Few specifics other than lineage are known about the patriarchs of the Willis, Gordon, Garnett, Harris, Waggener, and Walker families who voyaged to the new world. By all estimations the patriarchs of these lines were sons of wealthy Europeans who were unable to inherit wealth and had few other prospects; it is possible they may have also been enticed by the idea of separating themselves from the established authority and competition in Europe. They likely came with little more than the clothes on their back and the cash in hand they needed to start a new life.
Their place at the lower end of the aristocracy dictates that they likely started out buy building modest cabins and began to farm via indentured servant labor until they could establish more comfortable homes. As the 17th century progressed, the reliance upon indentured servitude gave way to the much more economically viable but eventually crueler system of slavery.
By the time these families crossed the Atlantic, the majority of the lands in what is now Virginia had already been annexed from the former Powhatan nation by means of decades of wars and encroachment and they did not have to participate in the conflicts of the early 17th century that ensured European dominance in the east. Available evidence indicates that our predecessors who were here at the time sided with the Governor during Bacon’s Rebellion and opted not to go to war with the remaining natives in the tidewater; the rebellion was as much an attack on the landowning class of the colony as it was an attack on the Indians.
As the turn of 1700 came and went, many of our families had established themselves in the lowland farming culture of Colonial Virginia. Many of them participated in governing the colony. They all worked hard to increase their wealth and secure their place in the new society.
Soon, the lands of the Tidewater were bought up. Competition became fierce and the families all, in one way or the other, made the decision to leave the security and stability of the lowland culture and head west to the Piedmont. In doing so, they largely sacrificed the conveniences of society for larger lands and future opportunities.
In the mid 18th century they were swept up in the spirit of the Great Awakening and were influenced by the likes of George Whitfield, and became some of the first Baptists in America. As their neighbors faced arrest, attack and persecution at the hands of the Anglican and Royal colonial authorities, they took a stand in the pulpit as well as in the battlefield, directly influencing the establishment of the separation of Church and State in America.
Around the time the American Republic began, our ancestors boasted large families with significant land holdings in nearly every region of Virginia. They had been working hard to spread their influence, increase their wealth and above all, secure a place for their children in the newly born, and rapidly expanding nation. Many fought in the Revolutionary War.
At the beginning of the 19th century, the families had a desire to spread their family west and take advantage of land grants given as payment from service given in the war for independence. Just as their fathers and forefathers did, they would increase their landholdings, spread the wealth to their children and do all in their power to increase their stature.
Time rolled on and those members that remained in Culpeper would continue to farm and eventually become religious leaders in their communities as revivals intensified the religious climate of the early to mid 19th century. They would continue to gradually grow their lands and then divide them among their children. Many of their children that could not inherit would head west to Kentucky and Missouri, where the names of our families are still common today.
As with many established family groups in the south, they relied on slave labor to run their farms, and measured their wealth largely in the numbers of enslaved African descendants in their property. From the time of their fathers who each owned fewer than a dozen by 1700, by the 1850’s the numbers of enslaved men and women counted as possessions had increased by factors of 10. The freedom that brought these dozens of people a new life in America was soon to come as the argument over slavery in the west came to a head in the American congress, and South Carolina declared its independence.
The Civil War affected everyone in the north and south, and the fighting and quartering of troops decimated the central and northern Virginia society and economy. The battles of Ceder Mountain and Brandy Station both took place within view of many of our ancestor’s homes. There are many family stories from the war; almost all of our able bodied ancestors from this time fought for the south.
When the fighting was done, they came home to a decimated and war averaged economy. A few of the slaves would remain close friends and stay as share croppers and household servants after the war, but forever after on their own will. The memoirs of their former owners recant sweet memories and relationships, but regrettably the political records, religious stances, and legal actions of our kin in history persist in demonstrating their inability to see those formerly enslaved as capable equals.
After the war, America continued to grow and so did the desire to settle the west. Like many during that time, many would go and join their relatives who headed to the frontier decades earlier, and some would make it all the way to California. Still many members remained in central Virginia and worked hard to re-establish themselves via new vocations that could take them away from the now unprofitable and labor intensive farm life that existed in the post war south. Some did continue to farm, but almost none found a great living in agriculture.
Nearly everyone struggled in one way or another during reconstruction. Within a generation however, the more capable and crafty members of our clan made themselves into doctors, lawyers, judges, and bankers. Almost all of them continued their Baptist tradition, and many continued to preach and work as missionaries and ministers.
As the 20th century came, the first World War, prohibition, the depression and the dust bowl laid heavily influence on those that remained in Virginia as time crept on. As the US found itself entering the second World War, many of our relatives were already in the military and many were drafted or joined when the war began. The greatest generation came home to a world of opportunities, and the boomers only expanded them.
Now, on the whole, we have only continued to grow in members, locations and in variety of occupation- but with one catch: we are multitudes larger than we were at the time the US became a nation. We are spread all over the country, and all over the world! We can communicate in an instant and familial ties that have been lost in a hundred years can be reformed with an internet search. We have realized our errors of unjust inequality and have adapted to a new global community.
We hope that this site helps all of its visitors to better understand and better connect to their past, be they Willis, Gordon, Garnett, Harris or any other!
Thanks for reading and thanks for visiting!