Ironton Register May 3, 1888 – Our distinguished friend, Hugh Willis, was in town last Saturday, and the Register cornered him for a narrow escape. Now, there is no trouble getting information from Comrade Willis.
He possesses the fertility of genius and power of observation and recollection, making him a clever man for a newspaperman to tackle. He had several “Narrow Escapes” on his tongue’s end and forthwith began to comply with our request. He substantially said,
“I was a member of Company C 5th West Virginia, and the close call I will tell you of occurred at Poe’s Hill, about 8 miles beyond Barboursville, in September ’61. Our regiment had been getting after the rebels pretty lively, who soon made a stand at a very good place for defense.
Well, we got into the battle line and advanced and soon stopped to do a little firing. In those times, as any old soldier knows, a tree comes mighty handy, not only as a protection but as a rest to aim your gun by. I had got behind a persimmon tree and had fired a couple of shots when a ball struck the side of the tree and scattered the bark into my mouth and eyes.
While I was clawing it out, a comrade next to me, says ‘getaway, let me try that tree,’ and just as he was aiming, a bullet struck the tree close to his face and filled his mouth with pieces of the bark, that so frightened and annoyed him that he didn’t fire.
“Pretty soon, we were ordered away from there to make a flank movement. Our little column was sent to get behind the rebs, and we succeeded finely. We reached the top of the hill and dashed to the reb position at the foot.
The rebs fled, taking a quartering course up the hill to escape from us and escape from those in their front. While doing this, they scattered pretty well, and I saw one reb flying like a deer, and I made an effort to intercept him.
“He was running along the hillside and I downward, and he observed me and saw I had the advantage too, so he dropped his gun to run faster. Then I dropped mine, for I was bound to make him my prisoner, and sure enough, I was soon on him and grabbed him.
He struggled to get away, and we clinched and, for some time, tussled and scrambled and tore around the hillside at a lively rate. He was full of steel and very wiry, and I had all I could do to hold on to him. While the tussle was going on, we were both losing breaths all the time and gradually slipping down the hill until we came to a little bluff or jumping-off place, eight or ten feet high, and down that we rolled, each fellow nearly fagged out.
“I was so near exhausted that I was determined to end the conflict right there, so I ripped out my jackknife, opened it, and holding it up over the reb, whom I had down, I said, ‘surrender, or I’ll cut your throat from ear to ear,’ and then the fellow yielded.
He got up, and I marched him off to the colonel. He was a sad-looking spectacle, for I had torn the shirt clear off of him in the melee. The colonel took charge of him, and the man joined our regiment and became a good soldier. His name was Wm. Peyton.
“The same day, I captured another reb, who had sought the seclusion of privy to escape the notice of the 5th Virginia boys. I surrounded the works myself, demanded their surrender, and the garrison to give up its arms. This the reb did, but he only had a pocket knife, his gun being thrown away when he entered the fortifications.
That prisoner was Eb Fuller, who also joined our regiment and made an excellent soldier. Mr. Fuller now lives in West Virginia not many miles from here and has become a man of influence and wealth, but I reckon he’ll never forget the time Hugh Willis surrounded him and took him prisoner.”
Mr. Willis was about to relate other experiences, which he seemed to have a vivid recollection, and plenty of them, but we thought what he had told us was good enough for one time, and we are sure the reader will agree.
Hugh Willis, Civil War Obit
Ironton Register, April 2, 1903
Eventful Life Was That of “Uncle Hughey” Willis, Recently Deceased
When the venerable Hugh Willis departed this life at Forestdale Monday, March 22, 1903, the county lost one of the prominent characters who figured in the county’s early history.
The parents of the subject of this sketch came from Virginia in 1808 and are located in Aid Township, this county. There were eleven children in the family – six boys and five girls, five of whom were older than the subject of this sketch.
Hugh Willis was born in 1817 near the mouth of Sharp’s Creek, a mile above Marion. He was then 16 years old. Teachers were hired for $12 to $15 per month in those days.
Mr. Willis was examined for a certificate in 1840 and taught his first school in Lawrence Township, on Yellow Creek, in a log house with a chimney up to the mantle, no floor, no seats but round logs, but it was pronounced a good school.
Mr. Willis’s second school was taught where Rock Camp now is, and the house in which the school was taught stood where the mill now stands. That was in the fall and winter of 1840, and in 1841 he taught at the Marion School. Mr. Willis told the writer that his wages were $11 per month in all his early schools and “board around.”
In 1842 Mr. Willis attended the Burlington Academy for two terms and at the close of which he was examined by the regents of the board and was awarded a life certificate of second de-[obscured]
Willis taught thirty years in Ohio, twelve years in West Virginia, one year in Kentucky, and three years in Indiana; hence he spent forty-six years in the schoolroom. He taught at his last school in West Virginia in 1885.
Mr. Willis was married twice – first to Phoebe Croley [Crowley] of South Point, and of this union, there were born seven children; six boys and one girl, second to Mrs. Harriet L. Wilson nee Stratton, on January 18, 1876; and of this union, there were born five children, all girls.
Mr. Willis served his country during the Civil War in the 5th West Virginia Infantry for three years and one month. Mr. Willis was a member of the M.E. Church from his early manhood.
Mr. Willis never lost interest in the work of teaching. Even up to the close of his life, he might be seen in teachers’ gatherings, close up to the speakers trying to hear what the speakers said, and after he spoke to express himself on the topics up for discussion; his ideas were good and expressed in vigorous language.
He had many friends who joined his wife and family in mourning their loss. C.G. Keys
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