Honoring Our Ancestors

This blog is dedicated to the Brewer Family of North Carolina. These pages present our recent family gatherings and more distant family history.
We have an ongoing effort to capture the Brewer genealogy to best honor our ancestors. We've identified our ancestors who moved from Mecklenburg County, Virginia to Orange and Chatham Counties, NC as early as 1750. In the 1800s, we saw a migration to Alexander and Iredell Counties in NC, Tennessee, and Kentucky. By the 20th century our family made their homes all over the nation.
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Monday, August 4, 2014

Wiley Brewer, Private, Confederate States of America

Many of us can trace our lineage to Wiley Brewer (1832-1864).  Unfortunately we have no picture of Wiley.  Wiley and his family moved from Chatham County, NC to Alexander County, NC about 1861.  He enlisted in the Army of the Confederate States of America in Wake County, NC on Oct. 26, 1863, became a private, and never returned home.  Wiley was captured at Spotsylvania Court House, VA on May 12, 1864 and confined at Point Lookout, MD. He was transferred on August 10, 1864, to Elmira, NY where he was confined as a POW until his death on Nov. 15, 1864 from dysentery.  He was one of 3,000 POWs who died in that prison under horrid conditions. Wiley was buried that same day in what is now the Woodland National Cemetery in NY. The first photo shows his tombstone. The second shows a portion of the Civil War section at Woodland.




Sunday, July 27, 2014

Lucretia Stout Brewer, wife of Wiley Brewer, and her sister, Sarah Ann Stout Willet, mother of Mary Elizabeth Willet Brewer

This is a historic family picture taken about 1920.  The older women is Lucretia Stout Brewer (1828-1922), wife of Wiley Brewer (1832-1864).  The girl is Mary Ethel Shoemaker (1909-1996), Lucretia's step great granddaughter.  The boy is Willie Harrison Brewer (1918-2003), Lucretia's great grandson and the son of Thomas Benjamin Wiley Brewer (1882-1952) and Noney Lee Shoemaker (1885-1942).  Thomas Benjamin and Noney Lee married in 1917.  Noney Lee was a widow with several children from her first marriage including Mary Ethel.  Mary Ethel helped care for the young Willie Harrison whom the couple welcomed in 1918.  

Lucretia was the daughter of Jesse Stout and Sarah Roach of Chatham County, NC.  She was an impressive woman who alone raised eight children during the difficult days of the Civil War and Reconstruction.  Her granddaughter, Ora Una Brewer Connolly, said she never weighed more than 95 pounds.  Lucretia outlived all eight of her children.  
You'll see more detail on her in "Stories from Our Ancestors" below.  This is the only known picture of Lucretia.




Lucretia's sister was Sarah Ann Stout Willet (1837-1930), wife of John C. Willet (1836-before 1870).  Sarah Ann's and John's daughter was Mary Elizabeth "Betty" Willet (1862-1907).  Betty married her cousin Jerry Lee Brewer  (1861-1903).  Jerry and Betty are the ancestors of a major branch of our family.  The Brewer, Stout, and Willet families are interwoven in our history.  In the "Letters from Our Ancestors" section below are several letters from our Stout ancestors.  





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