Biography of W G Wilson, Independence Co, AR

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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Northeast Arkansas. 
Chicago: The Goodspeed Publishing Co., 1889.
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page 725 

W. G. Wilson is the mayor of Sulphur Rock, Ark., and is the proprietor
at that place of one of the best livery stables in the county. He is a
nativeborn resident of the county, his birth occurring in 1837, and during his
early youth and manhood he attended the subscription schools, and worked with
his father on the home farm. On the 26th of January, 1859, he was married to
Miss Mary E. West, a native of the “Bay State,” who came with her parents to
Arkansas when a child. Her death occurred on the 27th of January, 1873, and she
left her husband and three children to mourn her loss, the names of the latter
being: Ed. M., Charley G. and Florence, who died aged twenty-seven years, the
wife of Solon Burkett, and left two children. Mr. Wilson took for his second
wife Miss R. F. Morgan, a native of Alabama, and the following children have
been given them: Emma, Myrtie, Bertha, Fay, and Julia A. Two children died when
quite small. When the thunders of war resounded through the land, Mr. Wilson
enlisted in the Confederate army, in the First Arkansas Cavalry, and served
from July 26, 1862 to June 5, 1865, surrendering at the latter date. He was in
Little Rock, Helena, and various fights in Missouri, being with Price on his
raid through the latter State. After the war he returned home and resumed
farming, continning until 1885, when he came to Sulphur Rock and embarked in
his present business, which is one of the most popular establishments of the
kind in the county, and is meeting with well-deserved success. He has a fine
farm, two miles north of Sulphur Rock, and is well fixed in a worldly point of
view. In April, 1889, he was elected mayor of Sulphur Rock, Ark., and also
served part of an unexpired term of the previous year. Besides this, he served
one term as constable and four terms as justice of the peace. He belongs to the
Blue Lodge of the A. F. & A. M., is a Royal Arch Mason, and Royal and Select
Master Mason, and is a member of the K. and L. of Honor. In his religious views
he is a Methodist. He is one of the substantial residents of the county, and is
well known and highly respected by all. His parents, William M. and Hannah
(Masters) Wilson, were born in Tennessee and Missouri, respectively. The father
moved to the mother's native State after reaching manhood, and afterward went
to Arkansas, and located in Independence County, where he died in November,
1864, at the age of seventy-five years, followed by his wife in November, 1868.
Of the ten children born to [p.725] them, only two are living–our subject, W.
G. Wilson and his sister, Mrs. Davidson.