Biography of William A. WILSON, Ohio County, West Virginia This file was submitted by Cheryl McCollum, E-mail address: This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm WILLIAM A. WILSON. The name Wilson has been prominently associated with the commercial life of Wheeling for just a century. There have been three generations of the name represented here, and for more than half a century of this time the senior member of W. A. Wilson & Sons proved a conspicuous source of the energy and enterprise not only affecting his particular line, but the general welfare and progress of the community. It was in 1822 that William Penn Wilson came to Wheeling. He was born in Delaware, January 1, 1800, of an English Quaker family. In Wheeling he became a builder and contractor, and in 1852 became associated with John McLure and Anthony Dunlevy in the firm of McLure, Dunlevy & Company, steamboat builders and owners. The firm subsequently was Wilson, Dunlevy & Wheeler, which built three of the finest Ohio River steamboats, the Thomas Swan, the Baltimore and the City of Wheeling. William P. Wilson was also one of the pioneer manufacturers of nail kegs in Wheeling at a time when one-third of all the cut nails manufactured in the United States was made here. William P. Wilson for a number of years was a member of the Wheeling City Council, also a member of the board of supervisors, was a whig and later a democrat in politics, one of his sons was killed while a Confederate soldier, and he and his wife were among the faithful members of the Methodist Church. William P. Wilson married Sarah Pannell, who was born at Wheeling in 1803, daughter of George and Jane Pannell. William P. Wilson and wife went through life together and in death they were not divided, dying on successive days and they were laid to rest in one grave July 26, 1873. They had been married a little over forty years. The last survivor of their children was William A. Wilson, who was born at the family homestead on Fifth Street in Wheeling, July 8, 1842, and who died at his home on Main Street, November 24, 1920, when past seventy-eight. He was educated in the public schools, learned business under his father, and in 1866 engaged in the lumber and planning mill business in association with Clark Hanes, under the firm name of Hanes & Wilson. He also succeeded to the business name of Hanes & Wilson. He also succeeded to the business interests left by his father, including a manufacturing plant formerly devoted to the manufacture of nail kegs and subsequently utilized for the making of packing boxes. In connection with his lumber yards and planing mills W. A. Wilson engaged in contracting, the firm handling many extensive contracts involving large buildings. As a branch of this business there was opened a retail paint and oil store in 1875, and that was the nucleus of what is now the main interest of the firm of W. A. Wilson & Sons, a business that is both wholesale and retail and with a trade extending over five states. The headquarters of the firm for many years have been at 1409-1411 Main Street. Since 1894 William P. Wilson has been a member of the firm and the younger son, Arch A. Wilson, entered the partnership in 1900. The late William A. Wilson was for some years president of the Commercial Bank, and later this bank was absorbed by the Wheeling Bank & Trust Company. He acted in hearty accord with the public spirited citizens of Wheeling in advancing the commercial and general welfare of the community. Mr. Wilson was one of the most popular of Wheeling's business men. In his personal relations he was characterized by a fine sense of humor. He liked the open air and almost to the close of his life he enjoyed his game of golf at the Wheeling Country Club. He was a stalwart democrat in politics and a member of the North Street Methodist Episcopal Church. The Late W. A. Wilson practiced and exemplified the high ideals of the Masonic Order and he was one of the most prominent Masons in the state, particularly in the Scottish Rite. In February, 1866, he was raised in Ohio Lodge No. 1, F. and A. M., and subsequently became a charter member of Nelson Lodge No. 30. He was affiliated with Wheeling Union Chapter No. 1, R. A. M., Cyrene Commandery No. 7, K. T., Osiris Temple of the Mystic Shrine. In March, 1876 he joined the Scottish Rite organization and became a charter member of West Virginia Consistory No. 1 upon its organization in 1894, and was elected the first treasurer of the four bodies of the Scottish Rite at Wheeling, a position he held until his death. At the meeting of the Supreme Council for the Southern Jurisdiction of the United States held in October, 1919, he was elected to receive the thirty-third honorary degree, which was conferred upon him in the Cathedral at Wheeling, April 12, 1920. June 10, 1867, Mr. Wilson married Miss Texana Arndt, daughter of a prominent Wheeling citizen, Jacob Arndt. Mrs. Wilson survived her honored husband. Of her three children the only daughter, Flora C., died January 20, 1910, as the wife of Charles Lamb. The two sons, who continue the business organization of W. A. Wilson & Sons, are William P. and Arch A., both of whom are married and they and their families are socially prominent in Wheeling. This article may properly close by quoting an editorial from the Wheeling Intelligencer: "The death of W. A. Wilson has removed from the Wheeling community a man of a type that any city can ill afford to lose. Virile and successful in his many business undertakings, he typified in his life the spirit and the achievements of Wheeling. Born and reared here, there was ever a great mutual admiration between him and his native city, and he was always a stanch supporter of worthy civic movements. During his seventy-eight years here Mr. Wilson became intimately and prominently connected with practically every phase of Wheeling's activities. As a manufacturer, merchant and banker he helped to lay the solid foundations of the city's prosperity and to build the splendid superstructure. His lodge and church connections were admirable and consistent, and in the midst of all his busy life he found time to be a leader in charitable work. His associates in all of these activities will miss the unassuming support and keen judgment on which they were accustomed to rely. Those most closely associated with him will miss his unostentatious acts of kindness."