This is a Message Board Post that is gatewayed to this mailing list. Classification: Query Message Board URL: http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/YKB.2ACE/144.1 Message Board Post: Edwin, I have lots of info on this family. I just pasted it below. Unfortunately, the formatting didn't carry over well, but I think it's mostly legible. I'm descended from Thomas's daughter Ursula Jane who m. Walker Wright. 1. Greer, TRev. Thomas Bailey Born: c. 1774, Franklin Co., VA Religion: Primitive Baptist minister. Married 1st: His age at his second marriage indicates there may have been an earlier marriage, but there is no record of it or any children before those of his first marriage. Married: 6 Mar 1816, Franklin Co., VA, to Ursula Webb, daughter of Theoderick & Sarah (Huff) Webb (formerly Fitzgerald) Died: Jan 1845, Monroe Co., MO. Buried in Baptist cemetery on old Bird S. Webb farm, Marion Township, Monroe Co., MO. Father: Moses Greer, Sr. b. 1744, Baltimore Co., MD Mother: Nancy Bailey b. 1748, Baltimore Co., MD Occupation: Primitive Baptist minister. Farmer. Spring 1840 went west with family to Monroe Co., MO. Webb, Ursula Born: c. 1796, Frederick or Amherst? Co., VA Religion: Primitive Baptist Died: After 1865 (reported living in Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA ‘after the Civil War.’ Father: Theodorick Webb (formerly Fitzgerald) b. 17 , VA Mother: Sarah Huff b. 17 , VA Occupation: Minister’s wife, farmwife? Children: * 1. Greer, Ursula Jane b. 24 Jun 1824, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. 16 Aug 1842, Monroe Co., MO, to Walker Wright, son of Larkin and Nancy Ann (Sebree) Wright. d. 21 Jun 1866, Monroe Co., MO. Age 15-19 on 1840 census. Obituary says died a few days short of her 42nd birthday in 1866, so must have been born in 1824, not 1826. 2. Greer, William Armistead Burwell b. c. 1825, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. To Laura Mason d. Age 15-19 on 1840 census. Became a physician and was living in New Cambria, MO, in 1877. Not sure if he returned to VA with mother after father’s death to receive education. 3. Greer, Moses Theodorick b. c. 1826-30, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. Nancy Calloway d. Age 10-14 on 1840 census. Returned to Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA, with mother after father’s death in 1845. Practiced medicine near Callaway. 4. Greer, Thomas Bailey b. 10 Feb 1827, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. 1st Celestia Taliaferro 2nd Kate, widow of Col. Fred Claiborne of SC d. Age 10-14 on 1840 census. Returned to Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA, with mother after father’s death in 1845. Became a physician and served on Virginia’s first Board of Medical Examiners. He was associated with Dr. Hunter McGuire in modernizing surgery. 5. Greer, John Henry b. c. 1831-34, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. 1st Maria Webb 2nd Elizabeth Mosby Wade d. Aged 5-9 on 1840 census. Returned to Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA, with mother after father’s death in 1845. Attended school at Patrick Court House. His roommate was J. E. B. Stuart, who became famous as a Confederate general. When quite young, John ran away from home, went to New York, met some noted actors and played minor parts with Edwin and John Wilkes Booth, who were his remote relatives. There also he met Henriette Sontag, the great singer, for whom a post office in Franklin County was named. Ole Bull, also playing in New York at the time, was attracted by the Virginia lad and became his life long friend. John served as assistant surgeon in the 37th Battalion Virginia Calvary. When off-duty, he would lighten the hours of the soldiers by playing his banjo and relating his New York experiences. Thomas Street Greer was his son by his first marriage. His home on Chestnut Creek was noted for its hospitality. 6. Greer, Walter Callaway b. c. 1835, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. Macon City, MO, to Elizabeth Craig. d. Aged 5-9 on 1840 census. Returned to Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA, with mother after father’s death in 1845? Served with the Union army during the Civil War. 7. Greer, Catherine Bailey b. c. 1842, Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA m. After 1865, to Zachary T. Wade d. Returned to Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., VA, with mother after father’s death in 1845. Was sent to Hollins Female Institute where she remained during the war. There is a legend that once when the 37th Battalion Virginia Cavalry passed Hollins with bands playing and colors flying, Kitty led a bevy of girls in dancing on the campus. Thomas & Ursula (Webb) Greer Thomas was born about 1774 in Franklin Co., VA, the son of Moses and Nancy (Bailey) Greer, both of whom were originally from Maryland. His father, Moses, served as an officer in the Revolutionary War during Thomas’s early childhood, reaching the rank of Captain. His father later served as the Franklin County representative in the Virginian Legislature for several terms, was a surveyor and farmer, and was one of the first three Justices of the County Court. In 1832, he was the presiding justice. Thomas and Ursula were married in Franklin Co., VA, in 1816. She was the daughter of Theodorick Fitzgerald Webb (son of Jacob Fitzgerald – he later adopted stepfather’s name as it was also his mother’s maiden name) and Sarah Huff, long-time residents of the county. Her father died while Ursula (the oldest of the family) was still young, fortunately leaving a sizable estate to provide for his widow and still minor children. Ursula’s father had been baptized into the Primitive Baptist church by Ursula’s future husband’s brother, Rev. Moses Greer, who also baptized Thomas. Ursula would also later be baptized into the church, probably by either Moses or by Thomas himself, who at some point either before or after his marriage received ordination. The Primitive Baptists were a strict, uncompromising sect, strict Calvinists, the old “hard shell” Baptists. They believed (and still do) in the total depravity of human nature, the ‘final perseverence’ of the saints, baptism by immersion, and the foot washing ritual. They broke away from the main body of Baptists over the issue of missionary societies, Sunday schools, and the use of instrumental music in church – among other things. The Primitives opposed all of these. They also discouraged the idea of an educated clergy, believing that an ignorant man was more likely to be imbued with ! the true faith than a learned one. The anti-missionary movement arose suddenly about 1820 in at least nine different Christian denominations, although it was mainly attributed to the frontier Baptists. It arose as a reaction against a growing tendency in the east of the larger denominations to establish central seminaries, missionary societies, and Sunday school curriculums and to send out ‘missionaries’ to win converts from other denominations. The smaller sects feared that they would be overwhelmed and even predicted the re-establishment of an ‘orthodox’ Christianity and loss of the constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion. The minorities reacted by withdrawing from interdenominational associations, the Primitives becoming perhaps the most isolated. They even managed to estrange themselves from other Baptist by the severity of their doctrine. Regular ‘missionary’ Baptists were willing to concede the benefit of some education for the clergy and saw! nothing wrong with trying to win converts from other denominations. Like his father (and as one of his sons would do after him), Thomas was also elected at least once to represent the county in the Virginian General Assembly. 1820 census, Franklin Co., VA, pg 145 Thomas B. Greer one male age 26-44 Thomas one female age 16-25 Ursula Slaves (14 total) one male age over 45 one male age 26-44 one female age 26-44 one male age 14-25 three females age 14-25 four males age under 14 1830 census, Franklin Co., VA Thomas B. Greer one male age 40-49 Thomas one female age 30-39 Ursula one male age 5-9 Ursula Jane one female age 5-9 William & Moses two males age under 5 Thomas Jr. Slaves (15 total) one male age 55-99 one male age 39-54 one age 24-35 one female age 24-35 three males age 10-23 two females age 10-23 two males age under 10 four females age under 10 Free blacks in house one male age 24-35 Thomas and Ursula’s family first six children were all born in Virginia. By the late 1830’s, due to economic conditions in the state, many of their friends and family were beginning to move west, especially to Missouri. A large wagon train of them set off to settle in Monroe Co., MO, in 1838. Thomas and Ursula eventually decided to follow the tide, and made the trek west to the same place in the spring of 1840. The trail they took was probably identical to that of the 1838 wagon train with which Thomas’ nephew Samuel Greer and his family traveled, a description of which is found in Marshall Wingfield’s 1964, “Pioneer Families of Franklin Co., VA”: ‘Samuel W. Greer and his family left Franklin County September 11, 1838, in company with Webbs, Pollards and others numbering nearly a hundred, including several slaves. They drove over the Alleghany Mountains, through Tennessee and Kentucky, crossed the Ohio River at Parker’s Ferry into Gallatin County, Illinois, and crossed the Mississippi River at Alton. They reached Monroe Co., Missouri, on the thirty-first day of October, 1838, making the whole trip in wagons. ‘ Samuel’s sister, Catherine (Kitty) married Robert J. Webb. Samuel’s sister, Sarah, married a William Wright. Their son, Tazewell Wright, married his cousin Sarafina Greer, daughter of Samuel. She was living with her parents in 1850, but left for CA with her husband in 1852. Where were William & Sarah Wright in 1850 with son Tazewell? Not in Monroe Co in 1850. 1840 census, Monroe Co., MO, Jackson Township, pg 137 [listed next door to a L.W. Greer, age 40-50] T. B. Greer one male age 50-59 Thomas B. one female age 40-50 Ursula one male age 15-19 Ursula Jane one female age 15-19 William two males age 10-14 Moses & Thomas two males age 5-9 John & Walter Thomas and Ursula settled down southwest of the Monroe county seat of Paris in Jackson township among numerous family and friends from Virginia. In Mar 1841, Thomas gave security for Ursula’s brother, Bird S. Webb, when he became guardian their sister ???’s orphan children when their father, Robert M. Beard died. About 1842, Thomas’s and Ursula’s seventh and last child, a girl they named Catherine, was born. Thomas lived less than five years in his new home, working to build up his new congregation (almost certainly still without a church building) and seeing his eldest daughter married to the son of a fellow Baptist Virginian ex-patriate, before dying in January of 1845. He was buried in the Baptist cemetery on the farm of Ursula’s brother, Bird S. Webb. [Years later, when his daughter Ursula Jane Wright, wife of Walker Wright, died and was laid to rest beside him, her obituary would refer to him as ‘her dear old father.’] Ursula, unhappy in the unpolished frontier community and wanting to obtain a better education for her children still at home, returned to Virginia with the younger children. She may have traveled that same year with her nephew???, Robert J. Webb, and his family when they returned to Virginia in December 1845. 1850 census, Franklin Co., VA age occupation real estate born Ursula Greer??? Ursula in the Civil War Ursula lived in Rocky Mount, VA, during the war. What happened there? Her son Walter, back in Missouri, served in the Union army; her son John, whom she had brought with her back to Virginia, served as a surgeon in the Confederate army – truly a case of brothers serving on opposite sides of the war. 1860 census, Franklin Co., VA?? Ursula Greer???? 1870 census, Franklin Co., VA?? Ursula Greer???? Ursula’s decision to return to Virginia turned out to be a fortunate one for her children. Thomas’ namesake, Thomas Bailey Greer, Jr., would later serve as a representative in the Virginia Legislature. Ursula died in Rocky Mount, Franklin Co., MO, sometime after the Civil War. Thomas’s burial place in indicated in the obituary of his daughter, Jane Wright, who was left behind in Missouri when Ursula took the family back to Virginia: Ursula Jane Greer Wright’s obituary – dated 21 Jun 1866 Departed this life, at her residence in Monroe county, Mo, Mrs. Jane W. Wright, wife of Walker Wright, three days before she completed her 42nd year. She was born in Franklin county, Va, June 24th, 1824, and moved to Missouri with her father, Rev. Thos. B. Greer, in the spring of 1840 – married August 8th, 1842. She was for 23 years the best of wives, and long the noblest of mothers. I cannot describe her devotion to her family, especially to her husband. She leaves to mourn her departure a devoted husband, six sons and five daughters, (one an infant but a few days old,) and a very large circle of relatives, warm friends and neighbors. But we mourn not as those who mourn without hope, for she died trusting in the Lord. Such considerations should be a solace to the beloved friends she has left behind. May God in her mercy grant comfort to all the afflicted, and may the influence of her death be sanctified to the spiritual good of her bereaved husband and child! ren, that they may seek to become christians and their last moments be like her’s – calm and peaceful. Her remains were placed by the side of her dear old father’s, in the Baptist grave yard on the farm of Bird S. Webb. “Tis finish’d! the conflict is past, The heaven-born spirit is fled! Her wish is accomplished at last, And now she’s entomb’d with the dead. The days of affliction are o’er, The days and nights of distress; We see her in anguish no more, She’s gained her happy release. A FRIEND