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Source: Portrait and Biographical Album of Fulton County
Biographical Publishing Co., Chicago, 1890

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The Biography of Thomas W. WILSON 

Pages 352-353, transcribed in full by Danni Hopkins 

[Surnames: DEWEESE, KINZER, ROGERS, WILSON] 

    
THOMAS W. WILSON, a man universally popular, and one who has achieved great success in life, furnishes the subject for the present sketch, and we are pleased to represent such a public-spirited and courteous gentleman in our ALBUM. Many years ago David Wilson was born in the State of Tennessee, and after a prosperous period of farming in his native place, moved to the Blue Grass State, settling in Knox County, afterward removing to Harrison County, Ind., where he died. He was the grandfather of our subject, and a man well calculated to give noble principles to the younger members of his household. At the time he removed to Kentucky, his son, Joseph, father of our subject, was a lad of ten summers, and there he continued to reside up to the time he reached his twentieth year. He then went with the family to Harrison County, Ind., making the trip by wagon through a wild country, and being numbered among the pioneers at that place. He purchased land in the woods, where he built a rude log cabin, and commenced to clear the land preparatory to cultivating the soil. He soon had his one hundred and sixty acres under good cultivation, and continued to make that his home until 1855, at which date he sold his estate and removed to Fulton County, making this trip by way of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, and in this county he died after attaining his eighty-third year. He was married in 1833, to Miss Mary Rogers, a native of Virginia, and to them were born two children, viz: Thomas, our subject, and Margaret, who is now Mrs. Amos Kinzer, and resides in Sedgwick, Kan. 
    
Mr. Wilson at an early age attended school, and received all the educational advantages possible in those days when the schoolhouses were rude, and the information imparted in them was meagre indeed. Indiana at that time possessed none of the advanced ideas that at the present time make it a popular place for educational matters. He worked on a farm through the summer, thus becoming familiar with the duties of agricultural life, and when twenty years of age, he moved to Fulton County, where he bought one hundred and twenty acres of land on section 6, Kerton Township. The land was not cultivated, and nature ran riot, so he had a great deal of hard work to clear the ground, and bring his property to its present value. He built a log cabin 18x20 feet in dimensions, and has continued from time to time, both to improve and add to his farm. He purchased fifty-eight acres of river-bottom land on section 4, in 1888. Besides farming he is interested in stock-raising, and is regarded as a most progressive and energetic farmer. 
    
Our subject on the 15th of February, 1855, married Miss Martha A. Deweese, of Harrison County, Ind., whose birth occurred December 11, 1839, and who is a daughter of John Deweese. Her father was a native of Kentucky, removed to Indiana at an early date, and at the present writing is making his home in Kansas with his son. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are the happy parents of eighteen children, viz.: Sarah P., Joseph W., John W., Mary S., Margaret E., Charles S., Amos L., Lafayette, Nandora, Emmett C., Laura B., Louis E., Mattie, Hayes, Thomas J., Gertrude, Abbie G., and Roscoe C. 
    
Mrs. Wilson has been a faithful member of the Methodist Church since girlhood, and is a lovely Christian woman, and one very popular with all who know her. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Republican party. He has held many offices of public trust, having served as Road Commissioner, School Trustee, and Collector for this township. Indeed, his popularity is great, and extends throughout the county.