Milton Wilson

BURGESS, MURPHY, PINKERTON, THORNBURG, WILSON

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 10/14/2004 at 10:42:02

“The History of Madison County, Iowa”
Union Historical Company, Des Moines, 1879
page 644

Milton Wilson, Earlham, farmer, whose portrait appears elsewhere, was born in Wayne county, Indiana, in 1825; he was raised on a farm and resided there until 1856, when he removed to this county and located in Madison township; he improved his farm, and now owns about 500 acres in a high state of cultivation, and fine improvements, and continued to live on it until 1875, when he moved into the town of Earlham, still taking charge of his farming operations; he has held various township offices; he is a man of the people, independent in thought, and one true to the highest principles of honor and morality, and as a citizen, quiet and unostentatious, cordially indorsing any measure of real public benefit; he married Miss Sarah J. Murphy, daughter of Robert Murphy, October 18, 1852; she was a native of Wayne county, Indiana; their family consists of four children living: Flora M., Mahala E., Robert S. and Isaac K.
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“A Memorial and Biographical Record of Iowa”
The Lewis Publishing Company, Chicago, 1896

Transcribed and edited by Kent G. Transier, 10 Jan 2010

Milton Wilson has been a resident of Madison county, Iowa since 1856, when he located in Madison township, entering land from the general Government. On his arrival he went to the place and lived there for six weeks without a house, setting up boards against a pole in the form of a roof, and thus securing a place in which to live. He then built a small shanty, in which he spent one of the coldest winters ever known in Iowa. He later erected a more comfortable house, in which he resided until 1875, when he moved to the village of Earlham, where he has since continued to reside, though he is still operating his farm of 460 acres.

He was born near Milton, Wayne county, Indiana, December 11, 1825. His father, Seth Wilson, was a native of South Carolina, but went to Ohio with his parents at the age of two years, and from there to Wayne county, Indiana, when he was about eighteen years of age. Jehu Wilson, the grandfather of our subject, was born in Pennsylvania, and is supposed to have been of Scotch descent. In early life he removed to South Carolina, thence to Ohio, and later (1818) to Wayne county, Indiana, and there he died. He was a member of the Friends’ Church, with which body the entire family are connected.

Seth Wilson married Martha Elizabeth Thornburg, a native of North Carolina, born in 1806. In her girlhood she removed with her parents to Ohio, and later to Indiana, and located in Fayette county. Her father, Henry Thornburg, is supposed to have been born in North Carolina. The marriage of Seth Wilson and Elizabeth Thornburg took place in Wayne county, Indiana, where they continued to reside until 1860, when they removed to Madison county, Iowa, and located on a farm in Madison township, but later removed to Earlham, where the father died at the age of eighty-seven years, and the mother May 30, 1895, in her ninetieth year. They were members of the Friends’ Church, and lived the quiet, happy life peculiar to that people. They were the parents of eight children, two sons and six daughters, as follows: Milton, Eliza A., Caroline M., Henry, Eunice C., Rebecca T., Sarah H., and Maria E.

Milton Wilson, our subject, was reared in his native county and educated in the public schools, which he usually attended in the winter months, while assisting in the labors of the farm in other seasons of the year. He remained at home, assisting his father, until he marriage, October 18, 1852, with Miss Sarah I. Murphy, a native of Henry county, Indiana, born November 11, 1831, a daughter of Robert and Sarah (Burgess) Murphy, the former a native of North Carolina and the latter of South Carolina. Robert Murphy was of English descent and reared in his native State, from which he removed to Henry county, Indiana, at a very early day in the history of the latter State. John Burgess, the grandfather of Mrs. Wilson, was a native of South Carolina, of English descent. He also removed to Indiana in a very early day. Mrs. Wilson is the tenth child of a family of twelve children, and was reared in Henry and Wayne counties, Indiana, and graduated at the high school in Milton. She has always been prominent in educational work and is at present a member of the School Board of Earlham, Iowa, and also a member of the board of trustees of the academy in the same place. To Milton and Sarah Wilson were born six children: John, died in infancy; Flora M., now the wife of Professor C. M. Pinkerton, of Fairbury, Nebraska; Mahala E., who for five years served acceptably as Postmistress of Earlham, is at home; Robert S. is engaged in merchandising in Minneapolis, Minnesota; Hon. Isaac L., home secretary of the Iowa Savings and Loan Association, of Des Moines, represented Madison county in the Legislature, being elected on the Republican ticket; and Mattie C., who died in childhood.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are members of the Friends’ Church, in which they take especial interest, and endeavor to walk closely in the footsteps of the Master. In politics he is a Republican and served as a member of the County Board of Supervisors of Madison county, Iowa, for six years. He was a member of the board when the county court-house was destroyed by fire, and in the building of the present court-house took an active part. While naturally a conservative man, he is enterprising and progressive, and never hesitates to do that which will best advance the interests of his adopted county and State.
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The Des Moines Register
Des Moines, Iowa
Thursday, October 17, 1907
Page 7, Columns 3 & 4

Married Fifty-Five Years

Mr. and Mrs. Milton Wilson, pioneers of Polk and Madison counties, will celebrate their fifty-fifth wedding anniversary Friday, Oct. 18. They were married in Wayne county, Indiana, in 1852, and shortly after came to Iowa. They traveled in a wagon and camped on what is now Thirty-eight and Grand avenue. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson located in Earlham, Ia., and in 1900 came to Des Moines to reside, and bought a home on Park lane.

Mr. and Mrs Wilson have four children living, Robert S., a lumber dealer in Seattle; I. K., who represented Madison county in the legislature two terms and is now a real estate dealer in Des Moines; Flora, the wife of C. M. Pinkerton of the Central Life Insurance company, and Mahala, who is still at home. Their oldest grandson, Paul Pinkerton, is a young attorney of this city. Although past 81 years, Mr. Wilson is hale and hearty and busies himself with raising a garden and caring for a few chickens. Mrs. Wilson enjoys the best of health and is still interested in church society and club work. They will celebrate their anniversary in a quiet manner with their relatives and friends.

Madison Biographies maintained by Linda Griffith Smith.
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