| SPOUSE | CHILDREN | ||||
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| Sarah Elizabeth "Sallie" Egerton m. Nov 28, 1860 Franklin Co. NC b. Mar 7, 1842 d. Apr 4, 1931 Wilson NC | Mary Clark b. Jan 3, 1864 Wilson NC d. Jan 29, 1939 Hickory NC |
Pauline Irving b. Oct 3, 1865 Wilson NC d. Oct 4, 1913 Wilson NC |
Charles Egerton b. 1869? Wilson NC d. by 1951 |
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Georgia b. 1870? Wilson NC d. young |
Bennie b. Wilson NC d. Jan 8, 1872 Wilson NC |
Sallie Gertrude b. 1874? Wilson NC d. 1949 |
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Sue Edgerton b. 1877 Wilson NC d. Apr 27, 1972 |
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George Blount was a lawyer, judge, and mayor of Wilson NC after serving in the Civil War.
He joined the Confederate Army as 1st Lt Company A 55th NC Regiment in Mar 1862.
He was promoted to Captain but by Nov 1 of that year was dismissed to become the
Mayor of Wilson. |
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George became a member of the First Baptist Church of Wilson on Sep 8, 1863.
A historian for the church, Roger A. Bullard, wrote that "although Blount did
his part for the Confederate cause, he was basically Unionist" and even invited
the Governor to a Union meeting in Wilson after the war to "rejoice in the hour
of our return to the glorious flag of our fathers." Mayor Blount is thought to
have been instrumental in saving Wilson from being burned by Union soldiers. |
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George was educated at the University of North Carolina. He moved from Nash
County to Wilson NC by 1860 to start a law practice, just before the Civil War. |
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"G.W.Blount" is listed as a lawyer, aged 45, in South Wilson (NC) Township,
page 245C, line 1,
of the 1880 Census, enumerated on Jun 16, 1880. Also in his household were: "S.E", wife, aged 39, "Mary C.", aged 17 "Pauline I.", aged 15, "Charles E.", aged 11, "S. Gertrude", aged 7, "Susie E.", aged 3. |
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Daughter Pauline married William Wiley Simms (1866-1932) on Sep 9, 1886. Their son,
George Wiley Simms (1887-1947) is pictured with the two other Blount grandchildren,
Pauline Martin (1889-1894) and Sallie Egerton Martin (1892-1973), in this
Photograph, taken in
1893/4. |
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Daughter Sallie Gertrude, known as Gertie, married Jesse McLean. Their son,
Charles Blount McLean, George's grandson, was mayor of Wilson NC. |
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Daughter Sue married T.F. Pettus (? -1931). She taught Sunday School at the First
Baptist Church of Wilson for many years. However, in 1893, when she was sixteen,
she and her nineteen year old sister Gertrude, were expelled briefly from the
church for going by train to a dance unchaperoned with another nineteen year old
friend named Mattie Harrison. Mrs. Blount took both daughters with her to live
with the eldest daughter Mary in Hickory and did not return until Sep 22, 1893.
At that point the matter had been resolved amid discussions bewteen Mr. Blount
and the Pastor, although church records relating to this are mysteriously missing. |
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According to the 1940 Wilson Co. Census, daughters Getrude McLean, aged 64, and Sue
Pettus, aged 62, were both widows living at 207 Nash Street, next door to Charles
B. McLean. |
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George Blount House, the neo-Gothic home of Wilson NC mayors George Washington
Lafayette Blount and Charles Blount McLean, his grandson, at 209 West Nash Street.
The house was built in 1858 by noted local architect Oswald Lipscomb, 1826-1891. |
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| Descriptions of the George Blount House and
other contributions of architect Oswald Lipscomb. |
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Lipscomb designed several other houses in historic downtown Wilson, including
his own, still standing on the corner of Pine and Vance Streets. He also
designed the house of Alpheus Branch (1843- ), who in 1872 founded with Thomas Jefferson
Hadley a bank called Branch and Hadley. This bank eventually became (in 1913)
the Branch Banking and Trust Company, or BB&T, now one of the largest financial
institutions in the country (12th in market capitalization among all US financial
firms that were publicly traded as of Sep 11, 2009). The George Blount House was
the home for his family and descendants for over 90 years. It was eventually
demolished and the main Wilson office of the BB&T bank now occupies the site. |
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Photograph of Portrait of George Washington Lafayette Blount given to Wilson
County by the family and dedicated October 1, 1951 at the Superior Court of
Wilson County. |
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Address by Carroll W. Weathers at ceremonies dedicating the Portrait of
George W. Blount at the Superior Court of Wilson County, October 1, 1951. |
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| Sarah Elizabeth Egerton | |||||
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Sources: BB&T, Our Account; A History of BB&T, 12 ed., 2012, pp. 25-29. Bullard, Roger A., The Life and Times of First Baptist Church, Wilson, North Carolina 1860-2010, First Baptist Church, Wilson NC, 2009, pp.40-41, 147, 272. Gold, Daisy Hendley, "A Town Named Wilson," ms. Wilson County Publ. Library. "Grandmammy, Mrs. Sallie Egerton Blount," ms. Wilson County Publ. Library, Genealogical Collections, Blount folder. "Egerton Ancestry," comp. by Lisabeth M. Holloway from material by Blanche Wilmot Baker & added to by Rose M. Holloway. New York Times, "Financial Crisis One Year Later", article, Sunday, Sep 13, 2009, p. 6. Tombstone, Maplewood Cemetery, Wilson NC. U.S. Census, 1870, 1880, 1940, Wilson Co. NC. Weathers, Carroll W., Address, dedicating portrait of Geo. W. Blount at Wilson..., 1951. William S. Wood, comp., Descendants of the Brothers Jeremiah & John Wood, Press of Charles Hamilton, Worcester, Mass., 1885; pp.191-193. |
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