Wilson, L. P.

WILSON, ORTON

Posted By: Volunteer Transcriber
Date: 11/23/2008 at 17:47:51

WILSON, L. P.; Farmer and stock raiser; Sec. 1; P. O. Prairie City; was born in Oneida Co., N. Y., July 16, 1822; came to this county in 1854; has 340 acres of land, valued at $20,000. Held the office of Constable in an early day. Married Nancy M. ORTON; she was born in the same county, Sept. 3, 1825; mother of eight children-Alva F., Eva M., Henry S., Maria J., Charley E., Hattie M., Emma E., Minnie M. Mr. W. emigrated from New York to Peoria CO., Ill., in 1834, with his parents before the Indians left that section; there were only two frame buildings and 200 inhabitants, where there is now a city if 35,000; thence to Jasper Co. where he has resided since; when he came here there were only two buildings in sight; he bought 560 acres of land for $1.25 per acre, and has improved his land, and by his exertion has brought it under the best of cultivation; moved into a shanty with a man of the name of ELLIOTT; stopped there four weeks while Mr. E. was east; when he came back, he brought two families besides his own, making four families in a shanty 18 x 22, and only one story, where twenty-nine or thirty persons lived four weeks; the first few years after he came here, he could buy buffalo meat for 1 cent per pound, and brought here from the Northwest; there were plenty of buffaloes within fifty miles; elk, deer, wolves, wild turkeys and prairie chickens were plenty; it was reported that one hunter killed forty-one elk in one day; he has ridden wolves down, and killed them with a club; he has backward and forward five times to Peoria Co., Ill., in what they called a prairie schooner; Mr. W. has a good home, and is one of the sound farmers. ~ "The History of Jasper County" (Chicago: Western Historical Company, 1878), 648