Wilson ALEXANDER, who has resided on his little farm of sixty acres on
section 25, Tunnel Hill Township, for the past twenty years, was born
in Williamson County, Ill., in September, 1830. His father, Gideon
ALEXANDER, a farmer,was born in North Carolina in 1771 and was a son of
John ALEXANDER, who was also, a native of North Carolina and lived and
died on his farm in that State. His wife was Patsy SAMS, of North
Carolina, and they reared one son and two daughters, the son Gideon,
father of Wilson, being the eldest of the family. He married in Wilson
County, Tenn., Elizabeth BOROM, whose parents were Germans, though she
was born in the United States. They were married in Tennessee in 1806,
and after living on their farm sixteen years, in 1822 came to southern
Illinois, locating in Williamson County in September of that year. They
came through with ox-teams and covered wagons, camping by the way, and
being people of means they entered eighty acres of land, upon which
they settled, built a good hewed-log house with a shingle roof, the
only one thus covered in that part of the country at that time. The
first chimney to this house was made of brick and clay but was soon
replaced by one of stone.
Mr. ALEXANDER was one of the first in that part also to enter and deed
land, and made his permanent home where he first located, improving
about eighty acres and buying fifty more. He died there in September,
1865, aged ninety-four years. He was a widower forty-three years,
having lost his wife in 1823. She bore him ten children, five sons and
five daughters, of whom Wilson was the last born. Minerva and Anna were
twins, both of whom married and reared large families. Minerva died at
seventy years of age and Anna at sixty-nine. John H., a school teacher,
died in Missouri when fifty years of age. Edmund S., a farmer of
Williamson County, died when seventy-one years of age, leaving a widow.
Angeline, wife of John SLACK, died in Johnson County when forty-one
years of age, leaving nine children. Hannah was the wife of William
WELTY, and died in Johnson County aged sixty-three years, leaving three
children. William R., a carpenter of Williamson County, died at
sixty-one years of age, leaving four children. Elijah died in Hamilton
County at thirty-two, leaving a wife and eight children. Nancy M. died
at her father's home at twenty-five years. Wilson is he of whom we
write.
Our subject grew up on the farm, obtaining but little education, which
was received in the subscription schools so often described in these
pages. He left home at the age of twenty years and was married in 1851
to Miss Lucinda PHILLIPS, she being in her sixteenth year. She is the
daughter of Laban and Rebecca (GARRETT) PHILLIPS, who came to Illinois
from Alabama in 1849, but were, however, originally from Tennessee,
where Mrs. ALEXANDER was born. They had one son and nine daughters, and
Mrs. ALEXANDER is the seventh child. Her parents died in Johnson
County, the mother aged sixty-five years and the father when about
ninety-three years old. Mr. and Mrs. ALEXANDER began life on a farm of
one hundred and sixty acres of land near the present site of New
Burnside. This he entered as Government land, and he also bought one
hundred and twenty acres under the Bitt Act. They lived there sixteen
years, when they sold out for $800 and removed to Jefferson County,
where they lived for six months and then removed to
Williamson County, where they lived seven years, at which time they
located on their present farm. They had eleven children, five sons and
six daughters, one son and one daughter dying in infancy, and Moses
dying in 1874, aged nineteen years. The latter was a very promising
young man, having secured a good education and being a very ardent
advocate of temperance. The children living are as follows: Esther, who
is at home; Elizabeth, wife of Adam HARVEC, a banker at Vienna; William
M., a farmer of Johnson County, who has a wife and two children;
Rebecca, a young lady at home; Georgianna, wife of William GILL, a
carpenter and painter at Marion; L. D., a young man at home on the
farm; Susan, wife of Wayde NELSON, living at Tunnel Hill, and who has
three children; and Mitchell, a minor at home. Mr. ALEXANDER has always
been a Democrat and both he and his wife are members of the Christian
Church. He is doing a general farming business, but the hardest part of
the work is now being done by the children that are at home. The
children are for the most part members of the Christian Church.
transcribed by Nan Starjak
Source:
The Biographical Review of Johnson, Massac, Pope and Hardin
Counties
Chicago
Biographical Publishing Co., 1893
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