William Armstrong Wilson

The parents of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this biography were Armstrong and Jane (Hutchison) Wilson, the former born in 1806, and the latter in 1808. They were married in 1834, upon May 20, and settled in Fairview township, Butler county. Three children were born of this union -- Hutchison, who was killed when fourteen years old (as was also his stepbrother) by a stroke of lightning; Maria, who died an infant, and William Armstrong Wilson, the subject of this sketch, and the only one surviving, who was born in 1838. His parents were highly respectable people and members of the United Presbyterian church. They had succeeded in making for themselves a comfortable home when the father was hurt at a barn-raising so severely that he only lived a few hours afterward. His son was reared upon the farm, and received only the limited education which the primitive schools of the time in his neighborhood afforded. At the age of twenty-four he enlisted in Co. G, 134th regt. Pa. Vols., for the nine months service. June 2, 1864, he was married to Miss Mina Hart, daughter of William and Elizabeth Hart, of Sugar Creek township, Armstrong county. Mr. Wilson had, when he was twenty-one years of age, come in possession of his father's farm in Butler county, about 106 acres of land, worth perhaps $30 per acre. In 1872 petroleum was discovered on the farm adjoining his, which led to his leasing 15 acres of land to oil operators, who gave him a one-eighth royalty, and this led to the sale of the farm for the smug sum of $40,000. Soon afterward he purchased his father-in-law's old homestead in Sugar Creek township, Armstrong county, a good farm of 122 acres, on which he has since resided. He gave for this farm about $12,000, and has spent fully two-thirds of that sum in buildings and other improvements, and has made himself a pleasant and beautiful home. He has a half interest in a general store at Grove City, Mercer county, the capital stock of which is $10,000, and his son represents him in its management. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are members of the United Presbyterian church of East Brady. In politics Mr. Wilson is purely and strongly republican. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are Andrew Newton, Elizabeth Jane and Ethelda Eudel.

Source: Page(s) 608, History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania by Robert Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883.
Transcribed December 2000 by Jeffrey Bish for the Armstrong County Smith Project.
Contributed by Jeffrey Bish for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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