Holly Grove Baptist Church, pictured around 1913 is located in Bertie County about seven miles south of Powellsville on the east side of US Highway 13. It was organized in 1804 as Outlaw’s Chapel and was named for Ralph Outlaw. During the early 1820s the name was changed to Holly Grove. /
While I have been able to trace many of my ancestral lines back 10 or more generations, I have “hit a brick wall,” as genealogists say, with my Williams line at the sixth generation.
After searching off and on for several years, I still have not been able to identify the parents of my fourth great-grandfather, George Sidney “Brother George” Williams (1797–1852) of Bertie County, North Carolina.
At this point, my direct Williams line runs this way:
George S. “Brother George” Williams (1797–1852) was the father of George Solomon “Sol” Williams (1820–1864), who was the father of George D. Williams (about 1846–1919). George D. Williams was the father of William Lafayette “Will” Williams (1888–1962), who was the father of Jesse Lloyd “Bo” Williams (1910–2008), who was the father of Robert Lafayette “Bob” Williams (1940-present), my father.
What I do know is that Brother George was born in 1797, very likely in Bertie County. He married Nancy F. Williams (about 1795–after 1852), whose maiden name may have been Hampton, although I have not yet been able to prove that. By the late 1820s, George appears in the minutes of Holly Grove Baptist Church in Bertie County as “Brother George Williams.”
Marker above the entrance to the older building of Zion Baptist Church
Many families from Bertie County began moving west to Haywood County, Tennessee, in the early 1830s. One of the first things they did after arriving was organize Zion Baptist Church. In November 1836, Zion chose Brother George as its pastor and asked him to come from North Carolina to serve the congregation. By the time of the 1850 U.S. census, George was living in Madison County, Tennessee, near the Haywood County line. His occupation was listed as Baptist minister.
Older portion of Zion Baptist Church
For years, I knew George and Nancy had at least two children: my third great-grandfather, George Solomon “Sol” Williams, and Sol’s younger sister, Harriett A. Williams Outlaw (1833–1878). More recent research, however, turned up another child: Mariah Williams Montgomery (birth year unknown–before 1850).
Mariah married Hugh A. Montgomery (1810–1868) on Dec. 7, 1843, in Madison County. They had a son, James Alexander Montgomery (about 1845–1859), and the Montgomery family lived near George and Nancy. Mariah died young, before the 1850 census, but her son later appears in the settlement of George Williams’ estate. That matters because George’s property and the proceeds from the sale of enslaved people were divided among his widow, Nancy, his son, Solomon, and his grandson, James Alexander Montgomery.
That discovery gives me one more branch to follow as I continue looking for George’s parents.
For the last few weeks, I have been looking more closely at the life of Brother George’s sister Harriett to see whether it might help me uncover additional information about my Williams ancestors. Harriett was born in 1833 in North Carolina, likely not long before her family left Bertie County for West Tennessee. She was still living with her parents in 1850, when the family appeared in Madison County beside the household of Sol Williams and his wife, Catherion Arthur Nowell Williams (1828–1895).
Harriett later became an “Outlaw,” but not in a bad way.
She married Andrew Jackson “Jack” Outlaw (1825–1903) in Haywood County in late December 1859. One record gives the date as Dec. 28, while the Outlaw family Bible gives it as Dec. 29. Either way, Harriett would have been about 26 when she married.
Jack Outlaw had his own deep ties to the Bertie County migration. He was born March 22, 1825, in Bertie County to George W. Outlaw (1803–1861) and Luday Perry Outlaw (1800–1840). His family left North Carolina in the fall of 1831 and arrived in Madison County in the spring of 1832. Like the Williams family, the Outlaws became closely connected to Zion Baptist Church and the surrounding community.
As I wrote earlier, Holly Grove was organized in 1804 as Outlaw’s Chapel and was named for Ralph Outlaw, a member of the prominent Outlaw family of Bertie County. Jack was closely related to the same family line. Jack’s father, George W. Outlaw, was the son of Jacob Outlaw and Winifred Wilson Outlaw. Jacob was a son of John Outlaw, who was a son of the elder Ralph Outlaw, born about 1687 in Norfolk County, Virginia, and later of Chowan County, North Carolina. That makes Jack part of the same Outlaw family whose name was attached to the early church that later became Holly Grove.
Jack joined Zion Church in Haywood County by letter in July 1851 and later served as church clerk for many years. He also served as justice of the peace for Haywood County’s 5th District.
Jack’s story also includes a real legal twist. Before his parents married, a bill went before the North Carolina General Assembly to change the name of Andrew Jackson Perry and legitimize him as the son of George W. Outlaw.
From that point forward, young Jack was known as Andrew Jackson Outlaw.
Jack and Harriett had five children, though only two lived to adulthood.
Their children were William Price Outlaw (1862–1917), Solomon Andrew Jackson Outlaw (1864–1864), George Arthur Outlaw (1865–1871), Luday Elizabeth Outlaw White (1867–1917) and Minnie Outlaw (1869–1871).
Solomon died Aug. 24, 1864, when he was just a little more than 2 months old. George Arthur died March 10, 1871, at age 5. His 2-year-old sister, Minnie, died the next day.
William Price Outlaw grew up, married Leanna Catherine Mann Outlaw (1875–1917) and farmed his parents’ land. He also served as public school director for Haywood County’s 5th District and helped lead efforts to build a school in the Allen community.
Luday Elizabeth Outlaw White also lived to adulthood. She married W. Harrell White in 1900 and died Feb. 23, 1917, just days after her brother William and his wife died during the same winter.
Harriett died Feb. 6, 1878, at about age 45. Jack lived another 25 years and died Nov. 12, 1903. I do not yet know for certain where either of them is buried.
The Outlaw family continued farming in Haywood County for generations. The family farm northeast of Brownsville was later recognized as a Tennessee Century Farm, giving Harriett’s story a living connection to the land first worked by her family before the Civil War.
So far, Harriett has not led me through the brick wall to George’s parents. But she has helped me see the Williams family more clearly.
Through Harriett, I can better understand how closely connected these Bertie County families were: the Williamses, Outlaws, Cobbs, Nowells, Watridges, Castellaws and others who traveled west, settled near one another, worshipped together, married into one another’s families and helped build the early communities of Haywood and Madison counties.
For now, the parents of George S. “Brother George” Williams remain unknown. But each new record adds another clue, and in genealogy, one overlooked sibling, one neighbor or one name in a probate file can sometimes be the piece that finally brings down the wall.
For more of my genealogy research, visit rscottwilliams.info.
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