Cass-Washington-Madison County IA Archives Biographies.....Wilson, Silas 1846 - 
************************************************
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://usgwarchives.net/ia/iafiles.htm
************************************************

File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com December 12, 2007, 10:56 pm

Author: Lewis Publishing Co. (1896)

HON. SILAS WILSON, Atlantic, Iowa, well deserves mention in this volume as a
type of those who, notwithstanding adverse circumstances, make their way in this
world, and by virtue of their strong character and earnest determination, win
success and honors from their fellow men. He is a native of West Virginia, born
in Marshall county, May 16, 1846.

   His father, Samuel Wilson, was born in Washington county, Pennsylvania, in
1803, and very early in life removed to St. Clairsville, Belmont county, Ohio,
where he grew to manhood and learned the trade of carpenter, which occupation he
followed the greater part of his life in connection with farming. His father,
the grandfather of our subject, is supposed to have been a native of Scotland,
who emigrated to this country shortly after the close of the Revolutionary war
and settled in Pennsylvania, where his death subsequently occurred. Samuel
Wilson married Charlotte McTyra, a native of Ohio, born about 1806, and supposed
to be of English descent. They were the parents of twelve children, ten of whom
grew to maturity. The father died at the age of eighty-four years, and the
mother when eighty-six years old.

   The subject of this sketch was the eleventh child in the family of twelve
children, and grew to manhood in his native State, receiving but a limited
education in the common schools. West Virginia, then a part of Virginia, was a
slave State, and those not possessed of wealth and the owner of slaves had no
social position; so it can be conceived that the boyhood and youth of our
subject was not one of roses without the thorns. Like his father, he had to work
for a living. But a change was rapidly approaching. The dark war-clouds that had
been hovering over the country had broken and the States were in deadly
conflict. When the first blow was struck, our subject was yet under fifteen
years of age—too young to enlist. That part of Virginia, now West Virginia, was
loyal to the Union, and the patriotic heart of young Wilson was stirred within
him. In August, 1862, when barely sixteen years of age, he enlisted as a private
in Company A, Seventh West Virginia Volunteer Infantry, and, with his regiment,
was actively engaged until nearly the close of the war, participating in a
number of engagements. At the battle of Hatcher's Run he was struck by a minie
ball, which passed through his right ankle. He was at once carried from the
field to an improvised hospital in the Baptist church in the neighborhood, and
subsequently removed to the hospital at Alexandria, and in March, 1865 to
Grafton hospital, West Virginia, where he remained until July, of that year,
when he was mustered out and honorably discharged.

   Returning home Mr. Wilson remained there until September following, when he
removed to Washington county, Iowa, where he worked on a farm by the month for a
year and a half, and then, in the spring of 1867, he went to Madison county,
Iowa, locating at Patterson, where he purchased four acres of land and engaged
in the nursery business. He had no previous experience in this line, but he
determined to master it, and the success which has since followed justifies his
choice of business. He remained at Patterson until the spring of 1871, when he
sold out and came to Atlantic and purchased land, which he set out in nursery
stock. From time to time he increased his possessions until he has at the
present time a nursery of 200 acres. He has made the business a study since he
embarked in it and is to-day one of the best posted men in his line and is
authority upon horticultural matters. In June, 1885, he was elected president of
the American Association of Nurserymen at Indianapolis, Indiana. He was
president and treasurer of the Iowa State Horticultural Society for four years.

   In politics, Mr. Wilson is a Republican, with which party he has acted during
his entire life. He was elected by that party a member of the Twenty-first,
Twenty-second and Twenty-third General Assemblies, representing Cass county. He
was proffered the nomination for the fourth time, but refused to accept the
nomination.

   In 1875, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage with Miss Edna Aylesworth, a
native of Lake county, Illinois. They have two sons, Alfred and Willie H.
Fraternally, Mr. Wilson is a member of General Sam Rice Post, No. 6, G. A. R.
Religiously he is a member of the United Presbyterian Church and is a member of
the Session. In all church and benevolent work he is greatly interested and
contributes much of his time and means for the building up of the Lord's cause
and the amelioration of the human race.


Additional Comments:

Extracted from:

A MEMORIAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL RECORD OF IOWA

ILLUSTRATED

"A people that take no pride in the noble achievements of remote ancestors will
never achieve anything worthy to be remembered with pride by remote
descendants."'—MACAULAY.

"Biography is by nature the must universally profitable, universally pleasant,
of all things."—CARLYLE

"History is only biography on a large scale"—LAMARTINE.

CHICAGO: THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY
1896

File at: http://files.usgwarchives.net/ia/cass/bios/wilson145gbs.txt

This file has been created by a form at http://www.genrecords.org/iafiles/

File size: 5.7 Kb