Jacob Wilson
An Irishman, with a German wife, in the year 1790, left the county of Clark, in the State of Virginia, and emigrated in the same year to the county of Clark, in the State of Kentucky. He remained a citizen of Clark County, Kentucky, for twelve years; and in the year 1802 emigrated to Ohio, and settled on the head waters of Beaver Creek, Bath Township, County of Greene.
Jacob Wilson was the father of thirteen children, beginning with Jacob, William, Michael, John, James, Valentine, Jeremiah, Isaac, Daniel, Catharine, Elenor, Elizabeth, and Rachel.
Of these children, Jacob, the first-born, remained in Kentucky, and became very wealthy. He was the father of eight children; and attained the weight of over four hundred pounds. William died in 1812, leaving three children. Michael died in 1813, leaving three children. John emigrated to the western part of Indiana, and became wealthy. He was the father of six children. James emigrated to Indiana, settling near Wolf Lake, and became the father of five children. Valentine removed from the County of Greene to the County of Madison, same State, and settled on the head waters of Deer Creek, in the year 1816. He was the father of nineteen children; he was married three times. He was first married in the year 1806, to Elenor Judy, by whom was born six children.
William D. Wilson was born February 27, 1807; James Wilson, on the 20th day of December, 1808; John Wilson, on the 19th day of October, 1810; Eli Wilson, on the 12th day of July, 1812; Matilda Wilson, October 12, 1814; Malinda Wilson, January 12, 1817.
On the 5th day of September, 1818, Elenor Wilson died, and in the year 1819 he was married to Mrs. Susanna Umbte, who became the mother of four children: Lucinda was born January 7, 1820; Washington, on the 7th September, 1821; Louisa on the 5th of January, 1823; Jackson, on the 3d day of September, 1824.
On the 18th day of August, 1825, Susanna Wilson died; and on the 18th day of June, 1827, he was married to Miss Nancy Roberts, who became the mother of nine children: Caroline M. Wilson, was born June 28, 1828; Alexander Hamilton Wilson, on the 7th of February, 1830; Emeline Wilson, on the 12th day of September, 1831; Mary Ann Wilson, October 1st, 1832; Valentine C. Wilson, January 19, 1834; Margaret Wilson, May 5, 1835, and died in infancy, June 3, 1835; Jacob W. Wilson, April 29, 1836; Daniel Boone Wilson, December 4, 1837; Nancy Frances Wilson, October 26, 1840.
Of the above nineteen children, all but the little baby, Margaret, lived to the estate of full maturity; and, excepting the baby and Daniel, who died April 20, 1860, all became heads of families.
An aptness in the accumulation of property seems to have characterized the family from the time that our first authentic history begins. Beginning with Jacob, the Virginia emigrant, Valentine, his sixth son, died on the second day of July, 1855, on the farm where he settled in 1816, in Sommerford [sic] Township; but from his small beginning on the 160 acres, bought of the man who had but recently entered it with Congress scrip, in the thirty-nine years of his after-life, he had accumulated nearly ten thousand acres, and died the wealthiest man who had ever been a citizen of the county.
But the scope of this article must necessarily be limited, and its principal object on the part of the writer, is to pay a passing and deserved tribute to the memory of one who he thinks was one of the most remarkable men, in many respects, it has ever been his good fortune to meet.
From ATLAS OF MADISON COUNTY - J.A. Caldwell [Condit, Ohio, 1875]