Updated November 25, 2022
Background:
Mary (Polly) James Gilliam, the daughter of Richard James Gilliam and Catherine Elizabeth Thornton was born in Powhatan on 3 Nov 1851 at Buena Vista, a neighboring estate to Charles Carter Lee’s estate, Windsor. She is baptized at Saint Luke’s on 20 Jun 1852. She is mentioned in biographies of Robert E. Lee:
At evening Lee reaches his brother’s farm in Powhatan County. He was made welcome, of course, but as the house was crowded he insisted on using his own tent. He was then invited to “spend the night” in familiar Virginia phrase, at the residence of John GILLIAM, whose farm adjoined that of C. C. Lee. He asked, instead, that the available room be given a sick officer and his wife who had driven up. Learning from his brother’s family that the GILLIAMs were disappointed at his refusal and were very anxious that he at least eat a meal at their table, he sent word that if it were agreeable he would take breakfast with them. Then, having procured a pair of shoes for the soldier to whom he had promise them, he went into camp, immediately in front of the GILLIAM home. It was his final bivouac, the last night he ever slept under canvas.
The next morning he ate with the GILLIAM family. It probably was at this time, and in answer to a question from Mr. GILLIAM that he said many people would wonder why he did not make his escape before the surrender, when that course was predictable. The reason, he explained, was that he was unwilling to separate his fate for that of the men who had fought under him so long. He was unrestrained in his conversation and made much of a little girl of about ten, the daughter of the GILLIAMs, who was presented to him. He took her on his knee and caressed her. “Polly,” he said, “come with me to Richmond and I will give you a beau.”
Douglas Southall Freeman, R. E. Lee: A Biography, Volume 4, New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1935, p. 160-161
On 13 July 1871, at the age of 19 at her parent’s home, she marries Dr. Hugh Thomas Nelson, the son of Dr. Robert William Nelson and Virginia Lafayette Nelson.
In the 1880 Census Hugh and Polly are found in Birch Creek, Halifax County with two children Catherine T., age 6 and Hugh Thomas, Jr., age 4—a son Robert William, was born 27 Feb 1873 and died after a few months on 21 Jun 1873. (Catherine Thornton, named after her grandmother, was born 26 Jul 1874. Hugh Thomas, Jr., was born 25 Oct 1876).
Overview:
By 1881 Hugh and Polly are living on High Street in Charlottesville where Hugh set up his medical practice.
On 26 Mar 1906, Hugh dies in Charlottesville.
His obituaries read a follows:
27 Mar 1906
Charlottesville, March 26—Dr. Hugh T. Nelson, aged sixty years, one of the most prominent physicians and surgeons in this section of the State, and former president of the Virginia State Medical Society, died this afternoon. After one week’s illness of pneumonia. His wife, who was Miss Polly Gilliam, of Powhatan, and two children survive him. He served throughout the civil War in the confederate army. He was an instructor in the medical department of the University of Virginia, member of the National Association of Railway Surgeons, and of the Southern Surgical and Gynecological Society, and was a frequent contributor to medical journals.
Washington Post
DR. HUGH THOMAS NELSON, of Charlottesville, Va., after a week's illness with pneumonia, died on March 26, 1906. He was born in Albemarle County sixty years ago, and was a great grandson of Gen. Thomas Nelson, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, and commander of the Virginia troops at Yorktown. Dr. Nelson, although only a boy at the time, entered the Confederate Army in 1862, and continued in the service until the curtain was lowered on that drama at Appomattox. After the war, he studied medicine at the University of Virginia. After graduation, he located in Halifax County, where he practiced until 1881, when he removed to Charlottesville. In 1875, he joined the Medical Society of Virginia, with which body he labored earnestly and faithfully. His familiar figure and striking personality were seldom to be missed at its various sessions, where he was regarded as a man of weight and influence. At the Richmond meeting in 1899, he was elected President, and in 1900 at Charlottesville he was made a resident honorary fellow. He was a member of the Medical Examining Board of Virginia from 1885 to 1890, and served during that period as its secretary, and later as its president. After his resignation from the Examining Board in 1890, he was connected with the teaching force of the University of Virginia in the Department of Surgery. He was also consulting surgeon to the University Hospital. Dr. Nelson is survived by his wife, a daughter, a son—Dr. Hugh T. Nelson, Jr., an assistant surgeon in the U. S. Navy —and by his father, Dr. Robert W. Nelson, of Charlottesville, Va., who, in his prime, was regarded as one of the leading men in the state and who is a member of the present Medical Society of Virginia, and was a member of a similar society before its dissolution by the Civil War.
Virginia Medical Semi-Monthly.
In 1910, Polly is living in the Second Ward of Charlottesville.
In 1920, Polly is living with son Hugh Thomas Nelson, Jr.
Polly died on 22 Aug 1927 in Charlottesville and was buried at Riverview Cemetery.
Pictures of Home and Sanitarium of Hugh Thomas and Polly Gilliam Nelson
Sources
- Douglas Southall Freeman, R. E. Lee: A Biography, Volume 4, New York: Charles Scribner and Sons, 1935, p. 160-161
- Virginia Medical Semi-Monthly.
- Washington Post, 27 Mar 1906