William J. Wilson (1930)

WILSON, BARNETT, MCBRIDE, HORTON

Posted By: Linda Brittain (email)
Date: 1/20/2007 at 19:46:21

Earlham Library Collection
August 1930

OBITUARY

William J. Wilson, one of five children and the only son of Barnett and Thomson Wilson, was born August 9th, 1876 on the Wilson homestead, north of Earlham, Iowa. He grew to manhood in this community attending the Earlham schools and graduating from Earlham Friends Academy in May 1897.

William was a birthright member of the Earlham Friends Meeting and when a young man he was converted and with a group of other young people were received into active membership in the Meeting and remained loyal to the church of his birth and choice to the close of his life, although his work called him to a field where there was no Friends Meeting.

With a love for knowledge and a desire to better prepare himself for lifes duties he attended Iowa State College, at Ames, graduating from there on June 3rd, 1903.

After graduating from Ames he went west and for sixteen years he has been in business in Colville, Wash., where he won and held the confidence and respect of every one. Those with whom he was closely associated in a business and social way speak in the highest praise of him as an honest, upright business man and citizen.

He was taken sick with pneumonia and on July 22nd he was taken to the hospital, where he was given every medical care but in July 25, 1930 at the age of 53 years, 11 months and 15 days he departed this life, leaving four sisters, Lizzie Barnett and Ida McBride, of Earlham, Nellie Horton, of Whittier, Calif., and Mary Barnett, of Indianola, Iowa, to mourn the loss of a brother and many other relatives and friends who have lost a loved relative and friend.

Funeral services were held in the McCord and Cory chapel at Colville and his sister Nellie Horton, of Whittier, Calif., accompany his remains to Earlham.

Note: Although the Wilson family had close ties to Earlham, William's family, the Barnett Wilsons, did not appear in any Madison County census from 1870 thru 1900. It is likely that they actually resided in either Guthrie or Dallas County.