WILSON, Charles Taylor 1866-1957

WILSON, PARNELL, GOODALE, KOTHE, DAWSON, DALLMAN, DUNHAM, KUZMA

Posted By: S. Bell
Date: 10/14/2014 at 23:59:07

[Waterloo Daily Courier, Wednesday, November 20, 1957, Waterloo, Iowa]

Charles T. Wilson, Ex-Engineer, Dies

Funeral services are planned for 1 p. m. Friday at O'Keefe & Towne Funeral Home for Charles T. Wilson, 91, former city engineer, who died at 6:30 p. m. Tuesday in Allen Memorial Hospital of complications due to advanced age.

Dr. Fred E. Miller, pastor of First Methodist Church, of which Mr. Wilson was a member, will officiate and burial will be in Oak Hill Cemetery, in Parkersburg.

Mr. Wilson, who lived at 100 Morgan Rd., was Waterloo city engineer from 1903 until 1916 and from 1936-1940. He was then appointed superintendent of the city sewage disposal plant and held that position from 1940 until 1954. From 1910-1912 he was a member of the waterworks board. He was a member of the West Waterloo school board for 15 years, serving one term as president.

Mr. Wilson attended the Parkersburg schools and Cornell College. He received his B. A. degree in civil engineering from Cornell in 1893 and was alife member of the board of trustees of the college.

Mr. Wilson had been a member of the Iowa Engineering Society since 1896, serving one term as president. He also was a member of the Waterloo Technical Society, Rotary, Symposium Club and a 50 year Mason.

Charles Taylor Wilson was born in Black Hawk County Oct. 3, 1866, the son of Seth and Sarah Parnell Wilson.

On Sept 1. 1894, he married Clara Belle Goodale. She died in 1926. Later he married Mrs. Eva Kothe Dawson. She also preceded him in death.

Survivors include four daughters: Miss Dorothy Wilson and Mrs. Anne Dallman, residing at home at 100 Morgan Rd., Mrs. Clara Bell Dunham, La Crescenta, Calif., and Mrs. Florence Kuzma, Anchorage, Alaska; two sons, Clarence, of Rockford, Ill., and Donald of San Carlos, Calif.; one sister, Miss Carrie Wilson, Long Beach, Calif.; 10 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

The family requests that flowers be omitted.

-------------------------------

[History of Black Hawk county, Iowa, and Its People, 1915]

C. T. WILSON is a general contractor and builder of Waterloo, with office at the corner of Bridge and Commercial streets. He has made thoroughness and efficiency his watchwords in connection with business, and by reason of the results attained thereby has secured a gratifying patronage. He was born in Washington township, Black Hawk county, in 1866, a son of Seth and Sarah Parnell (Hitchcock) Wilson. The grandparents were pioneer settlers of Washington township, but the parents were both born in Illinois prior to the establishment of the Wilson and Hitchcock families in this county. Both the paternal and maternal grandfather entered land from the government and the paternal grandparents remained upon their claim until called to their final rest. Mr. Wilson having in the meantime converted the place into a highly improved farm. The maternal grandfather operated his farm for a time, but in his later years removed to Cedar Falls, where both he and his wife passed away. Both families were closely associated with a number of the early events that shaped the pioneer history of the county, and Grandfather Wilson served on the first jury ever impaneled in Black Hawk county. In early days he sawed wood for the Illinois Central Railroad to use in their engines. At first Dubuque was their nearest market.

Both Seth Wilson and Sarah Hitchcock were reared in this county and were here married. They began their domestic life upon a farm, and Mr. Wilson continuously carried on general agricultural pursuits until 1904, when he removed to Waterloo, where he still makes his home at the age of seventy-two years. His wife, however, passed away in 1912. In their family were three children: C. T.; Mrs. Richards, who is living in Butler county, Iowa; and Carrie, who is employed by the Leavitt & Johnson Trust Company of Waterloo.

C. T. Wilson acquired his education in the public schools of Parkersburg and lived upon the home farm until twenty-one years of age, during which period he taught school for two years. He afterward spent five years in Cornell College, Iowa, and was graduated therefrom in 1893 on the completion of a course in civil engineering. He followed that profession until 1912, and during the last nine years was city engineer of Waterloo. Previously he had done survey work in connection with railroad building. In 1912 he embarked in contracting, building and general construction work and has since been active along that line in Waterloo and northeastern Iowa, where many important contracts have been awarded him. Evidences of his skill and handiwork can be seen in many places, and he is widely recognized as one of the leading general contractors of his section of the state. As the years have passed on he has prospered in his undertakings and is now the owner of a number of residence properties and vacant lots in Waterloo, together with the fine home which he occupies.

In 1894 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Clara Goodale, a native of New York, who came to the west with her parents in her childhood days and settled in Butler county, where both her father and mother passed away. Mrs. Wilson is one of the three children of the Goodale family who still survive, the others being: Oren E., of Los Angeles, California; and Annie C., who is a trained nurse of Iowa City. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have been born six children: Dorothy, who was born in 1895 and is now attending college in Mount Vernon; Anna, who was born in 1897 and is at home; Clarence, who was born in 1899 and is now a student in the high school; Clara B., who was born in 1901 and is a high-school pupil; Donald, born in 1907; and Florence, born in 1912.

The religious faith of the family is that of the Methodist Episcopal denomination and Mr. Wilson holds membership with the First Methodist church of Waterloo. He is quite liberal in his political views although his tendency is toward the republican party. He has served on the board of the west side and he was a member of the board of water commissioners of Waterloo in connection with J. M. Groat and J. E. Sedgewick when the plant was taken over by the city. He was likewise a member of the school board for nine years and has been thus closely connected with important public service and in many ways has contributed to the upbuilding and progress of the city in which he makes his home. He is guided at all times by the spirit of advancement and this is as strongly manifest in his business life as in other connections.