BIO: Walter Townsend Wilson; Buffalo, Erie co., NY.
Surname: Wilson, Townsend, Granger, Morse, Littell

Transcribed by W. David Samuelsen

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MEMORIAL AND FAMILY HISTORY OF ERIE COUNTY NEW YORK
VOLUME I, BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL, ILLUSTRATED, PUB. 1906-8

WALTER T. WILSON. In the life of Walter T. Wilson is presented a career
consistent in its devotion to large business interests and notable for the
ability displayed in the conduct  of important enterprises. Mr Wilson is not
only a superior man of affairs but a strong and valuable type of citizen

The Wilson family is of English origin. Walter Wilson, the great grandfather
of Walter T. Wilson, at an early period came from England to America and
settled in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the father of Walter Wilson, the second
of the name, who was born in Baltimore and who in 1846 became a resident of
Burlington, New Jersey. By occupation he was a West India trader. He died in
1846. He was the father of Guilford Reed Wilson, who was born in Burlington,
N. J., October 19th, 1813, and was the father of the subject of this sketch.
While yet a youth, Guilford R. Wilson went to Pennsylvania and afterward to
Corning, N. Y., engaging in the lumber business and also becoming interested
in the Blessburg coal mines. In 1842 he removed to Buffalo and embarked in the
coal and iron business in which, under the firm style of G. R. Wilson & Co.,
he continued on an extensive scale until his death in 1877. He was a director
in several banks and a member of the Board of Trade and the Buffalo Coal
Exchange.

Mr. Wilson was originally a Whig, and later a Republican. He was a member of
the Episcopal Church, but attended Presbyterian worship, and during the last
years of his life was President of the Board of Trustees of the First
Presbyterian Church of Buffalo. He was among the early members of the Buffalo
Club.

March 31, 1846, Mr. Wilson married Jane Corning Townsend, daughter of the late
Judge Charles Townsend. Their children were: Walter P.; Gertrude Corning, who
married William C. Francis of Buffalo; Jennie Clifton, who died in youth,
unmarried; Guilford Reed, who was engaged in the planing mill business and who
died in 1898 as the result of illness contracted While serving during the
Spanish-American War in the Commissary Department, with the rank of Captain in
the 65th Regiment; Charles T., who married Stella Granger; Arthur W., who died
in youth; Clarence W., now deceased; and Edward R., also deceased.

Guilford B. Wilson died in Buffalo, February 18, 1877. His widow's death
occured in 1898.

Walter Townsend Wilson was born in Buffalo, March 28th, 1847. He attended the
public schools of that city and finished his education at the school of Prof.
Briggs. Leaving school at the age of eighteen, Mr. Wilson became a clerk in
his father's office. Subsequently he engaged in the coal and iron business,
and in 1868 was admitted partner in the firm of G. R. Wilson & Co., located at
the corner o: Ohio and Elk Streets. In this association he continued to the
time of the death of his father, Guilford R. Wilson, when he closed up the
affairs of the firm, and since then has been engaged in the leather belting
business, being one of the proprietors of the well-known enterprise known as
the Bickford & Francis Belting Company. This firm is one of the leading houses
of its kind in the United States.

Mr. Wilson is a director of the Commonwealth Trust Company, secretary and
manager of the Buffalo Planing Mill Company, and is identified with various
other industrial and financial undertakings of importance.

In politics he is a Republican. Tn 1886 he was elected Alderman from the 16th
Ward.

He is a member of the First Presbyterian Church, belongs to the Historical
Society, the Saturn Club, and otlmer organiza tions of a social or scientific
character.

In January, 1875, Mr. Wilson married Miss Jennie Morse, daughter of David R.
Morse. Their children are Walter Morse, who is associated with his father in
the belting business and who is a 1st Lieutenant in the 65th Regiment N. G. N.
Y., and served in the Spanish-American War; Gertrude, wife of the Rev. John
Stockton Littell, pastor of St. Luke's Episcopal Church at Brockport and whose
children are John, Margaret and Gertrude; and Margaret.