As collected by Marguerite Tise

Marguerite Irene Tise was born March 9, 1913, to the Reverend J. Marshall Tise and Alice (Allie) Sheffey Peterman Tise. After graduation from Floyd High School and teaching in Floyd County, Tise moved to Washington, D. C., where she took a job in Foreign Service with the State Department.  As secretary to the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, she attended the Potsdam Conference at the end of World War II. Tise also traveled to the Geneva Summit in 1955 to a meeting of Cold War leaders.

After retirement, Marguerite Tise returned to Floyd County and devoted her retirement years to researching local history and genealogy. In an appreciation published after her death in the August 18, 2002, Roanoke Times, her sister Jessie Heafner commented that “[Marguerite’s] favorite part was finding some little bit of history we didn’t know…she loved to unearth something.” This article also explains that in collecting research “she would write her notes in shorthand, later typing them on the back of previously used paper.” Her thriftiness is evident in documents such as the copy of her interview with Mrs. Lura Phlegar which shows shadows of bleed-through from the back of the used paper.

Tise was a member of the Floyd County Historical Society, the Floyd Courthouse Chapter of the DAR, and the Zion Lutheran Church. She donated the land for the Jessie Peterman Memorial Branch Library, which was named in memory of her mother’s sister Jessie May Peterman. Tise passed away August 8, 2002, and is buried in Jacksonville Burial Ground, Floyd, Va.

Many of her papers and documents were donated to the Virginia Room of the Roanoke Public Library. A catalog list of the items can be found at the site. Information about the archives can be found at the end of this page >>.

A portion of one of her interviews, Memories of Early Willis, follows (along with some photos of the period). Find the thirteen (13) page transcription of the interview after the excerpt.

Excerpt from the interview:

Mrs. Phlegar* was born on May 8, 1877, near the village of Hylton, now called Willis, Floyd County. About the year 1880, when her memory begins to focus, the few buildings and houses of the village stood in scattered cleared areas on both slopes of the little ridge which nestled at the foot of Indian Ridge. There was no public square or focal point but the village was loosely strung from east to west along both sides of the Turnpike. “It was in the midst of dense woods,” Mrs. Phlegar recalled, “and in fact the whole country was almost entirely wooded with little clearings here and there along the Turnpike (now Route 221) from Floyd Court House to Hylton.”
The white spire of the Lutheran Church (1879) rose above the hilltops, and created a beautiful scene. “Just above the church on top of the hill,” said Mrs. Lura, “the one-room school stood in a large cleared area. Down at the foot of the western slope and right beside a stream was the little building that housed the post office.” These were the three important institutions serving the community. There were, in addition, she said, a store, a blacksmith shop, a shoe shop, a harness and saddle shop, a tanyard and some dwelling houses.

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SEE MAP in transcript below, page 14

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The village took its name from the post office, originally called Greasy Creek but changed to Hylton in 1880. Hardin P. Hylton was the postmaster from 1866 to 1882. “H.P. Hylton was a large landowner and a Brethren preacher, recalled Mrs. Phlegar. “His home was on the Turnpike west of the village beside the little stream near the Indian Valley road.” (The house is still standing and is now the home of Marvin Sowers.) The post office was in a little building directly across the road from the H.P. Hylton home. The mail was brought from Floyd about three times a week by a man who rode horseback and carried the mail in saddebags.” she remembered with a smile.
“Between the post office and the top of the hill there was a general store in a two-story building. This was the first store which served that part of the county.” (More about this building later.) “It stood on the south side of the Mountain Normal** grounds, though the Normal was not built at that time. One of the early owners of the store was C.P. Stephens, and his home, a small frame house, stood across the road.” Rev. Peyton J. Wade, pastor of the Lutheran Church from 1888-1889, whose wife Susannah was a daughter of H.P. Hylton, was the original owner and occupant of this house. “After C.P. Stephens and his wife Annie sold the property and moved away, later owners were George W. Spangler and B.P (Ballard Preston) Keith. In later years this house was moved back from the road and a new brick house was built on the site by Claude Slusher. It was then acquired by Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Albright, and is now the house of Clarence Harris.”
Chrislay Hylton, son of H.P. Hylton, built his home just below the Stephens house and during the period that he was postmaster (1890-1891), the Hylton post office was located in his home.” This house was later the home of J.H.H. Terry for many years and now is the home of Hugh Simmons.
Near the Lutheran church, on the east, stood the home of Peter Willis, whose first wife Lydia was a daughter of H.P. Hylton. “This home was known far and wide as a hospitable place. They enjoyed entertaining both their friends and the traveling public and their house was a boarding place for transient guests (such as drummers) and for the public,” said Mrs. Phlegar. The store, which stood almost in front of the house and faced the Turnpike, was owned and operated by the Willis brothers, S.P. (Peter) and G. (George) A. Willis. “It had a high porch on the front so that ladies could easily dismount from their horses,” recalled Miss Lura. Later when the partnership was dissolved, it became Conduff and Willis, and still later when it changed hands again, it operated under the name Willis & Willis (another generation of the Willis family).
Mrs. Phlegar’s roots are deep in Floyd County and go back several generations. “My memory is bright of my maternal grandparents, John and Mary Bishop Harman, Harman’s Mill, which Grandfather operated, was several miles east of Hylton on West Fork of Little River and was a meeting place for neighbors and patrons of the mill. I can still see their home in my mind’s eye. The mail house was built of logs, the living quarters downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, and a breezeway connected this with the kitchen. On this outside was a bake oven which Grandmother used. One of the things I remember in the house was a tall grandfather clock which was such a wonder to my childish eyes, There was a big millpond, and you had to cross the creek on a footlog. This mill was in continuous operation until not many years ago when it was all washed away in a big storm.”

Editor’s Notes:

* Lura Conduff Akers Phlegar, 1877-1971, was born to John Thomas Conduff and Malinda Harman Conduff. She married Silas Edward Akers, 1899, widowed and married John Calvin Phlegar, 1920. [return to excerpt]

** Lura Phlegar attended Mountain Normal School, an institution for education of teachers. Mountain Normal opened in 1893 in Hylton (now Willis), VA, serving male and female students. Mrs. Phlegar was instrumental in the development of Willis Agricultural High School. [return to excerpt]

If you want a paper copy and can’t print this, please contact the museum for a paper copy that can be mailed. (540-745-3247)

Transcription of the interview below.