Willisville

Willisville, 1.5 miles north, developed in the late 1860s around a small group of dwellings where free and enslaved African Americans had lived before the Civil War. In 1868, residents erected a building to serve as a school and church with support from Richard H. Dulany of Welbourne and the Freedmen’s Bureau. Land ownership anchored residents to the community as they began purchasing lots in the 1870s. The village was likely named for Henson Willis, the first person known to be buried in the Old Willisville Cemetery (ca. 1873). The Willisville Historic District includes the school (built in 1921 after the original building burned), Willisville Store (1922-24), and Willisville Chapel (1924).