903 N. Second St.
Garden City, Kansas
67846
August 4, 1977
Dear Mr. Heath:
I was not only pleased to hear from another descendent of
John Wilson, Jr., but to learn you are a Kansan, living in Topeka.
My family lived there for several years, and I got my diploma from
Washburn.? My father, E. E. Kelley, was
assistant state printer from 1919-1933, and also had a column called ?Kansas
Grass Roots? in the Topeka Capital. The rest of the family came to Garden City
(except sister, Marcia) in 1924 to publish the Garden City Herald, which was
later sold. My father retired here until his death in 1940. Only two of us are
left living here, my above sister and I. My husband died in 1971. He took
disability retirement from Continental Oil in 1963, and we came here. I still
have friends in Topeka.? Was back there for my 50th
reunion at Washburn in 1974. All this by way of
introduction. I might add that my time is taken up with the Finney
County Genealogical Society, the DAR (Daughters of the American Revolution),
and the Finney County Historical Society, often to the neglect of my
correspondents. But I really have tried to learn all I can about our
Revolutionary ancestor, John Wilson, Sr. and his descendants, as well as those
of his wife, Lydia Thatcher?s ancestors of Bucks Co., Pennsylvania
and Hunterdon County, New Jersey.
Lowell Wilson in his quiet way over the years,
assembled much of our mutual line for which we should be truly grateful. I feel
especially guilty because I have not yet sent him the line of Lucinda Wilson
(daughter of John Jr.) who married David Sutton in Miami
County, Ohio. I have it about
halfway done, but as most of what I have is in my file folders, it is a tedious
job to get down in the form he is used to.
I can duplicate much you don?t have, and can fill in
partially the John Wilson, Sr. family from the trek from New Jersey to
Pennsylvania, to Mason County, Kentucky to Greene County, Ohio and then to
Miami County, Ohio. We don?t know when the Wilsons came to America,
or what generation it was before John, Sr.?
Tradition in a couple of lines indicates the first John Wilson, (or
____Wilson) was bound out to an unsympathic man to
pay for his passage. John Sr. appears to have been well-educated for the times,
as was his son, John Jr. So were the Thatchers. We
have Lydia Thatcher?s father Amos, of record. He was born 1704, died 1797, Hunterdon
County, New Jersey. Have copy
of his will, and copy of Thatcher Bible records that record Lydia?s
birth and those of brothers and sisters. An obituary of Amos Wilson son of John
Sr. in 1850s states the Wilsons
left Sussex County, New Jersey,
went to Wyoming County
on the Susquehanna thence to Redstone country of Western
Pennsylvania, and after the war, to Mason County, Kentucky. This
obituary was in a collection of old newspaper obituaries, etc. of Clinton
County, Ohio, published in a
booklet three or four years ago.
John Wilson, Jr. was living in the household of daughter
Elizabeth and Robert Buckles, Miami County, Ohio,
in the 1860 census. He also was visiting his son Thomas in Walnut
Township, Montgomery
County, Indiana that year. He
died 1866, as I now find, in Shelby County Ohio. I now have a picture of his
tombstone. The Buckles moved on to Nebraska,
and I have a suspicion some descendants may have the Wilson Bible. I have been
hoping to locate it, although Mary Worthington copied the births in the 1930s,
(I have a Xeroxed copy of it from a letter she sent Lowell.)
I have some material on Lettitia
Mills, who I believe to be the daughter of Thomas and Martha Phillips Mills. I
have Thomas?s will in which he names his children (1799) Fleming
County, Kentucky Fleming had
just been taken from Mason. Letty (ours was often
called Letty according to my grandfather Sutton), was
in about 1790. They had been charter members of the Forks of Cheat Baptist
Church in 1775. Thomas entered land there. He also was a part of the American
Revolution, but there seems to be only his record of giving supplies, whish is
allowable in DAR. Other sources seem to think he was a Ranger on the Frontier
in what was then West Augusta County, Virginia, which I included a portion of
Western Pennsylvania. I am not in DAR due to him or John Wilson, though there
are some who are. Mine is on Richard Crooks of Washington County, Pennsylvania.
I hope to have a supplementary on John Wilson, Sr. when I get the records
straight. I do need John Jr.?s and Lettitia?s marriage date record. We have been unable to
find it anywhere, except a mention in Dills History of Greene County,
Pennsylvania and that was only an account of the wedding place. (in 1802, year before county was organized).
Monday, August 15. Things came up, and this letter
got pushed aside. I should start anew as this seems to be wordy and maybe
confusing, as well as a bit messy. However, I think I should finish this before
it gets shoved aside again.
Perhaps you should let me know what you have on the Wilsons other than what Lowell
duplicated for you. Did he Xerox the letter from Mary Worthington which listed
the births of the Families of John Wilson Sr. and John Jr.? She appeared to
have copied them direct from the Wilson Bible, which is about as near as we
will probably get to proof of those births. I have a Xeroxed copy from the
bureau of land management for John Wilson Sr.?s land patent in Greene County,
Ohio; A copy of a map of Washington, Mason County, Kentucky showing lots John
Wilson Sr. and wife Lydia owned and sold in the 1790?s; minutes of the Sugar
Creek (Primitive) Baptist Church in Greene County, Ohio, with the Wilsons listed; accounts of Wilsons
I can Xerox from histories of Greene, Clinton, and Miami Counties, Ohio which I
own; pictures of the tombstone of Lettitia Mills
Wilson in Walnut Township, Montgomery County, Indiana, and other such things of
documentary importance.
I don?t have a good narrative down on paper yet tracing the
John Wilson Sr. family so that others might have as factual account as is at
present possible, of John?s and succeeding generations. I do have the account
of my grandfather, Francis Marion Sutton, left of his early boyhood in Miami
County, Ohio, which gives some
background on the John Wilson Jr. and Lettitia
following some of their children to Montgomery County, Indiana, living among
them until Lettitia died.
After I know what you already have, I will Xerox some of the
above mentioned things I have which I think you should have in your
possession. I hope to get David and Lucinda Wilson Sutton?s descendants
completed for Lowell so my
conscience will be eased, and the record will be available to those wanting it.
It will not be complete, but I do have most of the vital statistics, - in
files.
I find the history of the Wilsons as bits and pieces turn up
much more interesting than the cold statistics of birth, marriage and death. We
can be proud of the part they played in the making of this country.
Sincerely,
Katherine
Powell
P.S. I have the History of Sussex County, New Jersey.
There is no mention of our Wilsons. I understand
Many early vital records of N.J. are missing.