WILSON, (Major) M. R., Harris County, MS., then St. Landry Parish,
Louisiana
Submitted by Mike Miller


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MAJOR M. R. WILSON, OPELOUSAS.--Major M. R. Wilson is a native of Harris
county, Miss., born 1838.  His parents, Joel Wilson and Sicily Rodgers,
were both natives of the same state. Joel Wilson was by occupation a
farmer.  He has served as a member of the Alabama Legislature from
Russel county, where he removed in 1853.  He then moved to Arkansas,
where he died, at Hamburg, in 1878.

The subject of our sketch began life for himself in 1855, as a farmer. 
He married Miss Martha Driskill, daughter of Peter Driskill, of Macon
county, Alabama, and in 1858 he moved to Arkansas, where he bought land
in Ashley county, and was for several years engaged in farming.  In 1862
he enlisted in the Confederate service, and, with the exception of the
time he was in prison, he was in active service during the whole war. 
He was in the battle at Corinth, Miss., and at Port Hudson, Louisiana;
at the latter place he was taken prisoner, and was moved from place to
place until 1864, when he was sent to Morris Island.  He was
subsequently removed to different places; at the time of his release, in
1865, he was at Fort Delaware.  He returned to his home in Arkansas, and
from there removed to St. Landry parish, in 1867, where he bought land
and began farming.  His plantation, which is in a high state of
cultivation, consists of about six hundred and forty acres.

Mrs. Wilson died in 1857, and Major Wilson afterward married Miss
Georgia Williamson, of New Orleans.  To them have been born seven
children, viz.:  Elias (deceased),  Catherine (deceased),  Sicily
(deceased),  James (deceased),  Micajah R.,  George C. and  Robert Lee.

Southwest Louisiana Biographical and Historical, Biographical Section,
pp. 89-90.  Edited by William Henry Perrin.  Published in 1891, by The
Gulf Publishing Company.