Julius W. Wilson, proprietor of Wilson's Restaurant, McGregor, was born in Whitestown, Oneida County, N.Y., Aug. 11, 1807. His parents were James and Chloe (Blake) Wilson, natives of Connecticut, and members of the Presbyterian church. He was a farmer, and he and wife had a family of seven sons and one daughter. Mrs. Wilson was the widow of Mr. Roberts, by whom she had three children. Julius, subject of this sketch, was the fifth son and a twin brother. He attended school there until twelve years of age, when he went to Rome, N.Y., to live with his half-brother for four years--attending school; then clerked in a store in Rome, Whitestown and Utica, N.Y., in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Milwaukee, Wis., until May, 1866, when he came to McGregor, Ia., where he now resides; he clerked her for Colgate & Cone one year, then was appointed mail agent between McGregor and Owatonna, Minn., on the C., M. & St. Paul R. R., a short time, when he opened his present establishment. He married Nancy P. Gibbs, February, 1848. She was born in Otsego County, N.Y., and was a daughter of John D. Gibbs, a printer, and Eunice, nee Cook. Mr. Wilson is a member of the Congregational church. He and wife have had five children, two sons and two daughters living, viz.: Chas. J. Wilson, chief train dispatcher of the St. Paul division of the Chicago, Minneapolis & Omaha R.R, office at St. Paul (he married Anna Dean at Worthington, Minn.); Fannie A. (widow of Dr. H. Hamilton), resides at McGregor; Emma E. (wife of George H. Bass), they reside in Dubuque; James S., station agent for the C., M. & O. R. R., at Wayne, Neb. Mr. Wilson is one of the enterprising representative men of McGregor. In politics a Republican, and a strong supporter of that party. His father was a sixteen-year-old boy who carried a musket in the Revolutionary war. He complained of the leg-ache once, and his comrades weighed his gun, knapsack, etc., and found they weighed more than he did. source: History of Clayton
County, Iowa, 1882, p. 1004-1005 |