History of Fulton County, Illinois; together with
Sketches of its Cities, Villages and Townships, Educational, Religious,
Civil, Military, and Political History; Portraits of Prominent Persons
and Biographies of Representative Citizens. Chas. C. Chapman & Co.,
Peoria, Illinois, 1879, page 758, Kerton Township
Thomas W. Wilson, farmer, sec. 6; is a native of Harrison
county, Ind., and was born in 1835. His father, Joseph Wilson, was born
in East Tennessee, where he followed farming and married Margaret
Armstrong. She became the mother of 6 children, and was taken from him
by death. He then married Miss Marry M. Rogers, who bore him 3
children. Thomas accompanied his parents to Fulton county in 1855. He
married in Indiana Miss Martha A. Deweese, by whom he has 16 children;
3 having passed away. We give the names of his children: Sarah P.,
Joseph W., John W., Mary S., Margaret E., Chas. S., Amos L., De
Lefayette, Nandora, Laura B., Emmet C., Lewis E., Martha A., Hays,
Thomas and Gertrude.
Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County,
Illinois: containing full page portraits and biographical sketches of
prominent and representative citizens of the county: together with
portraits and biographies of all the presidents of the United States,
and governors of the state; Biographical Pub. Co., Chicago, IL; 1890;
page 352-353; Transcribed by Margaret Rose Whitehurst
Thomas W. Wilson, a man universally popular, and one who has
achieved great success in life, furnishes the subject for the present
sketch, and we are pleased to represent such a public-spirited and
courteous gentleman in our ALBUM. Many years ago David Wilson was born
in the State of Tennessee, and after a prosperous period of farming in
his native place, moved to the Blue Grass State, settling in Knox
County, afterward removing to Harrison County, Ind., where he died. He
was the grandfather of our subject, and a man well calculated to give
noble principles to the younger members of his household. At the time
he removed to Kentucky, his son, Joseph, father of our subject, was a
lad of ten summers, and there he continued to reside up to the time he
reached his twentieth year. He then went with the family to Harrison
County, Ind., making the trip by wagon through a wild country, and
being numbered among the pioneers at that place. He purchased land in
the woods, where he built a rude log cabin, and commenced to clear the
land preparatory to cultivating the soil. He soon had his one hundred
and sixty acres under good cultivation, and continued to make that his
home until 1855, at which date he sold his estate and removed to Fulton
County, making this trip by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and
in this county he died after attaining his eighty-third year. He was
married in 1833, to Miss Mary Rogers, a native of Virginia, and to them
were born two children, viz: Thomas, our subject, and Margaret, who is
now Mrs. Amos Kinzer, and resides in Sedgwick, Kan.
Mr. Wilson at an early age attended school, and received all the
educational advantages possible in those days when the schoolhouses
were rude, and the information imparted in them was meagre indeed.
Indiana at that time possessed none of the advanced ideas that at the
present time make it a popular place for educational matters. He worked
on a farm through the summer, thus becoming familiar with the duties of
agricultural life, and when twenty years of age, he moved to Fulton
County, where he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land on section
6, Kerton Township. The land was not cultivated, and nature ran riot,
so he had a great deal of hard work to clear the ground, and bring his
property to its present value. He built a log cabin 18x20 feet in
dimensions, and has continued from time to time, both to improve and
add to his farm. He purchased fifty-eight acres of river-bottom land on
section 4, in 1888. Besides farming he is interested in stock-raising,
and is regarded as a most progressive and energetic farmer.
Our subject on the 15th of February, 1855, married Miss Martha
A. Deweese, of Harrison County, Ind., whose birth occurred December 11,
1839, and who is a daughter of John Deweese. Her father was a native of
Kentucky, removed to Indiana at an early date, and at the present
writing is making his home in Kansas with his son. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson
are the happy parents of eighteen children, viz.: Sarah P., Joseph W.,
John W., Mary S., Margaret E., Charles S., Amos L., Lafayette, Nandora,
Emmett C., Laura B., Louis E., Mattie, Hayes, Thomas J., Gertrude,
Abbie G., and Roscoe C.
Mrs. Wilson has been a faithful member of the Methodist Church
since girlhood, and is a lovely Christian woman, and one very popular
with all who know her. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Republican party.
He has held many offices of public trust, having served as Road
Commissioner, School Trustee, and Collector for this township. Indeed,
his popularity is great, and extends throughout the county.
