The Jesse Greer Notebook
I have received permission from Annie Greer Heaton, of Heaton, NC to transcribe and post here what is known as "The Jesse Greer Notebook". I've seen the notebook several times. The cover is black and white mottled and the kind of composition book many of us remember using in school. It has lined pages and therefore the lines are straight.
The writing is quite clear and easy to read, but it appears more than one person wrote in the book. I will scan several of the pages, so you can see the handwriting for yourselves. I believe one of the people to write in the book was Jesse Greer, Jr. I have other documents written by him and can therefore compare handwriting.
The first scan is that of the first page. On the left, is the first page of several typewritten pages of notes by Bolard More in November 1968. Those pages are placed in the notebook separately and not part of the original notebook. The scan is mainly so you can see where two pages have been torn out of the book. The edges still show. The word "torn" (in blue) point to the top and bottom of the edges.
The second scan is page 14 showing some of the same information in the first scan only in a different handwriting.
The first pages to be transcribed are Balard More's notes. As for other notes, I'm not sure how many additional notations I'll be adding except for a few on the Brown and Rominger families. I descend from Jesse and Frances/Franky Brown Greer through their daughter Emeline Greer who married Nathaniel Rominger, so I have become familiar with them. My notations will be in brackets and italized or there will be a link to pictures and other information I hope you find interesting. If you have other pictures of anyone mentioned in the notebook or other items pertaining to these people, I will be happy to post and link them to the page.
If you would like to have your own copy of this notebook, it is available for $5.00 from:
Genealogical Society of Watauga County
P.O. Box 126 (Downtown)
Boone, NC 28607
I hope you find this helpful and interesting. Please come back often, I will be adding more documentation as time permits.
MaryFloy Katzman
Notebook of the Jesse Greer Family
Now, 1968, in the possession of Mrs. Ina Dena Greer (widow of W. Isaac Greer, 1874-1938) of Norwood Hollow, Rt. 1, Box 83, Banner Elk, Avery Co., N.C.
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(Photocopies at Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C., June 10, 1969, by Bolard More, 207 Ridge St., Black Mountain, N.C. - Page numbers are not on the original.)
Notes by Bolard More
Pages 1-7 are apparently written in one hand, which always uses the spelling "Greer", and pages 9-16 in another hand, which always uses the spelling "Grear". I believe that the first set of records were written by Jesse Greer, Sr. (1778-1869) or some other early member of the family, and that the second set were written or copies by Jesse Greer, Jr. (1806-92). The family records of Jesse Greer, Sr., and Polly Morris, pages 1 - 3, and of Franklin and Polly Brown, page 7, are repeated with slight differences on pages 14-15 and page 16 respectively. There are obviously additions by later hands on page 5 and on pages 17 - 21.
Mrs. Dena Greer states that the pages with the family of Benjamin Greer, Sr., had been cut out and taken away by someone about thirty years ago. However pages 9 and 10 are still here. It is obvious that pages have been cut out of the book. I think that there may have been another record of Benjamin Greer, Sr., family at the front of the book in the same hand which wrote the present pages 1-7. This record may have shown that John Wilcockson's wife was Sarah Boone and that Benjamin and Nancy Greer's first two children were: Rachel Greer born Mar. 31, 1768, and John Greer born Jan. 14, 1770, as has been claimed in the lists in the possession of several other people. The other names and dates are the same. The chasnges, for unknown reasons, or mistakes may have been made by Jesse Greer, Jr., in copying this earlier list on to pages 9 and 10.
Arthur's "A History os Watauga County" (1915) states on page 313: "Benjamin Greer married a second time, after the death of his first wife, Mrs. Sallie Atkinson Jones, widow of Thomas Jones, who died from a wound received in the Revolution. She reared children by both husbands. They moved to Greer River, KY, where he died in 1810. [Will probated in Greer Co., KY, 1816] There is a Wilkes Co. Marriage Bond, at the State Archives in Raleigh, dated April 26, 1791, for Benjamin Greer and Sarah Jones. The children of the second marriage are unknown, except that Arthur and John M. Greer of High Point, N.C., give a son Thomas Greer (no date of birth), who may have been a son of Benjamin by his second wife. [There is no mention of a son named Thomas in Benjamin's will, but names five (5) additional children not named in this notebook - children by Sarah.] Mrs. Mary Wilson Smith of Farmville, N.C., in her D.A.R. application in 1938 claims that the second wife of Benjamin Greer was a Cutbirth, a niece of his first wife. According to "Wilcoxson and Allied Families" by Mulfeck (1958) pages 18 - 24, Sarah Cutbirth, daughter of Benjamin Cutbirth and Elizabeth Willcockson was born ca. 1772 and nothing further is known of her, but at 19 she would not likely have been the widow Jones who married Benjamin Greer in 1791. Mrs. Smith also claims that Benjamin Greer (Sr.) was the son of Andrew Greer and Ruth Kincaid of Elizabethton, Tenn. I have been unable to find any evidence to this effect. [Estate papers for Andrew Greer filed in Carter Co., TN do not show a son named Benjamin nor grandchildren of a son named Benjamin]. On the contrary the statement on page 9 herein that Benjamin was the son of John Grear and Nancy appears to be correct. John Greer, Sr., of near Wilkesborn, left a will, probated in Wilkes Co., N.C. on June 5, 1782, which mentions his wife "Nanney" and children: John, Benja., Joshua, Jesse, Aquilla, Ann Mitchell, Rachel Michell, Sarah Hardgrave and Hanah Demoss.
B.M.
This ends the notes of Bolard More. On to the notebook itself.