Manoah Bostick Hampton and Cynthia Mitchell Hampton
“Lilie” Hampton 4 oldest children of Lilie Hampton & Walter McClure Lilie Hampton McClure and her family, 1923
PILLOW FAMILY continued, (page 4)
ROBERT W. PILLOW was born 14 Dec 1809. He died 1 Jul 1895 in Marshall County, TN. He married Dorothy “Dolly” Ann Hall, who was born 24 Apr 1815, died Feb 7, 1900. I don’t know the parents of Dolly Hall Pillow.
ROBERT W. PILLOW signed as the Assistant Marshall (and collector of Census data) for Giles County, TN on all of the 1870 CENSUS pages -
Robert and Dolly had 3 daughters, Mary, Virginia and Harriet. We have copies from the Pillow/Walker family Bible which gives the birth dates of Mary and Virginia.
1) MARY ORLENA PILLOW was born 20 Sep 1836. Mary married WILLIAM DICKSON McCLURE on 8 Apr 1852. He was the son of William E. McClure & Eleanor Ewing Purdom. Mary died 23 Sep 1905 in Cornersville, TN, and is buried beside her husband in Beechwood Cemetery, Cornersville, TN.
Mary & William had 7 children:
1) Robert MCCLURE (b.2 Jun 1853-
2) WALTER FLAVIS (Sr.) MCCLURE * (b.1 Mar 1856-
| sp: * MARY ELIZABETH "Lilie" HAMPTON (b.6 Sep 1863-
3) Thomas Hall MCCLURE (b.5 Oct 1858-
| sp: Kate [no issue]
4) Anna Ewing MCCLURE (b.1861-
5) William "Willie" Pillow MCCLURE (b.1866 d.15 Oct 1933)
| sp: Alice CARTWRIGHT-
6) John Bell MCCLURE (b.1869 d.8 Jan 1921) [never married]
7) Mary "Lois" Pillow MCCLURE (b.Jan 1876 d.26 Apr 1961)
sp: John Thomas MARTIN
In our Family Papers we have the obituary for Mary Orlena Pillow McClure. It states that she was " the widow of W. D. McClure, long a prominent merchant of Cornersville (Tn) and who preceded her to the grave twelve years ago, died at the home of her son, Mr. W. F. McClure, in this place, last Saturday afternoon. Her death was not unexpected, as she had long been in declining health. She was 69 years of age last Wednesday, was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and leaves a large circle of sorrowing friends. She is survived by four sons and two daughters, all of whom were present at her bedside except one son, Mr. Thos. McClure, who was unable to be present. Her remains were taken to Cornersville for burial in Beechwood cemetery on Sunday, the funeral service being conducted by Rev. J. M. Brown, Rev. S. H. Polk, and Rev. J. A. Malloy".
2) Ruth Elizabeth VIRGINIA Pillow was born 13 Jan 1835. She married George Woodson Walker on Dec. 20, 1856 in Giles Co, TN.
They had three children. Oscar P. was born in September of 1857. They then had twin daughters: Mary Ann Ada (called Ada) and Hattie Sarah Ida (called Ida) born June 26, 1859. We have the obituaries of all 3 of their children.
Oscar died in October, 1959. To quote from his obituary, "Little Oscar, son of G. W. and Virginia Walker, died Oct 8, 1859, aged two years and one month. 'Virginia, let not your heart be troubled, little Oscar is not dead, but sleepeth; he is gone, but not lost. Too pure for earth, he has been transplanted to a more genial clime".
There is then a second obituary for both of the twins: "Ada and Ida, infant twin daughters of George and Virginia Walker, were born June 26, 1859. Ada died February 29; Ida May 19, 1860." "The Savior saw two precious buds of thine, and smiling, said, 'These fragile forms are mine. Earth's sorrows shall not blight such lovely flowers; These buds shall bloom in bright supernal bowers".
Virginia lost her husband two years later on 31 Mar 1862. It’s possible to imagine losing all three of your children within seven months, and then to lose one's husband. We can only try to imagine how much Virginia must have felt for her sister Mary Orlena's seven children. How she could have comforted Mary when she lost her first born, Robert “Young Bobby” (McClure), at the age of 13.
The entire family is buried in Beechwood Cemetery, Cornersville, TN.
3) HARRIET E. Pillow was born 1839. I believe she died 1896. I know nothing else about Harriet.
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Oscar died in October, 1959. To quote from his obituary, "Little Oscar, son of G. W. and Virginia Walker, died Oct 8, 1859, aged two years and one month. 'Virginia, let not your heart be troubled, little Oscar is not dead, but sleepeth; he is gone, but not lost. Too pure for earth, he has been transplanted to a more genial clime".
There is then a second obituary for both of the twins: "Ada and Ida, infant twin daughters of George and Virginia Walker, were born June 26, 1859. Ada died February 29; Ida May 19, 1860." "The Savior saw two precious buds of thine, and smiling, said, 'These fragile forms are mine. Earth's sorrows shall not blight such lovely flowers; These buds shall bloom in bright supernal bowers".
Virginia lost her husband two years later on 31 Mar 1862. It’s possible to imagine losing all three of your children within seven months, and then to lose one's husband. We can only try to imagine how much Virginia must have felt for her sister Mary Orlena's seven children. How she could have comforted Mary when she lost her first born, Robert “Young Bobby” (McClure), at the age of 13.
The entire family is buried in Beechwood Cemetery, Cornersville, TN.
3) HARRIET E. Pillow was born 1839. I believe she died 1896. I know nothing else about Harriet.
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The following letter was in the family papers provided by Martin Hames. We don’t know who either wrote it or received it, but it’s a wonderful letter and worth reading! I don’t know why I include it in the Pillow information, except that both Mary and Virginia would have been approximately the right age. The letter is remarkable, very sweet.... and is only one sentence long!~
Irving College
Warren Co; Tenn
Feb 14, ’54 (1854)
Warren Co; Tenn
Feb 14, ’54 (1854)
Respected Wife:
Once more seated in my lonely chamber, solitary and alone, with no noise save the occasional cracking of the fire or the barking of a lonely dog, no lovely companion upon whom to feast my ophthalmic nerves or pore forth my soul in love and affection and with whom to converse, and under every moment delightful, no soothing voice full with sweet accounts upon my auditory nerves, no soft hand to soothe my pillow or raise my head when scorched with fever on the sore bed of affliction or prepare me a morsel congenial to my gustatory nerves, while in a meditative mood; low in spirit; deep in thought, humble in position, faint in hope, strong in imagination, bending over my desk, pressing between my digits a rounded, pointed, redyed, chequered, double cased, nicely wrought, artfully excited, diamond pointed pen, made of pure metallic gold, baptized in some of the best colored fluid prepared by chemists, with some paper spread out before me artfully prepared for the occasion, I, successful or unsuccessful, acceptable or unacceptable, profitable or unprofitable, admired or unadmired, proceed, with my soul fired with ardent, candid, sincere, true, burning, swelling, unsurmountable, unaccountable, undistinquished love; to expatiate in one unbridled sentence, by means of epistolary correspondence, in order to let you know my real, true, certain, unexaggerated situation, fatally wounded by a well directed certain blow of Cupid’s poisoned dart, piercing within my heart, setting my soul on fire, disqualifying me for any other business than this, and at the same time the golden chords of affection having been entwined about my heart, linking it so firmly to thine as to deprive of the flowers of my own affections making them subservient to thy diction; to see if I cannot call forth one single drop of pure, unsophisticated, unsullied affection from thy warm and lovely bosom to quicken the heart entombed in dark despondency.
Amen
Tombstone of Robert W. Pillow and his wife, Ann, Beechwood Cemetery, Cornersville, TN.