My Genealogy Home Page:Information about Samuel Willson

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

Home Page |Surname List |Index of Individuals |InterneTree |Sources

Samuel Willson (b. May 02, 1787, d. June 28, 1866)

Samuel Willson (son of John Willson and Rachel Downey)^{946, 947, 948, 949} was born May 02, 1787 in Pennsylvania, USA⁹⁵⁰, and died June 28, 1866 in "Mulberry Grove" near Brownsburg, Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA. He married Phoebe Tate on October 26, 1809 in Augusta County, Virginia, USA⁹⁵¹, daughter of Robert Tate and Margaret Alexander McClung.

Notes for Samuel Willson:
[Rice-Fox-Love1.FTW]

Samuel Willson was a farmer.

Mulberry Grove

It is believed that the original house was built in the 1790's by a man named John Skeen. It was a small, one room down, one room up post and beam home. Between the posts and beams was laid (sometimes it was sort of thrown in -- but in this house it was loosely laid) brick called brick nogging or brick rubble. The brick was added for insulation. This was all covered with weather boarding. An example of this construction shows in the present kitchen. The house had no porches and faced southeast, the present back being the original from of the house. The kitchen and many other dependencies were along the present fence row southwest of the house.

In 1824, Samuel Willson (born in 1787) purchased the house and 170 acres for $1,700 from John and Elizabeth Skeen, the son of the original John Skeen, and moved into it with his wife Phoebe Tate and several children. He immediately began making changes and adding to the house for his growing family. To the east he added a hall, both up and downstairs, and to the west a large kitchen with a loft above. Porches on both the front and back were added and the front door was changed to the present door opening from the kitchen into the hallway.

In the 1830's, Willson added the two major rooms downstairs at the eastern end of the house and one large bedroom above the eaves closets running along the edges of the roof.

He changed the woodwork in the original small house including the door, chair rails, and mantel, updating them to 1830 style, but left the 1790's 9-over-6 windows with the original widow frames and much of the original glass. The mantle and chair railing in the upstairs bedroom over the dining room may be its original woodwork.

The major room, the living room, has an ornate mantel and an interesting fire back forged by Halbert and Moses in the 1790's. Willson probably moved it from the original rooms to this room.

The present library or "back rooms" was two small rooms. The portion with the fireplace and mantel was probably the bedroom of the lady of the house )Phoebe and then her daughter, Sally) and the portion with the door entering the hall was a storage room for the kitchen. The servants came from the kitchen across the back porch (now front porch) to this door to receive daily supplies for the kitchen from the lady of the house. There is a beautiful chestnut floor in the bedroom part and a very inferior heart pine floor with knots, short pieces and broken pieces in the pantry section. The mantel in the library was probably moved to this 1830's room from the 1790's sections as it appears to be older than this part of the house.

All of the other floors are the original heart pine except the hallways that are black oak downstairs and poplar on the landing and upstairs. All of the woodwork is pine except the bannister which is walnut.

Around 1900 the one large room in the original section was divided into two rooms, probably making a small bedroom. It is presently used as an office.

After servants went and the road had been changed to that the back must become the front, what was by then the back porch was made into the kitchen and is still used as such.

In the late 1880's James E. A. Gibbs, the sewing machine inventor, purchased the house and farm for his daughter, Ellabel and her husband, John Moore. The Moores owned it until Madison McClung Sterrett purchased it in 1925.

In the 1930's Sterrett cut the dormer windows and made two bedrooms and a bath of the one large bedroom over the eastern end of the house.

Many of the doors have the original wood graining or wood grain painting that was popular in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Most of the heavy railing on the porches is walnut as well as the little remaining original picket fence.

We think that the Willsons named the farm Mulberry Grove around 1835 when everyone hoped to go into the silk industry and imported special French mulberries for the silkworms to eat. This small cut leaf mulberry is a real pest on the farm today.

Until the 1930's, there remained a stone dairy at the far western end attached to the kitchen. Willson had water piped into this dairy from the hills to the southeast through handmade concrete pipe.

Among Willson's children who have descendants who live in Virginia were Robert Tate, Rebecca, Mary and Estaline. John Willson moved to Sherman, Grayson County, Texas, USA after the Civil War and there are many of his descendants in that area.

More About Samuel Willson:
Born - Alt. date 1: May 02, 1786, Pennsylvania, USA.^{952, 953}
Burial: Aft. June 28, 1866, New Providence Cemetery, Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA.
Comment 1: Only 10 of the 13 children were listed with this source. A correction to the birth order has been made..⁹⁵⁴

More About Samuel Willson and Phoebe Tate:
Marriage: October 26, 1809, Augusta County, Virginia, USA.⁹⁵⁵

Children of Samuel Willson and Phoebe Tate are:

+Mary Damaris Willson, b. November 02, 1823, Virginia, USA, d. April 10, 1854, Virginia, USA.
+Rebecca Alexander Willson, b. July 27, 1828, "Mulberry Grove" near Brownsburg, Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA^{956, 957, 958}, d. January 19, 1889, "Oakley" Farm near Lexington, Rockbridge County, Virginia, USA^{959, 960}.