Mary (Wheatley) Hamilton (1833 - 1911)

Ancestors

Wife of Joseph James Hamilton — married 30 Sep 1850 in Russell, Virginia, United States

Descendants

Died 1911 at about age 78 in Pound, Wise, Virginia, United States

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Biography

Mary was born in 1833. She passed away in 1911.

James Hamilton married in Russell County, Virginia, September 30, 1850 to Mary C. Wheatley, born Aug. 23, 1833, and died May 20, 1911, and buried in the Bolling Cemetery at Flat Gap, Wise County, Virginia. She was the daughter of John "Jackie" and Lucy Dean Wheatley. Witnesses to their marriage was Hezekiah Vanderpool and Robert S. Hamilton, her brother-in-law and her husband's brother. (Robert married Mary's sister Melissa)

The father of Mary Wheatley Hamilton had come from Scott County, Virginia, in teh late 1830s or early 1840s and settled on Grassy Creek of the Rocky Fork of Guest River north of Wise, VA. Soon after his settlement here he built a grist mill, the first in that sparsely settled community. The mill was washed away in a flood in 1862 according to a letter written by Robert S Hamilton, during his service in the Confederate Army in the command of General Humphrey Marshall, in a letter written to his wife, Melissa Wheatley Hamilton, who was a sister to Mary C. Wheatley, wife of James Hamilton. In the letter dated Feb. 23, 1862, he writes "We had a powerful "fresh" (flood) here and it washed off your Pap's mill, Roberson Mill (Pound, VA) Dan Dotson's mill (Bold Camp) and all the bridges."

After their marriage James and Mary Hamilton probably settled on the farm of her father on Rocky Fork which they later owned, after her father moved away. After the death of James Hamilton, his wife lived on for sometime on Rocky Fork, finally trading the place to Felix Creech for another farm on Killen Branch on Indian Creek near the Pound, Virginia, Wise County, Virginia. Later she moved to Flat Gap and lived on the farm of her son, James Hamilton, until her death.

Sources

• Information taken from page 156 and 157 of the book by Emory L Hamilton entitled "One Hamilton Clan--The Descendants of Schuyler Hamilton"