Paldo Wilson, Company E**

**Today’s post includes research notes for a single document dated February 4, 1886. Last week’s post included research notes from 1866-1885. Future posts will include research notes from the remaining documents.

This soldier was killed in a skirmish in Fort Powhatan, Virginia on January 25, 1865. Action on his mother’s pension application continued for more than 30 years. Her application was complicated by conflicting information about a second marriage which was further complicated by the fact that two men shared the same name. Witnesses in support of the mother’s application included childhood friends, neighbors, and former enslavers. They reported names of those enslaved with her as well as the names of enslavers and their relatives. They described the mother’s efforts to remain independent and details about her church membership. Dates for specific events were framed within the 1855 Yellow Fever Epidemic and President Lincoln’s assassination.

Mother — 119, 679 / 94,739, Fannie Wilson

Deposition, Fannie Wilson, 4 February 1886
about 57 years old; occupation, housekeeper; residence, corner of Pine & Griffin Street, a suburb of Portsmouth, Va.; post-office address, Portsmouth, Norfolk Co., Va.
“Q. To whom did you belong prior to 1850?
A. I belonged to Dr. Samuel Brown late of Norfolk Co., Va., Dr. Brown is dead. I always belonged to the Brown family.
Q. Whereabouts in Norfolk Co. did you reside from 1850 to the breaking out of the late war?
A. Near Hickory Ground about 20 miles from Norfolk
Q. Did Dr. Brown reside on the plantation on which you were employed?
A. He and his family resided on the plantation where I was employed.
Q. Did Dr. Brown leave a widow and children surviving him?
A. Dr. Brown left a widow who is now dead, also a son named Samuel Brown and three daughters named Mary, Maggie & Rosa, all of whom now reside in Norfolk, Va. These children were quite small when the war broke out.
Q. Did Dr. Brown own other slaves besides yourself
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Please give me the names of these slaves who were with you on Dr. Brown’s plantation from 1850 to the beginning of the late war or rather until you and they left your old home
A. Lester Brown. Alex Brown. Wesley Brown and Willis Brown. All of whom reside in Norfolk, Va. I don’t know just where they live or what they do for a living.
Q. Were you ever married?
A. Yes, according to slave customs.
Q. What was your husband’s name?
A. America Wilson
Q. To whom did he belong?
A. To Robert Wilson who resided in the same neighborhood with Dr. Brown
Q. When did you and America Wilson take each other for husband and wife?
A. I don’t know exactly but it must have been 16 years or more before the late war.
Q. How many children did you have by America Wilson?
A. I had seven including Paldo Wilson, all of whom are dead except one daughter with whom I am now living.
Q. What became of America Wilson?
A. He was sold away from me three or four years before the war broke out and I afterwards heard that he was dead. His brother William told me so…
Q. Where did you reside at the date of the death of your son Paldo Wilson which appears to have occurred January 25, 1865?
A. I was living down on the Wood Wharf in Portsmouth.
Q. Who was living with you at that time?
A. My two daughters and a Mrs. Mary White who left for parts unknown some several years ago….
Q. Who lived by you and associated with you while you resided on the Wood Wharf?
A. Mrs. Sarah Barrington who lives near me now, lived near me. Also Polly McPherson. I have forgotten who the others were.
Q. Where did you go when you left the Wood Wharf in 1866?
A. I went to live on Dinwiddie Street South & Crab St.
Q. How long did you reside there?
A. Only three months. Then I moved to the corner of King & Dinwiddie Sts. and remained there two months. Then I moved to Newton, a suburb of Portsmouth where I remained ten months. Then I moved to where I am now and I have lived right here ever since.
Q. Who lived with you while you lived in Newton?
A. No one but my daughter. I am mistaken as to the date when I left the Wood Wharf. It was in the fall of 1865, instead of 1866.
Q. Who lived near you and associated with you during your residence in Newtown.
A. It was a strange place and I did not know anyone there. My associates were in Portsmouth. I belonged to Zion Baptist Church….
Q. When did your daughter marry and I mean with whom you are now living?
A. She married Dec 1867.
Q. Have you made your home with her ever since?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What is name of your daughter’s husband?
A. His name is Zachariah Taylor Hutchings.
Q. Have you ever known or do you know a man by the name of Lamb Wilson?
A. Yes, sir. I have known two men of that name.
Q. Who did they belong to before the war and were either of them related to your late husband America Wilson?
A. They belonged to old Billy Wilson of Norfolk, Va. and were not related to my husband.
Q. Did either of these men ever live or board in the same house with you?
A. When I lived on Dinwiddie st. bet Crab & South, I rented one of the Lamb Wilson a room but he did not board with me. I was there three months. Then I moved to the cor of King & Dinwiddie sts but he did not go with me. After I moved to Newtown I again rented him a room which he kept and occupied two months. Then he left, and I have never had any other business transactions with him.
Q. What became of him?
A. He went from my house to where he was raised near Great Bridge, Va. and I hear he died there five or more years ago.
Q. Who associated with you when Lamb Wilson was living at your house on Dinwiddie St.?
A. Polly McPherson visited me very often. So did Sarah Barrington. There were no near neighbors near me for at that the house I occupied was the only one near.
Q. Did you ever see or know a man by the name of G.H. Ragsdale?
A. Yes, sir. I have seen a man who went by that name.
Q. When did you first become acquainted with this man Lamb Wilson to whom you rented a room?
A. All his life. He was raised near where I was.
Q. Did he board or eat at your cook shop when you lived on the Wood Wharf?
A. He worked at lighting vessels and chopping wood and some times as he would be passing he would buy a snack and go on as others did.
Q. Did he ever lodge in your house while you lived on the wharf?
A. Sometimes when he would come up with his lighter he would get his meals and go in an old back room and sleep.
Q. Please describe the house in which you lived while at the Wood Wharf.
A. It was a small two-story brick with one front and one back downstairs and an attic room upstairs.
Q. What part of the house did Polly McPherson occupy?
A. She occupied the back room and done some cooking with me.
Q. Was this back room where some of your boarders sometimes slept a part of this two-story brick in which you lived?
A. No sir. It was or had been the wood house. It was a frame and was detached from the brick building. I did not have control.”