Wilson, William R (1834-1894)

WILSON, HIGBEE

Posted By: Debbie Greenfield (email)
Date: 5/7/2017 at 14:37:33

Webster City Freeman, Webster City, Iowa, Wednesday, November 7, 1894

W.R. Wilson, Stanhope's present postmaster, and a resident of Hamilton county for 35 years, died Sunday morning, Nov. 4, 1894, of malarial fever, in his 60th year, after a few days illness. A wife and ten children, most of the latter grown to man and woman's estate, are left to mourn his sudden death. Mr. Wilson was a good man and a valued citizen, and will be greatly missed by the people among whom he had lived all these years. The funeral will take place in Stanhope today, Rev. Dr. Crum conducting the services.

[burial Lawn Hill Cemetery, rural Stanhope, Iowa]

Saturday Mail, Stanhope, Iowa, Saturday, November 24, 1894

The Rockford, Ill., Register-Gazette contains the following notice of W.R. Wilson's death.

"W.H. Higbee, of this city, has received mail advices of the death of a former citizen of Rockford, W.R. Wilson, of Stanhope, Iowa. Mrs. Wilson was a niece of Mr. Higbee. Mr. Wilson was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1834; came to Rockford in 1852; married Miss Sarah Higbee in 1856, and at the close of the war moved to Iowa. They passed through some trying seasons, in losses from grasshoppers, etc., but industry and good management were crowned with prosperity in the end. They had ten children, the youngest being sixteen. Five of them are married.

"Mr. Wilson was possessed of a considerable estate, a farm of three hundred acres, a home in town and a half interest in a hardware store. For several years he had done considerable business in buying and shipping stock. He was upright in all his dealings. He was a justice of the peace, and a year ago was appointed postmaster at Stanhope, being assisted in the office by his daughters, Nellie and Maggie. He had been feeling poorly for two weeks, but appeared at his office as usual till the fore part of the week of his death. The funeral had a great attendance."