"Seaforth Sod", Palo Alto Road,
Mr. Joshua Paul Donahue,
Dear Paul and James,
I shall just write both of you while I am at it. I regret that I did not two weeks ago come on over from
Jacksonville, Texas, where I had visited the Family of Buford Willis of that town. However I left there
and went to Mexia to see Medea Willis and on up to Hillsboro to see some Turners of our family of
Willises. In February I visited a short time some of Florence Donahue's Family at Clifton, Texas, an Alfie
Family there.
I want you and James to make a chart for me, it may take you some time, it has to be nothing more than a
chart or list, but has quite a lot of information on it. I have been attempting to make such a list of the
Families of Joshua Willis, your and my greatgrandfather who married Louisa Haney Porter back in Wilkes
County, Georgia, at the old town of Washington, the oldest family in North America named after George
Washington, by our own families who lived there and were the outstanding families there before 1800. The
Public Library there today is called "The Mary Willis Memorial Library", and the finest homes there today
are the old buildings our families built around 1800, and the First Baptist Church is built above the Grave
and around the Tombstone of Nancy Mills, the sister of Polly (Mary) Mills wife of Captain Thomas Porter
whose daughter Louisa Haney Porter married Joshua Willis. This Nancy Mills married Jesse Mercer and at her
death her estate and money went to him, he founded with it, the great Baptist University of Mercer Macon,
Nancy Mills's estate was valued at over four hundred thousand dollars.
In this list of names you give me, I want you if you all have Uncle Perry's or Aunta Berta's old Family
Bible, to give a list of the sons and daughters of Uncle Perry and Aunt Berta. Example: Waid Scott
Willis, Sr., born at Kingston, Hunt County, Texas, 12th. November 1891, married 21st. April 1922 at Miami,
Roberts County, Texas, Oliver Coffee, born October 9th. 1900, at Miami, Roberts County, Texas. And if
there is a death give its full date and the place also. In every name that you can. I gave my own vital
statistics, for I wanted you to see that, everything in these data are exact. There are no initials, the
Sr. shows that I had one time a Junior, but not now, and the place, that is the nearest town, the County,
and the State, are all given. One hundred years from now, the town may not exist and the County may be
whittled down into several, but the State may still be the same. In other words, more briefly, for the
birth, marriage, and death, give the exact dates, places, and complete names.
I have gotten most of Joshua Willises Tree Charted completely, I have not finished with Aunt Roberta Teresa
Willis Donahue's Family yet. It is not due at all to any failure to interest but simply to time. This is
a big undertaking, and I try to complete what I start, before I add any more. The Buford Willis Family at
Jacksonville, is a Family of Benjamin Franklin Willis who was a first cousin of our Joshua Willis.
Benjamin Franklin Willis and Joshua Willis married sisters, two daughters of Captain Thomas Porter of
Washington, Wilkes County, Georgia. Benjamin Franklin Willis married Martha Hansford Porter, who was named
Hansford after Thomas Porter's mother's Family of Hansfords, an old and ancient Family of the Southern Neck
Tidewater Virginia Families at Williamsburg, in York County, Virginia. Their old Home still stands and is
a National Museum today, it is called "Halfway House" or "Halfway Plantation" between Williamsburg the old
Capital of Virginia and Yorktown where Cornwallis surrendered.
Joshua Willis married Louisa Haney (Haynie) Porter a sister of Martha Hansford Porter. Louisa Haynie
Porter was named after the family of the wife of Thomas Porter. She was Polly (Mary) Mills the sister of
Nancy Mills; and Nancy Mills and Polly (Mary) Mills's mother was Lucy Haynie, an old Northern Neck
Tidewater Virginia Family of Northumberland county, Virginia.
The father of Joshua Paul Willis, Sr. was Joshua Willis a Lieutenant in the War of 1812, and Wauneta Martha
Willis who married Milton Lee Myrick, and who lives in Wolfe City, Texas entered the United States
Daughters of the War of 1812 on Lieutenant Joshua Willis who married Louisa Haney Porter and had just three
children, Anne Elizabeth Willis, Cincinnatti C. Willis, and Joshua Paul Willis, Sr., I have not been able
to find out what the "C." in Cincinnatti C. Willises name stands for. I believe it is Carter or Charles,
but I am not sure. Sidney Bruce Willis who lives at Chicago and has charted this Branch of the
Cincinnatti, and he does not know what the "C" stands for either. Aunt Nat was named William Cincinnatti
Charlotte Willis. She died August 5th. 1911 at Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and is buried there. Papa said
she was named after her two Uncles, and her father was Joshua Paul Willis, Sr., and his brother was
Cincinnati C. Willis, and Elizabeth Anne Willis married William Johnson at Cahaba, Alabama, the old and
first Capital of Alabama Territory. So if William Cincinnatti Charlotte Willis was named after her Uncles,
she was named William after William Johnson, and Cincinnatti after Cincinnatti after Cincinnatti C. Willis,
so I suppose his Initial C must have been Charles, and Charlotte was a feminine form for Charles, that is
all I know about it.
Joshua Willis was a Lieutenant in the War of 1812 from Wilkes County, Georgia, and like Joshua Paul Willis,
Sr., has this Order based on his Services as a Soldier in that War of 1812. The Pins for the United
Daughters of the Confederacy is a tiny Confederate Flag, in Gold and enamels of the proper colors with the
years that that Nation so proudly and desperately tried to make that Flag live forever, 1861-1865. It was
a mighty short span of life for a Nation made up of the grandest group of Families that ever came to North
America. They had the whole world against them however. Over a million slop bucket sauer krauts fought in
the Union Army in the Civil War, and fifty two Generals, everyone of whom was born in Germany. The pin for
the War of 1812, a War known for its disgraceful defeats on the land except in the South at New Orleans,
and known for its wonderful victories on the High Seas, is a tiny blue star with a tinier gold anchor and
cable attached to the single star.
Then the father of Joshua Willis was Lewis Willis whose wife was Edna T., but we do not know her Family
Name. They had three daughters, Frances Willis, Jane George Willis, and Elizabeth Anne Sarah Willis. They
had four sons, Paul Tighlman Willis, John Washington Willis, Joshua Willis, Lewis Willis, Jr. Wauneta
Martha Willis Myrick of Wolfe City, Hunt County, Texas joined the Daughters of the American Revolution on
the Military Services of Lieutenant Lewis Willis who was an officer in the Virginia Militia back in Orange
County, Virginia, a few miles from Fredericksburg, Virginia, where a great many Willises lived and who are
mighty hard to disentangle now due to two centuries slipping by without anyone attempting to chrat them,
and due to the large families, and the use of the very same names for all the children. The Pin for the
Daughters of The American Revolution is a spinning wheel with a skein of yarn or cotton or silk, and
thirteen spokes to the wheel with a star at the end of each spoke, in Blue, and Gold, and Platinum. I
thought you all would like to know this about the Willis side of the Family. The memberships this side of
Joshua Paul Willis, Sr., you could not utilize, for Waid Scott Willis, Jr. was in the Navy in the Last
World War, and I was in the Army in the First World War, and these are not your direct antecedants. But
beginning with Joshua Paul Willis, Sr., on back you can enter those Military Orders, namely The United
Daughters of the Confederacy on Joshua Willis, and The Daughters of The American Revolutionary War on Lewis
Willis.
Other Orders can be entered but I have not cared to do anything about the others, because there are too
many of them, but Daughters of Colonial Wars, and Early Indian Wars, and Founders and Patriots, can all be
entered if one cares to. The Haynies were Captains of Horse in the Susquehannah Indian Wars, and The
Hansfords fought in Bacon's Rebellion in 1675.
...mond County, Northern Neck, Tidewater Virginia Families. To John Willis, Sr., but we do not know his
wife's name there, and his son William Willis married a girl named Sarah whose Family name we do not know
either. Their son John Willis who left his Will in Orange County, Virginia, in 1762, married Elizabeth
Plunkett an Irish Family, and we believe we are right in claiming that Lewis Willis of Orange County to
Wilkes County Georgia in 1786 was a son of this John Willis and Elizabeth Plunkett. We also believe James
Willis who also lived at Washington, was the brother of Lewis Willis our line. James Willis, Sr., married
twice, his last wife was named Judith, and we do not know her family name. After James Willis, Sr., died,
Judith (?) Willis married Jacob Bull and had three little Bulls, Paul.
The Plunkett family I have made no attempt to check back on. Joshua Paul Willis, Sr., married at Cahaba,
Alabama, in Dallas County, Martha Anne Rolen daughter of Zachariah Rolen and his wife Lydia Jones, and the
work on this line was done by a Mrs. Sarah Sullivan Irvin, of Ware Shoals, South Carolina. I had no luck
tracing the Jones Family but I am sure it has powerful connections as almost all the Jones Families have.
Never undersell the Joneses. Sam Houston's grandmother was a Jones Family back in Franklin County,
Virginia, George Washington's grandmother was Frances Jones of Fredericksburg, Virginia, and the
grandmother of Oliver Cromwell was a Jones Family almost all of whom came to the South. They are
mighty hard to trace. There are so many, they are like Brown and Smith.
Zachariah Rolen wsa the son of Ezekiel Rolen and Rebecca Sullivan, and Ezekiel the son of Captain Zachariah
Rolen and his wife Sarah Arnold, we have tried to get a D.A.R. on him, but have failed so far, we merely
need a few more dates, but I fear we will never locate them, the Lineage is all right. Captain Zachariah
Rolen of the Sloop "Peggy" was a Sailor in the Revolutionary War. Rebecca Sullivan was a daughter of John
Sullivan, Sr., and again we have a D.A.R. paper in on him awaiting acceptance but we need dates. Patti
did put through a membership here on the Sullivan Family. and it was based on Charlemagne and Roland, his
first Cousin. The Society is called Society of Americans of Royal Descent, and The Colonial Order of the
Crown. Both went through without a particle of trouble for many others had gone back along the same lines
and had been accepted, centuries ago. James Sullivan, Sr., married Metoaka Bolling a granddaughter of Dr.
Archibald Blair of Williamsburg, Virginia, whose brother James Blair was President of Williams and Mary's
College for almost fifty years. Through this Bolling Branch, we are supposed to descend from Pocahontas
and John Rolfe. Mrs. Irwin's grandfather compiled the Sullivan Family about seventy five years ago, a Book
which outlined this descent, and it does not seem to have met with denial or refusal to have its proof
accepted. At least not that I know or have ever heard about. The Sullivan is one of the Three oldest
Families of Ireland, and with O'Neill is the top ranking.
Through the Hansfords and Charles Hansford who married Elizabeth (Folliott) Moody, a widow, she was a
daughter of Reverend Edward Folliott a graduate of Magdalene College, Oxford University, England, we can
also return back into all the Royal Lineages charted back in Great Britain.
The Porter Family is also a well charted one and has several Books of our Families and back at Rome,
Georgia, Mrs. Anne W. Willis, Third Avenue Hotel compiled a few years ago a Book on our own Willises called
"A Family History of Willis". She descends through, or at least her children through James Willis, Jr.,
(Brother of Benjamin Franklin Willis) and Jane George Willis, (sister of our Joshua Willis). James and
Jane were First Cousins. Her son, General Tim Willis graduated at West Point in 1936 and lost an eye in
the last War, and is called "Old one eyed Tim". Papa had just one eye too, so this does not make me love
Tim any less but a lot more instead.
This gives a pretty good idea about our Family as it is charted today. I am sorry I have waited so long to
write you all, but I am getting close to the end of the trail now, and do not expect to put much more money
nor time nor work into these charts. "The Ligon Family" a book of a Thousand pages, by William D. Ligon,
Jr., 17 East 70th Street, New York City 21, New York State, has all the data pertaining .... was a cousin
of Governor Lord William Berkey of Virginia in 1675.
The Coast of Arms inclosed, are of the Families of Rolen, Willis, and Sullivan, of the three Coats only the
Willises used them back in Virginia, but the Roland and the Sullivan used them back in Great Britain, we
are most sincerely, Waid Scott Willis, Sr.
Signed... Waid Scott Willis, Sr.
It is needless to say or add that I have done all this work to perpetuate a memorial to Waid Junior. I
lost him when he was twenty three years and six months old, last February 16th. 1947, and I hoped to be
able to place a Bronze at Valley Forge Memorial Chapel, and some day, but I hate to leave out names like
Zachariah Rolen, James Sullivan, Sr., John Mills, Nicholas Porter, Thomas Porter, and not a few others who
undoubtedly will make the D.A.R. some day, but I cannot tell when. They will not take the names unless
they ahve D.A.R. Founded on them. WSWSR.,
And Paul and James, any time, you all should be at all interested in having these Memberships in the
Families of Aunt Berta's, all you need to do, it to go to town and begin enquiring about the Chapter there
of U.D.C. or the D.A.R. if there is no Chapter, you will either have to visit a town where there is one, or
else contact a member of such a Chapter say at Joaquin, Texas. Do not, even for one second, think, you
will meet with rebuff. You will not. She can be rich as any one would please, but she will recognize
after she reads this letter, that you are eligible for these memberships, and you will have her help, do
not worry about it, all you need to be is decent and respectable, two things we can all build up and
maintain. The Willises still hold their Annual Gathering of Willis Clans back in Virginia, generally
around four hundred attend. Last summer in Culpepper County, over two thousand attended, among them Willis
Descendants known all over the Earth, the Junior Senator of Virginia, A. Willis Robertson is our own Willis
Branch of John Willis of 1762, Orange County, Virginia, and the Senior Senator, Harry Flood Byrd, was there
too, he is related to our Willis Family, the first Willis Family Book was compiled over a hundred years ago
by Byrd Charles Willis, whose grandmother was Mildred Washington, the Aunt of George Washington, and whose
daughter Kate Daingerfield Willis married Achilles Napoleon Murat the son of General and King Joachim Murat
and his wife Caroline Bonaparte, the youngest sister of Napoleon. Kate Willis was the First American
Princess. All the Byrds were there, they use Tom, Dick, and Harry in their names, Thomas Byrd is a Farmer
in Culpepper County, Virginia, Dick or Richard Evelyn Byrd is the famous South Pole Admiral, and Harry
Flood Byrd the Senior United States Senator from Virginia.
But there is one thing we have got to do, we have to leave the farm... Let's move into some big town where
there is a fine free university like Austin, or Baton Rouge, or Los Angeles, where our sons and daughters
can get an education as cheaply in a University as in the poorest high school, and then encourage them
to enter the professions, and they will, and they will make it good. Here at Fort Sam Houston, in the
Medical Corps, from Virginia Willis Families, all of whom are our own branches, Generals, Lewis Willis,
Darrell Willis, Richard Willis, John Mitchell Willis, Sr., and John Mitchell Willis, Jr., have been well
known Generals in the United States Medical Corps of the Regular Army. Our Willis Descendants have
continued to make good where they had a chance to get a solid education. Let's see to it, that we supply
our part of these who make good too. WSWSR.,
Route 5, Box 353,
San Antonio 7, Texas.
Route 1, Box 37,
Joaquin, Texas.