WILSON, HAZEN

WILSON, DEAN

Posted By: County Coordinator
Date: 8/23/2019 at 20:21:36

MADISON TOWNSHIP.
P. O. FORT MADISON

WILSON, HAZEN, retired ; was born in Windsor Co., Vt., June 21, 1825 ; when 12 years of age, his parents emigrated to Iowa; they came by wagons, his father driving one ox-team and he and his brother drove the other; they started May 19, 1837, were ten weeks on the way, and arrived in Lee Co. the last of July, 1837 ; they located in Washington Tp., on Sec. 1, and made a farm ; they built a saw-mill on Lost Creek, started it in December, 1838, and sawed the first lumber in Lee Co.; in 1849, they rebuilt their mill; in the spring of 1850, Hazen started overland to Oregon ; he went with an ox-team, and was six months on the way ; he remained there three years, was engaged in manufacturing lumber ; he built five saw mills while there ; he returned in 1853, and in 1855 bought his brother's mill on Skunk Creek : operated that a short time, and then removed to Mendota Ill., lived there three years ; and went to Southern Illinois and engaged in fruit growing ; he had the largest fruit orchard in the State, if not in the country ; it contained 1,100 trees and he grew small fruits in proportion ; he returned to Ft. Madison in 1870, and since then has not been engaged in active business, except attending to the care of his property. He is a strong Republican and was an Old-Line Abolitionist when it cost men something to stand by their principles. He married Miss Susan Dean, a native of Ohio, Dec. 3, 1853; they have two daughters—Ada and Birdie May.

Source: BIOGRAPHICAL DIRECTORY
HISTORY OF LEE COUNTY IOWA
CHICAGO: WESTERN HISTORICAL COMPANY, 1879

Transcription typed/proofed as article was originally published in 1879