Wilson Family Cemetery
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| Matthew Harvey Wilson, son of M & E Wilson, born in Liberty, VA., March 2, 1816 While nursing his sick uncle, J.S. Wilson. They were cruelly tormented and murdered. |
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| John S Wilson |
In Memory of John S Wilson, born near Fincastle, VA, December 3, 1789
Sabbath night, April 30, 1865, while sick and nursed by his nephew, M.H. Wilson
They were cruelly tortured and murdered by robbers.
From W. C. Handy's 1941 autobiography, Father of the Blues, chapter one, pp. 3-4.
Contrast these characters with those of my maternal grandfather, Christopher Brewer. When his master, John Wilson, had given my Grandfather Brewer his freedom, he preferred to stay near Mr. Wilson as his trusted servant. At one time, near the close of the Civil War, guerrilla warfare was common in this locality. Three robbers were eventually hanged five miles out of Florence. These thieves had undertaken to rob John Wilson. They stripped him and tortured him to death by burning paper and searing his body to make him tell where his money was hidden. He refused. My Grandpa Brewer likewise knew. They shot him to make him speak. He also refused. But when his wounds had sufficiently healed, he went to Nashville, brought his young master, Coonie Foster, back home, and disclosed to him the hiding place of the money.
Note: This incident occurred in November 1865. According to Wade Pruitt's Bugger Saga, Tom and Dennis Clark, Elias Thrasher, John Campbell, Charles Oliver, and Albertie Gallion. Were the alleged perpetrators of this crime?
From W. C. Handy's 1941 autobiography, Father of the Blues, chapter twenty-two, p. 291:
