Ancestors
Rev. William J. Fleming
1846-1921 · Virginia
Born 1846, Russell County, Virginia
Died 1921
Father: John J. Fleming
Mother: Mary Jane Mullins
Children include Ida
William J. Fleming was born on 4 December 1846 in Russell County, Virginia, the son of John J. Fleming and Mary Jane Mullins. His mother had come to Holly Creek, now Clintwood, as a girl of fourteen in 1829, and he grew up on his father's farm there, at the place later called Flemingtown. In 1850 he was three, the seventh of eight children then at home. He was called Billy, and family accounts remember him as Crippled Billy, or Billy Jeff.
In December 1874, at 28, he married Martha J. Branham in Wise County. She was 21, the daughter of Tandy and Elizabeth Branham; her father had been killed in the war when she was nine. The clerk wrote the groom as a native of Russell County and his parents as John and Mary Fleming.
They raised a large family at Flemingtown. Their children included Tandy Jackson, named for Martha's father, Robert Emmit, Cladius Pridemore, Isaac Clinton, Ida May, Hibert Burns, Elizabeth Ayers, Clara June, the twins Fremont and Freddy, Mary Mosby, Walter C. and William Banner. Their daughter Ida May, born in April 1880, married John Henry Mullins in 1896, and her death certificate in 1928 named her parents W. J. Fleming and Pat Branham.
He became a preacher, and his gravestone calls him Rev. W. J. Fleming. A photograph of the couple in old age shows him with a full grey beard and moustache, in a dark suit and tie, beside Patty in round spectacles.
He died on 30 June 1921, aged 74 years, 6 months and 26 days, and was buried in the Flemingtown Cemetery at Clintwood, under a stone topped with a carved lamb. Patty outlived him by thirteen years.
Sources
Find a Grave memorial 205891971, Rev William Jefferson "W. J." Fleming, Flemingtown Cemetery, Clintwood; photograph added by Charlotte Guthrie, 1 January 2020, captioned "W. J. and Patty Fleming".
Virginia death certificates 1912 to 1987, Dickenson County, registered 11 November 1928; FamilySearch ark 1:1:QVRW-FKNG.
Find a Grave memorial 205891971, Rev William Jefferson "W. J." Fleming, Flemingtown Cemetery, Clintwood, Dickenson County, Virginia; photograph added by Charlotte Guthrie, 1 January 2020.
Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, County Marriage Registers, 1853-1935, Wise County, 1874, FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:81W4-2F6Z (groom) and 1:1:81W4-2FPZ (father of the bride); Virginia, Marriages, 1785-1940, ark 1:1:X5YJ-3KL.
United States census 1850, Russell County, Virginia, dwelling 645, line 38; NARA M432, film 975; FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:M8DP-QLB.
Virginia, Death Certificates, 1912-1987, Patty Fleming, Dickenson County, registered 12 December 1934; FamilySearch ark 61903/1:1:QVR4-Z7YH.
Crawford's Weekly (Norton, Virginia), 21 December 1934, page 6; Virginia Chronicle, page CW19341221.1.6.
Dickenson County Herald (Clintwood, Virginia), 11 October 1928, pages 1 and 4, Skeetrock news; Virginia Chronicle, pages TDCH19281011.1.1 and TDCH19281011.1.4.
Virginia death certificates, Dickenson County, May Mullins, 1928, FamilySearch ark 1:1:QVRW-FKNG; Virginia county marriage registers, Wise County, 1874, ark 1:1:81W4-2F6Z, and Virginia marriages, ark 1:1:X5YJ-3KL; United States census 1850, Russell County, dwelling 645, ark 1:1:M8DP-QLB; Virginia death certificates of his sons Tandy J. Fleming, ark 1:1:QVRQ-TLXC, and Robert Emmit Fleming, ark 1:1:QVRC-RRQ4; Virginia county marriage records, Banner Fleming, Clintwood, 1936, ark 1:1:6Z9H-7XGJ; Find a Grave memorial 205891971, Rev William Jefferson "W. J." Fleming, Flemingtown Cemetery, with the stone and the photograph of W. J. and Patty Fleming.
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Cite: Heirology, "Rev. William J. Fleming (1846-1921)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/rev-william-j-fleming-1846-1921-024923.