Wilson family.

Possibly as early as 1730, the first Hairston came to America. This was Peter Hairston, a Scottish immigrant, who may have first lived in Pennsylvania and then in Albemarle County, Va. He had four sons of which one was the progenitor of the Hairstons represented in these papers. This son, Robert Hairston (d. 1783), lived in that part of Pittsylvania County, Va., that became Henry County, Va., in 1777 where he built Marrowbone Plantation. He served as a captain of the Pittsylvania County militia, justice of the peace in Pittsylvania County, and sheriff of Henry County. Robert Hairston and his wife, Ruth Stoval (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, Peter Wilson, immigrated from Scotland to America possibly around 1720. In the 1740s, he made his home along the Dan River in Virginia, located in Halifax County, Va., and later in Pittsylvania County, Va., where he built 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 Peter Perkins (1739-1813), the son of Nicholas Perkins and Bethenia Harden. Nicholas settled in the Dan River in 1755 and bequeathed to his son, Peter, the land on which Peter built Berry Hill Plantation near Danville, Va. Also, from 1783 to 1788, Peter and his brother Constantine Perkins owned the Troublesome Creek Ironworks in Rockingham County, N.C. Later, about 1795, Peter Perkins moved to Stokes County, N.C., and around 1805 or 1806, to Tennessee. 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 Stoval (d. 1808)

The brother of Agnes (Wilson) Perkins and a son of Peter and Alcey Wilson, John Wilson (1740-1820), married Mary Lumpkin in 1767 and lived at Dan's Hill near Wilson's Ferry in Pittsylvania County, Va. 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, N.C.

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 Stoval (1783-1869), who married Peter Wilson, the son of John Wilson. Peter Hairston lived his early life in that part of Pittsylvania County, Va., that became Henry County, Va., in 1777. In Henry County, he served as deputy sheriff intermittently between 1781 and 1784 and as a captain of an infantry company under General Nathaniel Greene. During the Revolutionary War, Peter Hairston served in Virginia, North Carolina, 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, Va., he began operating a general merchandise store and a blacksmithing shop at Sauratown in Stokes County, N.C. After moving permanently to Stokes County around 1786, he continued to operate his store as well as owning numerous plantations in North Carolina and Virginia including Royal Oak, Sauratown, and Cooleemee. Peter Hairston also represented Stokes County in the North Carolina Assembly for four terms.

Peter Wilson (1770-1813), son of John Wilson and Mary Lumpkin, married a daughter of Peter Hairston and Alcey Perkins, Ruth Stoval Hairston (1783-1869). He owned many plantations including Berry Hill (built by Peter Perkins), Brierfield, and Goose Pond, all in Pittsylvania County, Va. Peter Wilson, in partnership with his father John Wilson, ran a general merchandise store in Rockingham County, N.C. After marrying Ruth Stoval Hairston in 1800, he moved to Berry Hill Plantation but continued to run the Rockingham County store. From 1801 to 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 the Pittsylvania County Militia and as a justice of the peace.

After Peter Wilson died in 1813, Ruth Stoval (Hairston) Wilson (1783-1869) married Robert Hairston (1783-1852). He was the son of George Hairston (1750-1827) and Elizabeth (Perkins) Letcher (1759-1818). His father lived in Henry County, Va., where he built Marrowbone Plantation. Robert Hairston owned Leatherwood Plantation in Henry County, and after marrying Ruth Stoval (Hairston) Wilson, he managed her plantations including Berry Hill in Pittsylvania County, Va. 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 will which left all his property to a slave child.

Samuel Hairston (1788-1875) was a brother of Robert Hairston and lived at Oak Hill Plantation in Pittsylvania County, Va. He married Agnes John Peter Wilson (1801-1880), the daughter of Peter Wilson and Ruth Stoval (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 million and five million dollars, including ownership of around 1700 slaves on plantations in Henry and Patrick counties, Va., and Stokes County, N.C. There are also references in these articles to the comparative wealth of his relatives.

The eldest son of Samuel Hairston, Peter Wilson Hairston (1819-1886), grew up in Pittsylvania County, Va., but lived his adult life first in Davie County, N.C., and later in Baltimore, Md. 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 Stoval (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, and settled at Cooleemee Plantation in Davie County, N.C., which his great-grandfather, Peter Hairston (1752-1832), had willed to him. By 1860, he expanded the acreage at Cooleemee to twice its original size and possibly owned approximately 300 slaves. After the death of Columbia Stuart in 1857, he married Fanny Caldwell, the daughter of Judge David F. Caldwell of Rowan County, N.C. During the Civil War, Peter W. Hairston served as a volunteer aide for General J. E. B. Stuart and General Jubal A. Early, and after the war, he moved to Baltimore, Md., to become a merchant. His overseers continues the management of Cooleemee Plantation until his death.

One sister of Peter W. Hairston, Alcey (1830-1914), married Samuel Harden Hairston (1822-1870) and had three children. One of these children, Ruth (1863-1936), married Alfred Varley Sims (1864-1944). He was the son of Alfred W. and Adelaide Sims of Pennsylvania and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in civil engineering. After finishing college, Alfred Varley Sims worked for various railroad companies including the Atlantic and Danville Railroad 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 the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa), in 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, Alfred Varley Sims remained in Virginia, 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 worked in New York City as an independent civil engineer.

The biographical and genealogical information is from the following sources: Maud Carter Clement, The History of Pittsylvania County, Virginia (Lynchburg, Virginia: J. P. Bell Company, 1929) and Elizabeth Seawell Hairston, The Hairstons and Penns and Their Relations (Roanoke, Virginia: Walters Printing and Manufacturing Company, 1939) in addition to the Wilson and Hairston Papers.

From the guide to the Wilson and Hairston Family Papers, 1751-1928, (Southern Historical Collection)