and all other buildings and improvements thereon subject, however, to the incumbrance of Eliza Wilson’s claim as above mentioned; also a negro man named George, Blacksmith, his horse, saddle and bridle, best wagon and gear, two plows, two hoes, mattock, two axes, new rifle, crosscut saw, clock and case, chest of drawers, two cows and calves, ten head of hogs, new compassand chain, plotting instruments, a good bed, bedstead and clothing, his watch.

To my daughter Priscilla Ruth, wife of Franklin H. Holland, I give and bequaeth the following slaves, viz: Dine, Frank and Leander to her, her heirs and assigns forever.

I will direct my executors pay out of my estate any of my King’s Mountain Railroad stock that may be due or unpaid at the time of my death and for the purpose of paying this or any of my debts, I place all my other lands or slaves, with my cash, notes and accounts not herein disposed of, at the disposal of my executors, either at public or private sale, as they may think best, to pay my debts and surplus, whatever it may be, after paying the debts and expenses of settling my estate, i will and diredct to be equally divided among all of my children that may be living at the time of my death, share and share alike, and if any of my said children be then dead then to their legal representatives. And I hereby nominate and appoint my sons Ezra B. Wilson and lawson Wilson executors to this my last will and testament, revoking and annulling all former wills by me made and declaring this to be my last will and testament, in testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name and affixed my seal this 18th day of October A.D. 1851 and acknowledge in presence of: Attest: James Quinn, John Rankin Falls. William Joseph Wilson (Seal)

This is a quotation of a letter from Robert T. Hoffman to Adail Holland in Brazil, grandson of James Oliver Holland, dated May 1st, 1963: “I am sure you know all about William Joseph Wilson, father of Priscilla Ruth Wilson. He was one of the wealthiest men around here. He owned a number of slaves and several thousands acres of lands. He lived in a large four-story brick house about a mile northwest of Bowling Gree n, SC. It still is a nice place and is well kept today.”

From Aunt Polly's (Mary Torrence) history: “William Joseph Wilson owned a large part of the country, the mountain and Elter's limn-kiln. He said he never wanted any of his children to leave the country for want of a home. A man owning a gold mine was about to be cheated out of it and father formed a company of ten men to fight the lawsuit. Andy Falls, the owner, was one of the company. He had partly bargained it to a Burchell and others”.

At Vanderbilt University Library, NC, are Dr. Leonidas Chalmers Glenn Papers, 1752-1907. Places quoted are Lincoln (now Gaston) and Cleveland Counties, North Carolina; also Arkansas, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Virginia. Represented in this collection are members of the Wilson, Torrence, and Glenn families. The Wilson family of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, included John Wilson (1742-1799) of North Carolina; Samuel Wilson (1754-1799), Presbyterian minister at Big Spring Church, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania; Robert G. Wilson (b. 1768), son of John, Presbyterian minister at Abbeville, South Carolina, who moved to Chillicothe, Ohio, because of his opposition to slavery; and William Joseph Wilson (1777-1854), son of John, of Lincoln and Gaston counties, North Carolina. Glenn family members include William Davis Glenn (b. 1833) of Gaston County; his brother, Robert N. Glenn, Confederate soldier; John F. Glenn, father of William and Robert, of the Crowders Creek area of Gaston County, North Carolina, and York County, South Carolina; and Leonidas Chambers Glenn (1871-1951), son of William, author and professor of geology at Vanderbilt University. Torrence family members include Edwin B. Torrence of Rutherford (later Cleveland) County, North Carolina, and his sons, Luther B. and Thomas, both of whom fought in the Confederate army; William Wilson Torrence (1808-1875); and Leonidas Torrence, a Confederate soldier who died at Gettysburg.

Family correspondence, chiefly 1788-1871, of the ancestors of Leonidas Chalmers Glenn, includes three letters, 1766-1768, from North Carolina Governor William Tryon; letters from relatives in Hampden-Sidney, Virginia, in Pope County, Arkansas, in Green County, Tennessee, in Illinois, and in other places; letters from Confederate soldiers in the field and in hospitals in Virginia and eastern North Carolina; and correspondence, 1901-1927, of Leonidas Chalmers Glenn concerning family history. Correspondence reflects the private life, professional activities, and opinions on public matters of members of the extended family, which included ministers, professors, merchants, and farmers. Major topics include the Presbyterian church in Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Ohio; North Carolina politics and economic affairs during the early part of the nineteenth century; slavery; Kings Mountain, North Carolina, gold mines; affairs at Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia; and political, social, and economic life in Ohio. Volumes include the diary, 1864-1868, of William Davis Glenn, recording trips, 1866-1867, through Mississippi and to Baltimore, New York, and Philadelphia, and his reminiscences, written in 1907, describing social and economic conditions in the Carolinas before, during, and after the Civil War. The collection is arranged as follows: Series 1. Loose Papers--Subseries 1.1. 1752-1860 and Undated and Subseries 1.2. 1861-1927 and Undated [not included; Series 2. Volumes--Subseries 2.1. 1794-1907 and Undated before 1861 and Subseries 2.2. 1864-1907; and Series 3. Pictures. Biographical Note: The collection consists of personal letters and other papers, such as wills, deeds, genealogy, and typed copies of such items, relating to the ancestors of Dr. L.C. Glenn, who collected these papers. The persons chiefly concerned are members of the Glenn, Torrence, and Wilson families. The collector's mother was a Torrence and his maternal grandmother was a Wilson. There were apparently several different marriages connecting members of the Torrence family with members of the Wilson family in Gaston (formerly Lincoln) County.

John Wilson (1742-1799) had a brother, Samuel Wilson (1754-1799), who was a Princeton graduate and Presbyterian pastor at Big Spring Church in Cumberland County, Pennsylvania. Samuel Wilson's wife, Jane Mahon, survived him and married John Heap. John had three brothers: Hugh, who migrated to Georgia; James, who settled in Ohio; and William, who died unmarried in 1778. These three brothers appear only incidentally in this collection of papers. John Wilson (1742-1799) and his wife, Mary Wray, had ten or eleven children. The ones chiefly concerned in these papers include Robert G. (b.1768), Samuel B. (1783-1869), and William J. (1777-1854). Robert G. Wilson, born in 1768, was a Presbyterian pastor in Abbeville, South Carolina, migrated early to Chillicothe, Ohio, because of his opposition to the institution of slavery, and became president of the University of Ohio at Athens, Ohio. William Joseph Wilson (1777-1854) was married in 1799 to Sarah Baird (1773-1851). They lived in Lincoln and Gaston counties, North Carolina, and had ten children. Among their children were Lawson Wilson (1809-1876), whose papers are among this collection (though there were other relatives by the same name); a daughter, Sally Ann (1813-1880), who married W.W. Torrence; and a daughter, Mary (or Polly) (1811-1900), who married Ephraim Torrence. Samuel Blain Wilson (1783-1869) was a Presbyterian pastor at Fredericksburg, Virginia, for possibly 35 years and, in 1841, became a professor at the Union Seminary in prince Edward County, Virginia. Among his six children was the Reverend Samuel Blair Owen Wilson (1809-1899), who served the presbyteries in South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee, was professor at Davidson College, 1841-1853, and died at Woodville, Tennessee.

The Glenns who appear in these papers are the collector's father, William Davis Glenn, who was born in 1833 as the son of John F. and Jeannette Scott Glenn, married Miss Sarah Priscilla Torrence (1851-1906) in 1870 and wrote his reminiscences in 1907; Robert N. Glenn, brother of W.D., whose Confederate army letters are in this collection and who did not survive the Civil War; and John F. Glenn, father of Robert, of the Crowders Creek section of North and South Carolina; and to some extent cousins and ancestors of these three men.

The papers from 1840 through 1886 include correspondence and other papers of members of the Torrence family who intermarried with the Wilsons and the Glenns in Gaston, earlier Lincoln, County. This was a large family in Piedmont, North Carolina, with scattered relatives also in Arkansas, Tennessee, Illinois, Georgia, Iowa, etc. The ones most conspicuous in this series of papers are Edwin B. Torrence of Rutherford (later Cleveland) County, whose bills appear in the 1840s and whose family correspondence continues on through later years; his daughter, Miss Mary Ellen Torrence, whose extensive correspondence with her relatives runs from the 1850s through 1886; his sons, Luther B. and Thomas, who fought in the Confederate army; and his brother-in-law, Nathan Mendenhall of Gaston County, husband of Mary B. Torrence (1799-1879). William Wilson Torrence (1808-1875) and wife, Sarah Ann (Wilson) Torrence (1813-1880), had a daughter, Sarah Priscilla, who married W.D. Glenn. W.W. Torrence's son, Leonidas, whose Confederate army letters are among these papers, was mortally wounded at Gettysburg. There are letters from a number of Torrence relatives in Pope County, Arkansas, apparently the families of one or more brothers of E.B. Torrence. Other Torrences are identified in the genealogical material and tombstone inscriptions filed at the end of the chronological series of papers. Among the Torrence relatives were members of the Mendenhall, Falls, Wilson, Roberts, White, Walker, Harmon, and other families.

The family of Sally Baird, William Joseph’s wife, came from the very same place where his father came from and they were friends during more than fifty years. They settled early in what is now eastern Gaston County on Catawba Creek, they were a prosperous and proeminent family. Some of her brothers were silversmiths and Sarah Baird had a number of things made by them. They set their slaves free at their death. Her afther was a Capitain of the State troops in the Revolutionary War.

Birth: Sep. 24, 1777 Lincoln County North Carolina, USA Death: Feb. 5, 1854 Gaston County North Carolina, USA

Son of John Wilson & Mary [Wray] Wilson

Married Sarah Baird October 22, 1799 - Gaston Co., N.C.

Section 1

Family links:

Parents:

 John Wilson (1742 - 1799)

 Mary Wray Wilson (1737 - 1830)

Spouse:

 Sarah Baird Wilson (1773 - 1851)*

Children:

 Zimri Wilson (1800 - 1824)*

 Ezra Baird Wilson (1802 - 1880)*

 Edwin Wilson (1803 - 1886)*

 Samuel McEwen Wilson (1805 - 1833)*

 Eliza Wilson (1807 - 1885)*

 Lawson Wilson (1809 - 1876)*

 Mary Polly Wilson Torrence (1811 - 1900)*

 Sarah Ann Wilson Torrence (1813 - 1880)*

 Infant Daughter Wilson (1816 - 1816)*

Siblings:

 Robert G Wilson (1768 - 1851)*

 William Joseph Wilson (1777 - 1854)

 Samuel B Wilson (1783 - 1869)*

*Calculated relationship

Burial: Olney Presbyterian Church Cemetery Gastonia Gaston County North Carolina, USA