Jeremiah "Jerry" Morgan Wilson
DARBY, MARSH, SALYERS, WILSON
Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/12/2004 at 19:49:14
“History of Madison County Iowa and Its People”
Herman A. Mueller, Supervising Editor
Chicago, The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1915Jerry M. Wilson, who was born in Canaan, Indiana, July 16, 1842, was killed by lightning on the 25th of June, 1910, while a resident of Madison county. His father, Robert Wilson, was born on a plantation in Kentucky in 1803. Following his marriage he liberated his slavery and went to Indiana, where he took up his abode about 1835, residing there upon a farm which he owned. In 1844, however, he came to Iowa, settling in Jefferson county, and in 1852 he made his way to Winterset and soon afterward took up his abode upon a farm in Lincoln township, Madison county. There he entered into partnership with M. Danner for the operation of a sawmill on Middle river and in 1857 he removed to Adair county, where he owned land and engaged in farming until his death in 1869. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Catherine Salyers, was born in Kentucky in 1805 and died in 1890. They were married in their native state.
Jerry M. Wilson was the eighth in order of birth in his father's family. He attended a school taught by William Kivett, one of the earliest settlers of Madison county, the schoolhouse being located on land which Mr. Wilson afterward owned. J. J. Hutchings was one of his teachers. He started out in the business world as a farm boy and was employed at farm labor and in a sawmill until the time of his enlistment for service in the Civil war. In 1862 he joined Company I of the Fourth Iowa Cavalry, and lost the forefinger on his left hand through dropping a loaded revolver which was accidentally discharged. After the war he returned to his home and during the succeeding winter again attended the district school, then taught by Octavia Lee. The following spring he started with ox teams and provisions for Pike's Peak and after disposing of the provisions he engaged in hauling logs to a sawmill and then in hauling lumber into Denver. He remained in that country, however, for but a short time. On the trips west and back he had to watch all of his stuff at night for fear of Indian raids. The white men traveled in large companies so as to protect themselves against the Indians.
At length Mr. Wilson returned home and the next spring began breaking prairie with ox teams for William Early. He led a most busy and active life and was willing to do any work that would yield him an honest living. At length he became the owner of some land which he fenced and built thereon a home. He continued breaking prairie and in the winter of 1868-9 hauled logs for James Bush from the sawmill on Middle river. He earned seven dollars per acre at breaking one hundred acres of brush land for Mr. Bush, and three dollars per acre for breaking prairie and in this way secured the money which enabled him to continue the improvement of his own farm. For many years he lived in Adair county and carried on general agricultural pursuits, bringing his land under a high state of cultivation and adding to it many modern improvements. He became the largest cattle feeder of his community and always raised good stock. He was also a stockholder, one of the directors and one of the first presidents of the Macksburg National Bank. In business affairs he displayed sound judgment and unfaltering enterprise, formulated his plans carefully and carried them forward to successful completion. As his financial resources increased he kept adding to his property until at one time he was the owner of thirteen hundred acres of land in Adair and Madison counties. He became one of the heaviest stockholders in the Winterset, Creston & Des Moines Railroad and after the company disbanded he was influential in effecting its reorganization. Of the first company he was the president and at the time of his death he was vice president of the new organization, called the Creston, Winterset & Des Moines Railroad. The Wilson family is largely responsible for the fact that a railroad has been extended into Macksburg.
In 1869 Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Laura M. Darby, who was born in Holmes county, Ohio, January 3, 1843, a daughter of John E. and Lucy A. (Tuttle) Darby, both of whom were natives of New York. The former was born at Catskill in 1815 and died in 1890, while the mother, who was born at Rochester, New York, in 1821, passed away in 1849. In his boyhood days Mr. Darby went to Ohio and afterward engaged in teaching school there. They lived in Holmes county when that was a new country and he became principal of the schools of Berlin. Attracted by the opportunities of the growing west, he came overland to Winterset in 1855 and was employed as a teacher in the schools of the town, he and his daughter Almira both teaching in an unfinished building here. In 1856 he removed with his family to Cedar Creek in Union township, where he purchased land and engaged in farming.. About 1858 he removed to Penn township, where he entered land on section 16. At once he began to improve and develop that property and continued to reside there until his death. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal church and took a most active and helpful part in its work. He became a preacher of the denomination and rode the circuit when Adair county was a mission district. Later he actively entered the ministry and for two years had charge of a church at Adel and for two years at De Soto but still maintained his residence upon his farm in Penn township. In politics he was very active as a stalwart republican and was known as the "old war horse" in his district. In the early days he was an ardent abolitionist and his home was a station on the memorable, underground railroad, over which many a runaway slave was transported to freedom in the north. While living in Ohio he held membership in the Masonic lodge but did not become identified with the craft in Iowa. Having lost his first wife, he married again in Ohio.
Mrs. Wilson was the third of the six children in the Darby family. She did not come to Iowa with her father and the other children but reached this state in 1860. She became a teacher in the early schools of the county and for ten years continued teaching, following that work even after her marriage. Both Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have always taken the keenest interest in the schools and their work in behalf of education has been far-reaching and beneficial. To them were born five children, as follows: Eugene, who is cashier of the First National Bank of Winterset and the present mayor of the town; Sibyl, the wife of E. B. Marsh, of Grand River township, by whom she has five children; Clarence, an agriculturist of Adair county, who is married and has three children; Alice, who died in infancy; and Mamie, who owns the old home.
In his political views Mr. Wilson was an earnest advocate of republican principles, active in the work of the party, and in 1899 he was elected from Adair county as representative of the district in the state legislature. He was a very progressive man, interested in the welfare and development of the community, and his cooperation could always be counted upon to further plans and projects for the public good. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1895. He had previously given the land upon which the church edifice was erected and he served as church steward. He also held local political offices, acting as township trustee, as assessor and as a member of the county board of supervisors for six years. While returning to his home from Macksburg he was struck by lightning and his life was thus ended. He had a wide acquaintance and all who knew him recognized in him the possession of many sterling traits of heart and mind. Wherever he was known he was held in high esteem and most of all where he was best known, and his many good qualities endeared him to those with whom he came in contact.
Madison Biographies maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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