WILSON, George E. 1847-1926

WILSON, FITZMAURICE

Posted By: Michael Kearney (email)
Date: 8/1/2002 at 23:00:17

The Clinton Herald Saturday June 19, 1926 p. 6 Funeral services for the late George E. Wilson, who died in San Francisco will be held at 2 o'clock Monday afternoon at the late residence, with the Rev. J.M. Duer, pastor of the First Presbyterian church, officiating. Interment will be in the family lot in Springdale cemetery. The body of Mr. Wilson will arrive in Clinton Monday morning on the Overland Limited on the Northwestern railway and will be taken to the family home. Born in England, March 18, 1847, Mr. Wilson come to America with his father in 1856, following the death of his mother. The father settled on a farm near Rockford, Ill. Mr. Wilson, the son, remained on the farm until he was 17 years of age, at which time he began the career that brought him, too, to prominence in the business world. In his youth he had worked in a reaper factory and flour mill and later learned the foundry and machine business, which established the foundation upon which he subsequently built yhis principal business enterpirse, the Clinton Bridge & Iron Works. He spent the period after the Civil war in Louisiana and Alabama and shortly thereafter went to Beloit, Wis., where for two years he was with the Merrill & Houston Manufacturing Co. Later he located in Sterling, Ill., where he engaged in the foundry and machine business for several years, coming then to Clinton, in 1892 when he purchased the Clinton Bridge & Iron Works, which became one of the leading concerns of the state under his judicious management. Mr. Wilson was married June 4, 1871, to Miss Hannah Marie Fitzmaurice, who preceded him in death. Of his family, he leaves a daughter, Miss Louise Wilson, at home, and three sons, George E. Wilson, Jr., Frank E. Wilson and John Frederick Wilson, all of the sons associated with him in the management of the Clinton Bridge & Iron Works. During the Civil War, Mr. Wilson demonstrated his patriotic spirit, evidenced also in later years, by enlisting in the Fifty-second Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company E., about six months before General Lee's surrender. Twice previously he had run away in an effort to enlist but in each instance his father interered. Mr. Wilson was also prominently identified with the Merchants National bank, which he served for many years as president. In civic life, he was always ready to do his part for the upbuilding of the community. He was a member of the various Masonic bodies of the city. At the time of the San Francisco earthquake and fire in 1906, Mr. Wilson chartered a private car and took the first relief train into San Francisco. In 1914 he was appointed by the governor of the state of Iowa to act as commissioner to the Panama Pacific International Exposition held in San Francisco during the year 1915.