Biography of Robert E L Wilson, Mississippi Co, AR

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Submitted by: Michael Brown
        Date: Sep 1998
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Bibliography: Biographical and Historical Memoirs of Eastern Arkansas.
Chicago:  Goodspeed Publishers, 1890.

Robert E. L. Wilson is numbered among the younger of the
successful and rising agriculturists of this county, and none will
have a brighter future, or will make better use of their advantages
than he. The citizens of Mississippi County are proud to claim him as
one of its sons, for he was born here in the year 1863. His father,
Joseph L. Wilson, came from Tipton County, Tenn., in 1847, and
purchased a tract of land in Mississippi County [p.569] comprising
several thousand acres, the most of which has descended to his son,
Robert E. L., who owns 2,700 acres. The latter has cleared and put
under the plow over 200 acres, but has 260 under cultivation, on which
he has erected thirty houses, which are used by his tenants. His
residence is a handsome structure, covering an area of over 3,000
square feet, is beautifully and comfortably furnished inside, and is
in the center of a large and well-kept lawn. Among the other buildings
which Mr. Wilson has erected is a saw-mill, which is situated about
four miles from the river, at Idaho Landing, and has a capacity of
14,000 feet per day. From this mill he has a tramway of about six
miles in length, extending from the river back into his timber lands,
and here he has some thirty men engaged in lumbering. He ships large
quantities of lumber from his mill to Chicago annually, the principal
demand being for ash lumber, of which he has a large supply still in
the tree. The greater part of his cultivated lands he devotes to the
raising of cotton, which enterprise gives employment to about 100
people; and one year he gathered eighty bales of cotton from eighty
acres of land, and at another time nineteen bales from eighteen acres
of land, each bale weighing over 500 pounds. The expense of
cultivating an acre of cotton and laying it by is about $7. In the
year 1885 Miss Lizzie Beall became his wife, she being a daughter of
S. A., Beall, of Mississippi, formerly of Pennsylvania, who came to
Mississippi County, Ark., in 1865, and settled on Frenchman's Bayou.
He is now engaged in managing his son-in-law's mill and mercantile
establishment, the latter comprising a large and well-selected stock
of general merchandise. Two children were born to the marriage of Mr.
Wilson, only one of whom is living, Mabel Victoria. Tiny died at the
age of eighteen months. Mr. Wilson is one whose integrity and honor
have never been questioned and, although a young man, his views
relating to matters of business, as well as on general and popular
topics of the day, are considered unusually sound. He is a member of
McGavock Lodge, K. of H., at Frenchman's Bayou, and his wife is a
consistent member of the Presbyterian Church. She is a refined and
well-educated lady, and shows unusually good taste in the arrangement
of her home. This young couple bid fair to become not only one of the
wealthiest, but, what is of far more importance, one of the most
highly honored, families in the county.