Biographical Sketch of Winfield Scott WILSON (1893); Chester County, PA Contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by John Morris . *********************************************************************** USGENWEB ARCHIVES NOTICE: Printing this file within by non-commercial individuals and libraries is encouraged, as long as all notices and submitter information is included. Any other use, including copying files to other sites requires permission from the submitters PRIOR to uploading to any other sites. We encourage links to the state and county table of contents. http://www.usgwarchives.net/ *********************************************************************** Source: "Biographical and Portrait Cyclopedia of Chester County, Pennsyl- vania, comprising a historical sketch of the county," by Samuel T. Wiley and edited by Winfield Scott Garner, Gresham Publishing Company, Phila- delphia, PA, 1893, pp. 748-50. "WINFIELD SCOTT WILSON, president of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norris- town Railroad Company, is a fine example of the successful business men who have done so much toward placing Chester county in the proud position she occupies in the old Commonwealth. He is the youngest son of David and Eliza (Siter) Wilson, and a native of Delaware county, Pennsylvania, where he was born October 3, 1825. His paternal great-grandfather, John Wilson, was a farmer who passed nearly or quite all his life in this county, where he died at an advanced age. Among his children was David Wilson (grand- father), who was born in Tredyffrin township - in the eastern part of Chester valley - and lived there all his life, principally engaged in ag- riculture. In that pursuit he was very successful, and at the time of his death owned two hundred acres of very valuable land. He died in his native township during the summer of 1828, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. His wife was Sarah Davis, by whom he had a family of six children, two sons and four daughters: Elizabeth, Anna, Mary, Sarah, who married Joseph Caskey; John and David - all now deceased. "David Wilson (father) was also a native of Tredyffrin township, where he was born March 23, 1791. In 1817 he removed to Delaware county, where he resided until 1829, when he returned to his native place, and died in the old mansion now occupied by his son, the subject of this sketch, in March, 1873, aged eighty-two years. He was an extensive farmer, and for many years a prominent live stock dealer of this section. Among his possessions were two fine farms, one of a hundred and one acres, now owned and occupied by Winfield S. Wilson, and the other containing one hundred and twenty-six acres, situated in Tredyffrin township, on which the widow of John M. Wil- son now resides. He was also a stockholder and director in the National bank of Norristown, and a director of the Chester Valley railroad, being eminently successful in business. In early life he was a whig, but after the organization of the Republican party he joined its ranks, though he never took an active part in political contests. In the spring of 1811 he married Eliza Siter, a daughter of Adam Siter, of Delaware county, and they were the parents of seven children, three sons and four daughters: Sarah A., born in 1812; Mary, born 1814; Caroline, born 1816; Edward, born 1818; John M., born 1820; Amanda, born 1823; and Winfield S. John M., the second son, was born in Tredyffrin township, educated in the public schools and at Prof. Hoopes' private school, engaged in farming, became president of the Malvern National bank, and died August 3, 1887, on the old homestead. In politics he was a republican, and in religion a strict member of the Great Valley Presbyterian church, in which he was active and prominent, serving as trustee and elder. He married Anna Harrar, of Montgomery county. "Winfield S. Wilson grew to manhood on his father's farm in Tredyffrin township, receiving his primary instruction in the common schools, after- ward attending academies at Reesville and West Chester, and taking a course in Professor Stroad's boarding school, near West Chester. Soon after leav- ing school, in 1842, he engaged in manufacturing and shipping lime in Northampton county, and followed that business until 1852, when he became secretary and treasurer of the Chester Valley Railroad Company. He con- tinued in the faithful discharge of the duties of that position until the fall of 1859, when he resigned to accept a similar place with the Phila- delphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad Company. Here his superior business endowments found ample scope for their exercise, and so acceptably did he manage the complicated duties connected with his responsible post that in 1864 he was made general superintendent of that road, and continued to act as such until 1871. In the latter year he became purchasing agent for the Philadelphia & Reading railroad, and in 1888 was elected president of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad Company, which re- sponsible and exacting position he has since held, discharging its duties with that positive force, perfect system and prompt execution which marks every man born with ability for complicated business. He still owns and cultivates the old homestead farm, one of the best in this section, which is finely improved, with an elegant residence surrounded by a beautiful lawn, the grounds being traversed by gravel paths and studded with luxuri- ant shrubbery. It is a home to be proud of, and the fact that it has been owned by the family for several generations adds to its charm and value. In personal appearance Mr. Wilson is tall and stately, in manner affable and easily approached, and these, together with the solid foundation of an upright character and the perfect integrity of his business career, combine to make him, perhaps, the best liked and most popular man in the Chester Valley. "On January 8, 1855, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Emma J. Walker, a daughter of William and Sarah (Pennypacker) Walker, of Tredyffrin town- ship. (See sketch of William Walker elsewhere in this volume.) To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson was born a family of six children: Sallie, married Joseph C. Crawford, a grain and coal merchant of West Conshohocken, Montgomery county; David, who wedded R. Ann West, and is now a clerk in the employ of the Philadelphia & Reading Coal and Iron Company, residing at Bridgeport, Montgomery county; C. Colket, who married Emily Anderson, and now occupies the position of assistant secretary and treasurer of the Philadelphia, Germantown & Norristown Railroad Company, with residence at Bridgeport; William C., who was graduated from the law department of the university of Pennsylvania in 1887, and has since been practicing his profession in the city of Philadelphia; Athalia, who died in 1884, at the age of twenty-one years; and Eliza S., who passed away in 1868, aged eleven."