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         JOHN WILSON, deceased, an honored pioneer of Louisa County, was born in Ireland, Dec. 9, 1784, and there resided until his eighth year, when he emigrated with his parents to America, taking passage in a sailing-vessel, which was three months in making the trip, and landed in Charleston, S. C. The family first located in Newberry, S. C., and in 1811 removed to Preble County, Ohio, where they were among the earliest settlers. The country was then one vast wilderness, but from the heavily timbered land Mr. Wilson made a farm. After the breaking out of the War of 1812, our subject volunteered his services, was accepted, and served with honor until the close of hostilities. In 1818 he was joined in wedlock with Miss Isabella McClure, who was born in South Carolina in 1797, and in the spring of 1838 they left Preble County, Ohio, for the West, going to Washington County, Ill., where they spent one winter, and the following spring proceeded to Louisa County, Iowa, locating on section 28, Morning Sun Township. The first place which they called home was a log cabin 16x16 feet, in which the family, consisting of eleven persons, lived for one year. Such were the inconveniences to which pioneers were subjected, and the trials and privation which they endured can never be told. At that time the country was not called Louisa County, but formed a part of the Territory of Iowa, and the prairies were one vast waste. There was not a single settlement to mark the site of the present town of Morning Sun, but men and women with brave hearts and willing hands came to make their homes; the vast prairies have been converted into beautiful farms, and more modern buildings, one by one, have taken the places of the log cabins until now there is hardly a relic of frontier life remaining.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson were the parents of eight children who lived to be adults: John M., who is living in Pawnee, Neb.; Margaret, whose home is in Morning Sun; Nancy, who died at the age of twenty; Mary J., wife of James Bell, of Nebraska; James H., who is located at Morning Sun; Elizabeth A., whose place of resident is unknown; William M., whose sketch appears in this work, and Thomas R., whose history is also given within these pages. Politically, in early life, Mr. Wilson was an old-line Whig, but at the dissolution of that party he joined the Republican party, and ever afterward supported its principles. He lived under all the administrations from Washington to Hayes, witnessing many of the most important events of our history. His death occurred Dec. 27, 1878, at the age of ninety-three, and Mrs. Wilson died in May, 1866. They were both sincere and consistent Christians and members of the United Presbyterian Church, in which Mr. Wilson served as Ruling Elder for many years. He was a man well posted . . .

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. . . in the affairs of both State and county, and was honored with several local offices, including Justice of the Peace. He discharged his various duties with fidelity, and was known throughout the neighborhood as Esquire Wilson. He was a man of strict integrity, uncompromising Christian principles, and his word was as good as his bond. As a Christian, he was true and faithful; as a neighbor, friendly and accommodating, and as a husband, kind and affectionate.