William J. 'Billy' Felts was born circa 1769, the son of Aaron P. Felts and Molly Collier. In about 1788 in Wilkes County, North Carolina, Billy married Susannah Oliver, born circa 1768 in Virginia, daughter of Elijah Oliver and Susannah Sharpe. Billy and Susannah had 9 known children: Elizabeth, Isham Buell, Daniel, Aaron P., Susannah, Nancy, Elijah, George, and William. Billy died on May 13, 1843, in Wilkes County, North Carolina and was buried in the Ladd-Felts Family Cemetery in Hamptonville, North Carolina. Susannah died on December 22, 1857, in Wilkes County, and was buried beside Billy. The Ladd-Felts cemetery is on a farm that was owned at one time by John Casey. It is uncertain how many people actually are buried in the cemetery as only a few of the graves are marked in any way. The count can be overstated if footstones are counted, and it is not discernible whether some are footstones or headstones. There appears to be approximately 8 to 10 graves and not in straight rows. Among those known to be buried in the cemetery are William and Susannah Felts; their daughter and son-in-law, Nancy Felts Ladd and Amos Ladd; Patterson Elijah Ladd (son of Amos and Nancy Ladd); several infants; and a slave named George. The words on William's handcarved stone are now illegible, and portions of Susannah's stone are as well. The grave of Patterson Elijah Ladd, grandson of Billy Felts, is the only one with a manufactured headstone, which was purchased and placed on his grave many years after his death. There is also a manufactured Ladd-Felts upright marker placed in the cemetery in memory of Ladd and Felts family pioneer settlers of Wilkes County.

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