Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - Dr. L. J. Wilson

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Dr. L. J. Wilson, practicing physician and surgeon of Alma, was born 
in Lincoln County, Tenn., in 1836, and is a son of James and Elizabeth 
J. (Bourdon) Wilson, natives of Dinwiddie County, Va., born in 1791 
and 1794, respectively. They were married in the same county, and then 
went to Maury County, Tenn., later settling in Lincoln County. When 
our subject was five years old they went to Marshall County, Miss., 
where the father died in 1871, and the mother in 1862. Mr. Wilson was 
a farmer, and served a short time in the War of 1812. His father, 
Robert, came to America from England at an early day. Dr. Wilson is 
the ninth of a family of ten children, and although his youth was 
passed upon a farm he received a good academic education. At the age 
of eighteen he began to read medicine, and graduated from the 
Jefferson Medical College, at Philadelphia, in 1859, which was then 
the foremost medical institute in the United States. Having practiced 
to some extent in the meantime, he immediately began to practice in De 
Soto County, Miss., but upon the breaking out of the war raised 
Company G, First Mississippi Regiment, and served as first lieutenant 
until captured at Fort Donelson; a week later he made his escape, and 
returning home organized Company D, Second Mississippi Volunteer 
Infantry, and thereupon went to Virginia, serving as first assistant 
surgeon until the close of the war in the Army of Northern Virginia. 
After the surrender at Appomattox he resumed his practice in Tate 
County, Miss., and in 1883 removed to Alma, Ark., where he now enjoys 
a liberal patronage. In 1860 he married Elizabeth C. Skipwith, of 
Memphis, Tenn., great-grand-daughter of Gen. Nathaniel Green. Her 
father, Gray Skipwith, was for many years a prominent physician of 
Jackson, Miss., and there died of yellow fever. He was for many years 
a lieutenant in the United States Navy. Dr. Wilson has had seven 
children, three of whom are living. In politics he is a Democrat, and 
he cast his first presidential vote for Bell in 1860. He is a member 
of the Masonic fraternity, and himself and wife belong to the 
Presbyterian Church.