Wilmer McLean
E294823
Wilmer McLean was a Virginia farmer and grocer whose properties uniquely bookended the American Civil War, with the first major battle near his Manassas home and General Lee’s surrender later signed in his McLean House at Appomattox.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Wilmer McLean canonical | 3 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T2750483 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Wilmer McLean Context triple: [McLean House, originalOwner, Wilmer McLean]
-
A.
Joseph Twichell House
The Joseph Twichell House is a historic residence in Hartford, Connecticut, associated with Reverend Joseph Twichell, a close friend of Mark Twain and a notable figure in the Nook Farm literary community.
-
B.
George Washington Parke Custis
George Washington Parke Custis was an American plantation owner, writer, and orator best known as the step-grandson of George and Martha Washington and the builder of Arlington House, later Arlington National Cemetery.
-
C.
Guy Levis Grant
Guy Levis Grant was an American dentist and educator best known as one of the ten founders of the historically Black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi.
-
D.
John Parke Custis
John Parke Custis was the son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington, known primarily as a member of the prominent Custis-Washington family in colonial Virginia.
-
E.
Philip Barton Key II
Philip Barton Key II was a 19th-century American lawyer and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, best known for his scandalous affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles and his subsequent murder by her husband, Congressman Daniel Sickles.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Wilmer McLean Target entity description: Wilmer McLean was a Virginia farmer and grocer whose properties uniquely bookended the American Civil War, with the first major battle near his Manassas home and General Lee’s surrender later signed in his McLean House at Appomattox.
-
A.
Joseph Twichell House
The Joseph Twichell House is a historic residence in Hartford, Connecticut, associated with Reverend Joseph Twichell, a close friend of Mark Twain and a notable figure in the Nook Farm literary community.
-
B.
George Washington Parke Custis
George Washington Parke Custis was an American plantation owner, writer, and orator best known as the step-grandson of George and Martha Washington and the builder of Arlington House, later Arlington National Cemetery.
-
C.
Guy Levis Grant
Guy Levis Grant was an American dentist and educator best known as one of the ten founders of the historically Black fraternity Kappa Alpha Psi.
-
D.
John Parke Custis
John Parke Custis was the son of Martha Washington and stepson of George Washington, known primarily as a member of the prominent Custis-Washington family in colonial Virginia.
-
E.
Philip Barton Key II
Philip Barton Key II was a 19th-century American lawyer and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, best known for his scandalous affair with Teresa Bagioli Sickles and his subsequent murder by her husband, Congressman Daniel Sickles.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (43)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
farmer
ⓘ
grocer ⓘ human ⓘ |
| associatedWithConflict | American Civil War ⓘ |
| associatedWithPerson |
Robert E. Lee
ⓘ
Ulysses S. Grant ⓘ |
| associatedWithPlace |
Appomattox Court House National Historical Park
ⓘ
linked to:
Appomattox Court House, Virginia
|
| birthDate | 1814-05-03 ⓘ |
| birthPlace | Prince William County, Virginia ⓘ |
| burialPlace | St. Paul’s Episcopal Cemetery, Alexandria, Virginia ⓘ |
| countryOfCitizenship | United States of America ⓘ |
| deathDate | 1882-06-05 ⓘ |
| deathPlace | Alexandria, Virginia ⓘ |
| era | 19th century ⓘ |
| ethnicGroup | White American ⓘ |
| familyName | McLean ⓘ |
| firstBattleDate | 1861-07-21 ⓘ |
| firstBattleNearHome | First Battle of Bull Run ⓘ |
| fullName | Wilmer McLean ⓘ |
| givenName | Wilmer ⓘ |
| historicalRole | civilian landowner whose home was used for major Civil War events ⓘ |
| historicalSignificance | symbol of how the American Civil War began and ended on his properties ⓘ |
| houseUsedBy | Union Army officers at Appomattox Court House ⓘ |
| houseUsedFor | site of General Robert E. Lee’s surrender to General Ulysses S. Grant ⓘ |
| militaryService | served as a major in the Virginia militia prior to the Civil War ⓘ |
| notableEvent |
Appomattox Court House surrender
ⓘ
linked to:
Battle of Appomattox Court House
First Battle of Bull Run ⓘ |
| notableFor | having his properties associated with both the first major battle and the surrender that effectively ended the American Civil War ⓘ |
| numberOfChildren | 7 ⓘ |
| occupation |
farmer
ⓘ
grocer ⓘ |
| property | McLean House ⓘ |
| propertyLocation |
Appomattox Court House, Virginia
ⓘ
near Manassas, Virginia ⓘ |
| quoteAttributed | "The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor." ⓘ |
| religion | Methodist ⓘ |
| residence |
Appomattox Court House, Virginia
ⓘ
Manassas, Virginia ⓘ
linked to:
Manassas
|
| spouse | Virginia Mason McLean ⓘ |
| stateOfResidence | Virginia ⓘ |
| subjectOf | numerous Civil War histories and anecdotes ⓘ |
| surrenderDateAtHouse | 1865-04-09 ⓘ |
| usedBy | Confederate Army (for encampment and headquarters near Manassas) ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Wilmer McLean Description of subject: Wilmer McLean was a Virginia farmer and grocer whose properties uniquely bookended the American Civil War, with the first major battle near his Manassas home and General Lee’s surrender later signed in his McLean House at Appomattox.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.