THE FOLLOWING IS AN EXCERPT FROM A BOOK PUBLISHED IN 1907:
WILLEY
There has been but one family of this name among the early settlers of this region. Eber Willey was born July 4 1797 and died February 7 1870 . He was married twice. His first wife was a Miss Maddy whom he married when twenty four years of age, His second wife was Juda Symms. He was a native of Vermont. By his first marriage there was one son Justus born who was a soldier in the war of 1812.
Eber Willey moved from Vermont in his youth with his parents to New York and from thence to Greenville in Monroe County then Virginia when twenty two years of age. The founder of the Willey family in this country was Eber Willey's father Ahijah Willey who was a native of England and emigrated from that country first settling in Vermont and later settling in New York. He was a soldier in the American Revolution of 1776 and also a soldier in the war of 1812. His wife was Susan Grant, a relative of General US Grant, the great soldier of the Union Army in the Civil War . The children of Eber Willey, the settler in this country who moved from Greenville to the old Willey farm on the Wolf Creek Mountain between the mouth of Greenbrier River and Wolf Creek in Green brier District before the war, were Alma, Eber, Ahijah, Grant, John and Sira V .
There was one daughter who married Samuel Henry Hartwell, a practicing physician living on the old Willey homestead. There was one other daughter, Susan who married William S Wykel and they lived on the Wolf Creek Mountain. She died several years ago.
Alma and Eber Willey were both soldiers in the US Army throughout the Civil War and are now among the good citizens of the county. Grant was educated at the Concord Normal School, became a merchant in Hinton and died in 1892 having married a daughter of Samuel Huffman. Ahijah is a farmer residing in Greenbrier District. John is a citizenzen of Talcott District, postmaster at Talcott, proprietor of the Valley View Hotel ,which he built in that town and a farmer.
Hon Sira W Willey is the most prominent member of the Willey family in this country. He has been an active and prominent man in the affairs of the county since its formation. He is a man of fine physique, a shrewd manipulator and politician and a man of character. In his younger days he was a constable of the county, a member of the Board of Education, Deputy US Marshal, notary public, chairman of the Republican Executive Committee of the county and he was appointed postmaster under President McKinlev's first administration, which he held through that term then through Roosevelt's first administration and is holding now for the third term of four years, each making a total of twelve years in that important office. He has held the office of United States Commissioner under appointment from Judge John J Jackson. He was at one time a candidate for the Republican nomination for State Auditor and was four times a candidate for the office of sheriff of Summers County as well as a candidate at one time for representative in the House of Delegates. He married Clara J Milburn, daughter of Squire Henry Milburn of Green brier District and has one child Rosalia May, who married Dr Wykel, a practicing physician in the city of Hinton. He has held the position of deputy sheriff for one term of four years under MV Calloway sheriff of Summers County. He is one of the leaders of the Republican party in the State. It was over his second appointment as postmaster at Hinton, that the factional troubles arose between the Willeys and the Graham adherents. His record as an official has been efficient and honorable and it is largely due to his enterprise, energy and judgment that the county now has a prospect of a government building in Hinton in the near future.
Juda Simms the wife of Eber Willey, was a daughter of Robert Symms of Norfolk Virginia. The wife of Robert Simms was Sarah Payntcr and they were from Rockbridge County Virginia and relations of Anderson Paynter and other Paynters throughout Raleigh and Fayette Counties. She was a sister of John Simms, one of the oldest residents of the county, who died in 1907 at Barger's Springs at the advanced age of eighty years and whose son Thomas, now lives at Greenbrier Springs... also of Allen Symms another aged farmer of Monroe County and of Garland Symms who was the father of James Symms, the enterprising citizen now residing at and owning the Lower Pack's Ferry on the old Red Sulphur and Raleigh Trunpike and a part of the Rufus Pack farm. He has been, for a number of years, ferryman at the mouth of Green brier ,a road surveyor in Greenbrier District and has held other important positions. Ward Symms of Junta, at the mouth of Indian, who now owns a part of the Fowler plantation and Jackson Symms of New River, are also sons of Garland Symms.
Eber Willey, the founder of the family in this county, was a Union man and opposed to secession. Before the war, he was a lieutenant of the organized soldiers in Monroe County (known as the Monroe Guards) the place of muster being at Centerville except once in three months when they were required to muster at the Union Court House. This company was organized by Jack Hinton, the father of Joseph Hinton Silas William and John and of which he was the captain and Mr Willey the first lieutenant.
Captain Ahijah Willey, the founder of the Willey family in America, was a civil engineer by profession, a soldier in the Revolutionary War and a captain of an artillery company in the war of 1812. His son Eber Willey, the founder of the family in this county, was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was wounded at the battle of Plattsburg. being a member of the Twenty ninth New York Infantry
Eber Willey the second, was a member of Co G of the Second West Virginia Cavalry in the Civil War. He was present when Robert Adkins was wounded, His own gun being disabled and struck with a bullet at the same time, he replaced it by taking the gun that fell from the hands of Adkins who was disabled from further service.
Alma Willey was a member of Co F Ninety first Ohio Infantry. The other boys were not old enough to be in the army.
Justus Willey, the oldest of the sons of Eber Willey and the only son by his first marriage, was wounded in the battle of Chapultepec in the Mexican War, from which wounds he died five years afterwards being wounded in his thigh and on his head.
Alma Willey resides in Forest Hill District and is a farmer and miller. He and eight others, during the war ,in the retreat from Lynchburg ,went eight days without a meal, traveling from that place until they got to Boyer's Ferry in Fayette County. this being one of his experiences in war times. Eber Willey is a farmer in Greenbrier District.
The Willeys in this county and the Willeys in Morgantown in Monongahela County are direct descendants from the same original ancestors. Waitman T Willey of Morgantown was a celebrated lawyer in his day, a US Senator and largely instrumental in securing the admission of West Virginia into the Union as a State and in securing the proclamation by and recognition of the State by President Lincoln. There were two brothers of Ahijah Willey that came across the ocean to this country at the same time and settled in this country; Eber Willey the settler in this country, had four brothers. Ahijah who settled in Michigan, Joseph and Seth both remaining in New York State, Joseph was a preacher, Benjamin located at Chagrin Falls Ohio and died there during the war from the fever contracted in the army during the war.
It will be noticed from the records of elections in Summers County, that Hon Sira W Willey, in all his races for political offices, was on the side of the minority party and that he ran ahead of his ticket on every occasion. Whenever the Democratic candidate knew that he had Mr Willey for an opponent he always knew that he had a fight on his hands, while the majority against Mr Willey was always less than 100 except on two elections, Captain AA Miller defeated him by 121 majority while the Democratic nominee for the same office two years before had won out by 572 votes. In the race for sheriff between Willey and George the latter's majority was only 128. Mr George having on his ticket as deputies a man from each district. The deputies running with Mr Willey were Chapman Farley of Pipestem and Samuel P Bragg of Green Sulphur. Mr Willey is the holder of the oldest title paper to real estate I have been able to find in this region. It is an original patent issued by Thomas Jefferson, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, bearing date on the 1st day of January 1781 and the fifth year of that commonwealth. This patent was issued to Abraham Dick, assignee of John Robinson, the original founder of the Dick family in this country west of the Alleghenies and was made by virtue of a survey made on the 6th day of May 1772 and is for sixty five acres. A portion of this patent is printed with the old F english S which resembles the F's of the present day and in which governor is spelled governour and is signed Th Jefferson in his own handwriting. The written portion of the document is perfectly plain and is in elegant handwriting. All this territory was then in Botetourt County. John Willey is probably the most powerful man physically in the county at this time, All the Willeys of the county are men of great physical strength .
Copied from:
History of Summers County from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time By James Henry Miller, Maude Vest Clark printed in 1907/08
taken from perface:
I am under obligations to numerous friends for aid rendered in providing me data in regard to family history especially to Prof George W Lilly relating to the Lilly Farley and Cook families J Lee Barker as to the Barker ancestry David Graham in re the Graham family and ancient incidents Reverends WF Hank GW Hollandsworth and LL Lloyd and GW Leftwich James Gwinn Harrison Gwinn Esqrs in regard to church history to WW Jones Evan B Neely IG Carden JECL Hatcher for information as to the enlisted Confederate soldiers Hon BP Shumate Hon SW Willey and Andrew L Campbell Esq JM Meador and WH Boude for court records and other courtesies The lineage of numerous families would have been more complete had I received the response and aid of those from whom information was requested
JAMES H MILLER December 1907
