William Wilson, Sr. and Eleanor Jane [Unk]

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Husband William Wilson, Sr. ^{1 2}

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           Born: Abt 1753 - Ireland
     Christened: 
           Died: 31 Aug 1839 - ? Butler Co, PA 1 3
         Buried: 

       Marriage: 

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Wife Eleanor Jane [Unk] ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: 5 Apr 1838 - ? Butler Co, PA 1 3
         Buried: 

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Children

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1 M Robert Wilson ¹

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           Born: Abt 1790 - ? Lancaster Co, PA
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1883
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Margret Dunlap (Abt 1800-      ) 4

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2 F Nancy Wilson ¹

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           Born: Abt 1791
     Christened: 
           Died: 1882 1
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Edward McDermott (      -      ) 1

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3 M William Wilson ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1883
         Buried: 

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4 M James Wilson ^{1 3}

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           Born: 6 Apr 1798 - Lancaster Co, PA 1 3
     Christened: 
           Died: 1 Sep 1886 - Fairview Twp, Butler Co, PA 3
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Sarah "Sallie" Hutchison (1798-1886) 5
           Marr: 1829 1

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5 F Jane Wilson ^{1 2}

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1841
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Robert McDermott (1798-1877) 1 2
           Marr: 1823 2

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6 M John Wilson ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Aft 1883
         Buried: 

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7 M Armstrong Wilson ¹

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           Born: 1806 - ? Butler Co, PA 6
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1883
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Jane "Jennie" Hutchison (1808-Bef 1883) 7 8
           Marr: 20 May 1834 6

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8 M Thomas Wilson ¹

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           Born: 
     Christened: 
           Died: Bef 1883
         Buried: 

         Spouse: Mary Dunlap (      -      )

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General Notes: Husband - William Wilson, Sr.

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In 1798, he moved from Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, and built his first cabin near where William Gibson’s house was later located. A settler had been on the place previously, and made a small clearing. He bought out the settler, and entered upon the work of making a farm. He made frequent visits to Chambersburg with pack-horses, to procure salt and groceries. Each trip required two weeks. Wolves were very numerous in the creek bottom, and bears so plentiful that the stream was named Bear Creek. Livestock was in constant danger, and had to be carefully guarded to prevent it being destroyed by wild beasts. It was said that the wolves sometimes chased his cattle and bit the tails from some of the animals. Turkeys were often seen in flocks of from thirty to forty, and the boys caught many in traps of rails. Having built a small pen, with strongly built sides, and the top covered over, they scattered corn along in front and underneath the rails where an open space had been left of sufficient size to admit the birds. The turkeys readily walked into the trap; but once inside, they elevated their heads and sought vainly to get out, never appearing to notice the way by which they had entered. Rabbits were also very plenty, and these the boys hunted in winter, often securing fifteen or twenty dozen skins in a single season. Their father took the skins East and sold them to hatters for a “fippenny-bit” each.

He was a native of Ireland, came with his wife and family to Pennsylvania after the Revolutionary war, and settled in Lancaster County. In the year 1800 he journeyed across the mountains to Butler County, and purchased a tract of 400 acres of wild land from a man named Hall, in what is now Fairview township, the consideration being $150. He cleared a small space, erected a log cabin twelve feet square, where the town of Petrolia would later stand, and there the pioneer family took up their abode, being among the first settlers of that part of the county. Their nearest and most numerous neigh­bors were the wild animals that roamed through the forest and surrounded the cabin at night. Greensburg was the nearest trading point, the trip to that town requiring two weeks to make. Some years later he erected a log dwelling half a mile west of his first location, where both he and his wife spent the remainder of their lives.

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General Notes: Wife - Eleanor Jane [Unk]

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She died in 1837. [HBC 1883, 369]

1 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 369.

2 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 991.

3 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (R. C. Brown & Co. Publishers, 1895), Pg 992.

4 Bobbie Wilson Tkacik, The History of the Wilsons (Atlanta, GA: Self-published, 2012).

5 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 369, 407, 439.

6 Robert Walter Smith, Esq., History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins, & Co., 1883), Pg 608.

7 —, History of Butler County, Pennsylvania (Chicago, IL: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883), Pg 407, 439.

8 John W. Jordan, LL.D., Genealogical and Personal History of Western Pennsylvania (New York: Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1915), Pg 1301.