ENPages
WILSON AND HAIRSTON #4134 PAPERS.
Biographical Sketch (underlined) [A careful examination of the biographical sketch and the genealogical chart will help the reader follow the repitition of names through the generations of Wilsons and Hairstons.]
Possibly as early as 1730, the first Hairston came to America. This was [underlined Peter Hairston] a Scottish immigrant, who may have first lived in Pennsylvania and then in Albemarle County, Virginia. He had four sons of which one was the progenitor of the Hairstons represented in these papers. This son [underlined; Rober Hairston] (d.1783), lived in that part of Pittsylvania county, Virginia, that became Henry county in 1777 where he built Marrowbone Plantation. He served as a captain of the Pittsylvania county militia from 1767 to 1770, as a justice of the peace in Pittsyvlania county, and as a sheriff of Henry county from 1777 to 1783. Robert Hairston and his wife, Ruth Stovall (d.1808) had three sons, George (1750-1827), Peter (1752-1832) and Samuel (b.1755), and six daughters.
The first Wilson of the branch represented in these papers, [underlined Peter Wilson], immigrated from Scotland to America possibly around 1720. In the 1740s, he made his home along the Dan River in Virginia, located first in Halifax county, Virginia and later in Pittsyvlania county, Virginia where he bult Wilson's Ferry. Peter Wilson and his wife Alcey had three sons, John (1740-1820), Peter and William and four daughters, Nancy, Isabella, Margaret and Agnes (d. 1812).
This last child Agnes, married [underlined Peter Perkins] (1739-1813), the son of Nicholas Perkins and Bethenia Harden. Nicholas settled on the Dan River in 1755 and bequeathed to his son, Peter, the land on which Peter built Berry Hill Plantation near Danville, Virginia. Also, from 1783 to 1788, Peter and his brother Constantine Perkins owned the Troublesom Creek Ironworks in Rockingham county, North Carolina. Later, about 1795, Peter Perkins moved to Stokes county, North Carolina and, around 1805 or 1806, to Tennesse.. During the Revolutionary War, he served as a captain and later as a colonel of the Pittsyvlania militia; he also served in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1777 to 1778. Peter Perkins and his wife, Agnes Wilson, had one child, Alcey (1766-1814), who married the second son of Robert Hairston (d. 1783) and Ruth Stovall (d.1808)
The brother of Agnes (Wilson) Perkins and a son of Peter and Alcey Wilson [underlined John Wilson] (1740-1820), married Mary Lumpkin in 1767 and lived at Dan's Hill near Wilson's Ferry in Pittsylvania county, Virginia. He became a wealthy landowner and opened a general merchandise store at his ferry. He and one of his eleven children, Peter (1770-1813), had a partnership in another general merchandise store in Rockingham county, North Carolina. John Wilson served as county lieutenant of the Pittsylvania militia during the Revolutionary War; served in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1778 and 1782; and was a member of the Constitution Convention when the U.S. Constitution was adopted. He also served as a sheriff and a county commissioner for Pittsyvlania county and as a trustee for the development of the town of Danville in Pittsylvania county.
Dec 1978 by M.V. Jones
WILSON AND HAIRSTON #4134 PAPERS.
[underlined Biographical Sketch] (Continued): [underlined Peter Hairston] (1752-1832) was a contemporary of John Wilson. He married Alcey Perkins (1766-1814), daughter of Peter Perkins (1739-1813) and Agnes Wilson (d.1812); they had one child, Ruth Stovall (1783-1869), who married Peter Wilson, the son of John Wilson. Peter Hairston lived his early life in that part of Pittsylvania county, Virginia, that became Henry county in 1777. In Henry county, he served as a deputy sheriff intermittently between 1781 and 1784(?) and as captain of an infantry company under General Nathaniel Greene. During the Revolutionary War, Peter Hairston served in Virginia and in North and South Carolina in such notable battles as Guilford Court House (15 March 1781) and Yorktown (October 1781). While still a resident of Henry county, he began operating a general merchandise store and a blacksmithing shop at Sauratown in Stokes county, North Carolina. After moving permanently to Stokes county around 1786, he continued to operated this store as well as owning numerous plantations in North Carolina and Virginia including Royal Oak, Sauratown, and Coolleemee. Peter Hairston also represented Stokes county in the North Carolina Assembly for four terms.
[underlined Peter Wilson] (1770-1813), son of John Wilson and Mary Lumpkin, married a daughter of Peter Hairston and Alcey Perkins, [underlined Ruth Stovall-Hairston] (1783-1869). He owned many plantations including Berry Hill (built by Peter Perkins), Brierfield, and Goose Pond, all in Pittsyvlania county. Virginia. Wilson also in partnership with his father ran a general merchandise store in Rockingham county, North Carolina. After marrying Ruth Stovall Hairston in 1800, he moved to Berry Hill Plantation but continued to own the Rockingham store. From 1801-1803, Thomas Bouldin and Company probably managed the store for Peter Wilson. He also served as the head of the Second Battalion of the 42nd Regiment of hte Pittsylvania County Militia and as a justice of the peace.
After Peter Wilson died in 1813, Ruth Stoval (Hairston) Wilson (1783-1869) married [underlined Robert Hairston] (1783-1852). He was the son of George Hairston (1750-1827) and Elizabeth (Perkins) Letcher (1759-1818). His father was a colonel in the Revolutionary War and an acting Brigadier-General in the War of 1812; served in the Virginia legislature in 1778; and lived in Henry county, Virginia, where he built Marrowbone Plantation. Robert Hairston owned Leatherwood Plantation in Henry county, and after marrying Ruth Stovall (Hairston) Wilson, he managed her plantations including Berry Hill in Pittsyvlania county. Around 1837, he moved to Mississippi to manage the following plantations that he owned: Bend, Black Flat, Choctaw Springs, Moore's Bluff, Nashville Place, and Pepper plantations. His wife was left to manage her properties. At his death, a controversy surrounded his last will which left all his property to a slave child.
[underlined Samuel Hairston] (1788-1875) was a brother of Robert Hairston and lived at Oak Hill Plantation in Pittsylvania county, Virginia. He married Agnes
Dec. 1978 by M.V. Jones
WILSON AND HAIRSTON #4134 PAPERS [underlined Biographical Sketch] (Continued): John Peters Wilson (1801-1880), the daughter of Peter Wilson and Ruth Stovall (Hairston) Wilson Hairston, and they had seven children. In 1854 several newspaper articles described Samuel Hairston as the wealthiest man in Virginia and possibly in the country. His wealth was estimated at between three and five million dollars, including ownership of around 1700 slaves on plantations in Henry and Patrick counties, Virginia, and Stokes county, North Carolina. There are also references in these articles to the comparable wealth of his relatives.
The eldest son of Samuel Hairston [underlined Peter Wilson Hairston] (1819-1886), grew up in Pittsylvania countym, Virginia but lived his adult life first in Davie county, North Carolina, and later in Baltimore, Maryland. He graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1837 and attended the University of Virginia law school from 1837 to 1839. After these years, he helped in the management of his father and Ruth Stovall (Hairston) Wilson Hairston's plantations in Virginia and North Carolina. In 1849, he married Columbia Stuart (1830-1857), sister of General J.E.B. Stuart (in 1849) and settled at Cooleemee Plantation in Davie county, North Carolina. His great grand-father, Peter Hairston (1752-1832), had willed it to him. By 1860, he expanded the acreage at Cooleemee to twice its original size and possibly owned around 300 slaves. After the death of Columbia Stuart in 1857, he married Fanny Caldwell, the daughter of Judge David F. Caldwell of Rowan county, North Carolina. During the Civil War, Peter W. Hairston served as a volunteer aid for General J.E.B. Stuart and General Jubal A. Early, and after the war, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland to become a merchant. His overseers continued the management of Cooleemee Plantation until his death.
One sister of Peter W. Hairston, Alcie (1830-1914), married Samuel Harden Hairston (1822-1870) and had three children. One of these children, Ruth (1863-1936), married [underlined Alfred Varley Sims] (1864-1944). He was the son of Alfred W. and Adelaide Sims of Pennsyvlania and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in civil engineering. After finishing college, A.V. Sims worked for various railroad companies including: the Atlantic and Danville Railway Company; the Virginia and Kentucky Railroad Company; the Utah, Nevada and California Company; and the Utah and Los Angeles Air Line Railway Company. From 1895 to 1904, he taught engineering at Iowa State University, Iowa City, Iowa. From 1905 to 1908, he was employed by the Knickerbocker Trust Company of New York as general manager and chief engineer of the Cuba Eastern Railroad Company and lived in Guantanamo, Cuba. He also worked with the numerous subsidiary companies of the Knickerbocker Trust Company including; the Cuba Hardwood Company, the Cuba Exploration Company, the Northeastern Cuba Railroad Company, the Guantanamo City Land and Development Company, the La Maya Valley Land and Improvement Company, the Confluente Sugar Company, and the Havana Post Publishing Company. He left this position in 1908 because of his alleged mismanagement of the company and returned to Berry Hill Farm to assume more direct management of it than possible before. From late 1908 to 1917, A.V. Sims remained in Virginia,
Dec. 1978 by M.V. Jones
WILSON AND HAIRSTON PAPERS #4134 Biographical Sketch: (underlined) (Continued): except in 1914 when he lived in England. He assisted Henry J. Boekelman of New York in a Cuba business venture while in England. From 1917 Sims workd in New york City as an independent civil engineer. [The biographical and genealogical information given above and in the accompanying family chart is from the following sources: Maud Carter Clement, The History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia (underlined) (Lynchburg, Virginia: J. P. Bell Company, 1929) and Elizabeth Seawell Hairston, The Hairstons and Pens and Their Relations (underlined) (Roanoke, Virginia: Walters Printing and Manufacturing Company, 1939) in addition to the Wilson and Hairston Papers. [An annotated family chart prepared by the Southern historical Collection staff is filed with oversized papers.]
Dec., 1978 by M. V. Jones
WILSON AND HAIRSTON PAPERS. #4134 Scope and Content: (underlined) These papers, ca. 15,300 items, consist primarily of business correspondence and financial and legal papers of six generations of Wilson and Hairston families, wealthy planters and merchants of Henry and Pittsylvania counties, North Carolina. Throughout all the papers business correspondence predominates, and there are also numerous financial and legal papers. There is not a consecutive run of informative personal letters except between 1881 nd 1928. General infromation on the activities of the Wilson and Hairstons is scattered, fragmentary, and related chiefly to business affairs. There are also 163 volumes including farm and marchandising accounts, tax lists, and memo books of various types. A chronological analysis of the papers and volume list follows.
Dec., 1978 by M. V. Jones