BIO: James S. WILSON, Beaver County, PA
  
  Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Joe Patterson
  
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  BOOK OF BIOGRAPHIES.  This Volume Contains Biographical Sketches 
  of Leading Citizens of Beaver County, Pennsylvania.  Buffalo, N.Y., 
  Chicago, Ill.: Biographical Publishing Company, 1899, pp. 304-305.
  _________________________________________________________________ 
  
  JAMES S. WILSON, who is a prominent and independent farmer of North Sewickley
  township, Beaver county, Pa., is a veteran of the Civil War and bears an
  excellent record for honorable and valiant service. He is a son of James and
  Barbara (Showalter) Wilson, and was born November 27, 1833.
  
  James Wilson, the father of James S., was born on Hickory Creek in Allegheny
  county, Pennsylvania. His father died when he was young man and his mother
  was again married to a Mr. Ralston, and he soon after went to Butler county,
  where he remained for some time. He moved to Beaver county at an early day,
  and worked as a farm hand until 1832, when he bought the farm now owned by
  the subject of this sketch. It consisted of one hundred and seven acres of
  wooded land, and he worked early and late until he cleared all but twenty
  acres, upon which the timber still stands. He was one of the prosperous and
  substantial men of the township, and was everywhere held in the highest
  esteem. He died in 1891, aged eighty-six years. He married Barbara Showalter,
  and they became the parents of twelve children: Salina, the widow of H. M.
  Biddell, who lives in Beaver Falls; Nancy, who died at the age of thirty
  years; William F., who moved West; James S., the subject of this personal
  history; Joseph F., who lives in New Brighton; Harrison, who died at the age
  of nineteen years; Mary Jane, deceased; Jefferson; Aaron, a dry goods
  merchant and Baptist minister, who lives at Rochester; John, who died in the
  army during the Civil War; Thomas, who is engaged in the grocery business at
  Rochester, Beaver county; and one who died in infancy. In political belief,
  Mr. Wilson was a Republican. Religiously, he was a devout Christian and
  at-tended the Methodist Episcopal church. Mrs. Wilson died in 1893.
  
  James S. Wilson was born on the farm on which he now lives, and received a
  first-class scholastic training in the common schools and in North Sewickley
  Academy, and pursued a course in Duff's Business College at Pittsburg. He
  spent his time working on the farm
  
  BEAVER COUNTY  305
  
  until the Civil War was in progress, and then, in answer to the call for
  volunteers, he enlisted, August 23, 1861, in Company C, 63d Reg., Pa. Vol.
  Inf., as a private. He saw much hard and continued fighting, but was ever
  willing and even eager to perform his full share of the work, and more. He is
  of a cool and even temperament, and in times of danger was undisturbed, and
  always to be seen in the very thickest of the fight. In 1863, he was promoted
  to a first lieutenancy. He took part in the following important engagements:
  The siege of Yorktown; Williamsburg; Fair Oaks; Seven Days Battle; second
  battle of Bull Run; and Chantilly. He then went home on recruiting service,
  remaining six months, and upon returning to the regiment, participated in the
  battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg, following Lee to Manassas Gap,
  where an engagement took place. He fought in the battles of Mine Run, Kelly's
  Ford, and in the battle of the Wilderness, where, on May 5, he was severely
  wounded in the thigh and hip. He was compelled to go to the hospital for
  three months, and upon going home, used a pair of crutches for two years. He
  then resumed agricultural pursuits, his farm being under a high state of
  cultivation, and one of the best in that section. It is supplied with good
  substantial and convenient outbuildings, which are so essential to success in
  farming, and the house in which he resides is a large brick dwelling. He is a
  man of pleasing personality, a clever conversationalist, and has, a host of
  friends.
  
  On July 24, 1866, Mr. Wilson was joined in wedlock with Miss Jemima A.
  McCreary, a daughter of William and Mary McCreary, of North Sewickley
  township, and six children were born to them: Mary E., the wife of E. U.
  McDaniel; Sarah Jane, the wife of Henry Bonzo; Cecelia N., who married
  Jefferson Kinney; and Anna, Aaron, and George, who live with the parents.
  Religiously, the family are Presbyterians.