Willson, John W.

WILLSON, HEAD

Posted By: Gary Norris (email)
Date: 2/8/2013 at 08:28:41

The History of Poweshiek County, Iowa
Des Moines: Union Hist. Co., 1880.

WILLSON, JOHN W.—Jackson Twp—pg 668-9. Stock-dealer, Montezuma. Was born in Henry county, Indiana, December 9, 1839, where he lived until 1848, when he came to this county with his parents and located in Montezuma. His father brought a stock of good here and opened a general store, it being the first in Poweshiek county. The subject of this sketch had a good school education. He lived on a farm until 1870, when he bought out his father’s business, which he continued five years, and also bought and sold stock, which business he still continues, under the firm name of Morrison & Willson. Mr. Willson lives on his farm of eighty acres just east of town, but owns 1,500 acres in the county. He laid out West Montezuma in 1877, and also Willson’s Addition. Mr. Willson has seen Poweshiek county grow from its infancy, and has shared the trials and hardships of pioneer life. He had come to stay; in other words, he had settled. The faculty of being able to fix the mind upon some definite plan of operations does much to achieve success and snatch victory from the jaws of impending defeat. Such faculty Mr. Willson seems to have possessed in a remarkable degree, and as a result has been enabled to see the country improved all around him, and as the country has improved he himself has prospered and been blessed with plenty. He was married in this place in 1858, to Miss Sarah M. Head, daughter of W.M. Head, a native of Ohio. They have only one daughter, Maggie K.