Cass County MI Archives Photo Tombstone.....Wilson, James H. 
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Marshall H. Sanders, Jr. sanmarjr@sbcglobal.net June 5, 2012, 1:50 am

Cemetery:           Chain Lake Cemetery
Name:               James H. Wilson

Date Of Photograph: October 13, 2007
Photo can be seen at:
http://www.usgwarchives.net/mi/cass/photos/tombstones/chainlake/wilson223560nph.jpg
Image file size: 241.9 Kb

James H. Wilson
1869-1948

James Henry Wilson shares the marker with his wife Rosa A. Wilson.  James H. 
Wilson was born in Cass County, May 13, 1869; his parents were Macom Wilson 
and Elvira Coker Wilson.  James H. (Jim) Wilson had two siblings 
Franklin “Frank” Wilson b. 22 Jul 1872 and Delilah Catherine “Aunt Kit” Wilson 
(Anderson) b.12 Mar 1862. 

The first marriage of James H. Wilson was to Mary Sanders 15 Jan 1893.  Mary 
Sanders was the daughter of Calvin Sanders and Gertrude Brown and sister of 
Oscar Sanders b. 5 Jul 1876.  James H. Wilson and wife Mary Sanders Wilson 
divorced;they had no children. 

On 14 Oct 1901, in Michigan City Indiana, James H. Wilson married Rosa A. 
Allen.  They were the parents of three children Edith Marguerite Wilson 
(Newsom) b. 7 Oct 1902, James Donald Wilson b. 29 Feb 1904 and Esther Rosetta 
Wilson (Sanders) (Wingfield) b. 5 Aug 1908.  In 1911 James H. Wilson and Rosa 
A. Wilson inherited a 250 acre Calvin Township farm from Minerva Akens 
(Wilson), a widowed childless aunt of James H. Wilson.  The farming couple and 
children of Jim and Rosa raised horses, mules, cattle, hogs, sheep, chickens 
and crops of corn and wheat.  The farm had access to Round Lake;neighbors 
helped the Wilson’s raise a large barn in 1927.  The big red barn located on 
Mt. Zion Rd. about one quarter mile east of Kessington Rd. is still standing.  
The farmhouse was destroyed by fire in 2004.  

James H. was known to give “vagrants” a hot meal and a place to spend the 
night.  James H. Wilson was very punctual and expected the same of others. He 
was a Charter Member of the Calvin Community Chapel (1928); his team of horses 
was used to dig the basement for the Chapel.  James H. Wilson was a skilled 
mason and assisted in the construction of the Calvin Community Chapel (the 
stone church).  He also built the outside entrance steps of Chain Lake 
Baptist, Mt. Zion and Bethel Churches.  James H. Wilson was a Chief Gleaner of 
the Primrose Arbor of the Ancient Order of Gleaners.  The Gleaners was a 
fraternal organization of members who pledged to give material and moral aid 
to needy brothers and sisters.  Jim Wilson was also a Justice of the Peace in 
1928.

I remember Grandpa Wilson as being a large man but I was only 7 when he 
died.   He stood 5’8”, weighed nearly 200 pounds, had a mustache, a pot belly 
and wore suspenders. He also smoked cigars, carried a small pocket knife and 
used the phrase “what in the tar nation” frequently.  I said the phrase once 
and was told not to repeat it again.  He owned a Dodge Touring car, a Ford, a 
bobsled, a sleigh and a thrashing machine.

After several months’ illness, at the age of 79, James H. Wilson died of heart 
disease and cancer on Saturday, May 15, 1948 at 8:00 P.M.  Services were held 
at the Calvin Community Chapel Church on Tuesday, May 18, 1948.  Reverend 
Henson of Laporte Indiana officiated.   Burial took place at Chain Lake 
Cemetery.  James H. Wilson was buried next to Minerva Akens and near his 
parents Macom and Elvira Coker (Wilson) and grandparents Henry Clay Wilson and 
Katherine Hunt (Wilson). 

Chain Lake Cemetery entrance coordinates: 41 deg 51’ 36”N, 85 deg 53’ 15”W.



Additional Comments:
Contributors:  Esther R. Wilson Sanders Wingfield (1908-2002), Maurice Wilson 
Sanders, author of Allen-Sanders Descendants, 1985, Rosanna Allen Wilson (1880-
1967), author of Allen History, 1924 and Deborah McIntosh, Genealogy 
Researcher.  
Relationship:  James H. Wilson and Rosanna Allen Wilson are the parents of our 
mother Esther Rosetta Wilson Sanders Wingfield and the maternal grandparents 
of Maurice Wilson Sanders and Marshall H. Sanders, Jr. along with 7 other 
grandchildren.
Transcribed and Photographed:  Sharon A. Simeon and Marshall H. Sanders, Jr.




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