J. M. Willson, [Lismore, La.]  Parish, Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller
Source:
Date: Dec. 1999



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SOURCE: Biographical and Historical Memoires of Louisiana, (vol. 2), p. 461.
Published by the
Goodspeed Publishing Company, Chicago, 1892.



A native Tennesseean, J. M. Willson, planter, Lismore, La., is one of a
family of nine children:  John C., James H., Mary, Samuel T., Henry H., Zach
W., Winfield S. and Christian, born to the union of James and Elizabeth
(White) Wilson, both natives also of Tennessee.  J. M. Willson, subject of
this sketch, was born in Montgomery, Morgan county, in 1834, and at the age
of twenty-three years, equipped with a common-school education, he went to
Illinois, where he engaged in farming near Springfield on the Chicago & Alton
railroad.  There he remained until 1861, when he enlisted in Company I,
Fourteenth Illinois infantry, serving as a private until the close of the war. 
He was in the battle of Shiloh, siege of Vicksburg, battle of Hatchie
river and many minor engagements.  He was twice wounded at Shiloh, struck
in the side by a shell and shot in the right arm, and was completely disabled
for a time,  but recovered and rejoined his company.  At the close of the war
Mr. Willson was mustered out of the Federa1 service in Illinois.  During his
service in Louisiana he had formed such a favorable opinion of the climate and
soil that in the latter part of 1865 he went to Natchez and about a year later
to Concordia parish, where he began planting on "Live Oak plantation."  In 
1869 he purchased "Grassy Lake plantation," consisting of 640 acres on Black
river in Catahoula parish, opposite "Moro," where he resides.  Mr. Willson was
married in 1870 to Miss Eugenia Calhoun, a native of Mississippi, born near
Oxford, and of the five children born to this union, three are now living: 
James H., Emma, and Joe M.  Those deceased were Milton W. and Anna C.  Mr. 
Wilson has held the office of police juror of Ward 9 for four years.  He is
fully identified with the interests of his adopted state, and is one of the
brisk, enterprising planters of the parish. He is genial, wholesouled, and
enjoys the respect of a wide circle of friends.