WILLIAM WILLIS, Rev. War Soldier
The web of intermarriages among the early Emory River settlers ties together the fabric of the Emory story. The William Willis family was tied with the COFER families by the marriages of William's daughter, Frances Malvina to Abraham Cofer, and his daughter, Elizabeth to Jonathan Cofer.
William Willis was born September 20, 1760 in Goochland County, VA, to ROBERT and ELENDER NOWLIN WILLIS. He enlisted for service in the Rev. War at Williamsburg, VA in the winter of 1775. He must have been on speaking ters with Gen. George Washington because he was discharged in February of 1778 "at a camp called Valley Forge." William Willis married ELIZABETH at a date unknown. They came to Roane County prior to 1805 with his sister SUSANNAH and her husband, JOSEPH WALKER. The exact place of their first residence is unknown, but in 181 he bought 200 acres from Hugh Dunlap located on the west bank of Emory River in present-day Harriman. His neighbors on that side of the river would have been AMBROSE TOOMY who lived just below Emory Gap in Walden Ridge, and adjoining ABE MCCLELLAN, the DURRETTS, and later JONATHAN COFER whose 324-acre tract (k, p. 158) on the southwest side of the river ran to "three walnut trees growing from one stump, to Indian hollow, to a spring on the side of the dividing ridge between Caney Creek and Emory River."
ACTIVE AT COURTHOUSE
William Willis may have been incapacitated for a period from the frost bites and rigors of Valley Forge, but he "got around" in Roane County. He either had a good horse, or enjoyed a good brisk walk of four or five miles from his home to the court house in Kingston. One observer noted that he was a "court house sitter," and must have been President of the Knights of Rest because of the frequency of his service on jury duty. William was also serving as a constable in 1819, but he was not always on the side of law and order. In the September Session of Court in 1809, Willis was the defendant in the charge of an affray. Levi Thrailkill the plaintiff, asked that the charges be dismissed, and William was ordered to "go hence without day and recover against the plaintiff his cost, etc."
THE WILLIAM WILLIS FAMILY
Elizabeth Willis was literate and some of her letters are on file in the Willis Collection of the Western Historical Manuscript Collection, State Historical Society, University of Missouri Library, Columbia, MO. William was the kind of man who warms the heart of frustrated researchers because in his pension application he named all of his children and gave their birth dates. William died in 1823, and Elizabeth died in December of 1849. Their children:
1. NANCY ELIZA WILLIS (1803) married (1823) Jonathan Luster. They lived in Roane until after 1840.
2. SUSANNAH WILLIS (1807) married (1825) James J. Vess
3. FRANCES MALVINA WILLIS (1809-1880) married (1829) Abraham Cofer.
4. WILLIAM F. WILLIS (1811) went to Dekalb County, AL
5. ELIZABETH WILLIS (1814) married Jonathan Cofer
6. ANDREW J. WILLIS (1817-1852) married (1832) first, Elizabeth Asher, secondly (1845), Frances Gates in Howard County, MO.