SAMUEL WILSON AND FAMILY, Smith County, TX ***************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Submitted by Donna Lowery Drake - donnadrake@earthlink.net 19 May 2001 ***************************************************************** SAMUEL WILSON AND FAMILY "Some Biographies of Old Settlers." Historical, Personal and Reminiscent. Volume I By Sid S. Johnson, 1900: Sid S. Johnson, Publisher, Tyler, Texas Chapter LXVII - Pages 280-281 Samuel Wilson married Mary Cates, in the State of Tennessee, in 1814. They were both natives of that state. In 1834, they moved to Winston County, Miss., and in 1846, they removed to Smith County, and settled near Omen, (Old Canton), and engaged in farming. They had nine children, all lived to be grown, three boys and six girls--Eliza, Elizabeth, William C., Delilia, John F., Martha, Nancy, James and Jane. Eliza married Archibald Pruett; they had ten children. Elizabeth married W. N. Bowen; they had ten children. William C. married Nancy Moore; they had eight children. Delilia married Richard Moore; they had seven children. John F. married Ellen Willshire; they had eight children. Martha married Josiah Willshire; they had twelve children. Nancy married Henry Moore; they had ten children. James married Mary Jane Higgins Cawthorn; they had one child. Jane married Alex Perry; they had three children. You see from the above that this family is a very prolific one, and it would take an ordinary volume to give the different branches of the Wilson family from Samuel Wilson, their grand old sire, to the generations who claim him as the originator of the Wilson family, in Smith County. Samuel Wilson was a Primitive Baptist in Christian faith and lived up to the order and faith of that grand old Christian church. He died in that faith, in 1873, an his life partner lived eleven years longer and passed over the river, clinging faithfully to the same religious tenets. Samuel Wilson was in the war of 1812, and when the Civil War broke out, his three sons volunteered in the Confederate service, doing their duty as soldiers for the cause of their section. James was in Company K, 3rd Texas cavalry, Ross' Texas brigade, hence he saw hard service. The Wilson family is another fair sample of the early settler--the founder of so many families of people that helps to populate our great state.