William D. Wilson
The Cattle-King and Land-Baron, of Madison County, who died at his home on the Darby Plains, on the 25th day of March, 1873.
Upon reaching his majority, he did as his father before him had done, started single-handed in the race of life. Probably though the cases were not exactly parallel, for the son served his father faithfully until he was twenty and one years of age, while the father gained the lasting displeasure of his father by marrying at the age of eighteen, against his will. But it was a rule in the Wilson family to let the boys earn their first money, believing it was the best means of developing business habits, and of teaching them early the value of a dollar.
The first three months after he became of age, he was employed by Col. Arbuckle, a near neighbor, of some means and unimpeached character, as an ordinary farm laborer, at the sum of seven dollars per month, "wet and dry." Shortly after the expiration of this term of service, he was united in marriage with a neighbor girl, Miss Nancy Moore, and soon after this, bought two hundred acres of land on the Darby Plains, at the rate of eighty cents an acre! But this purchase, amounting to one hundred and sixty dollars, was made with borrowed money, his Uncle Daniel being his bondsman. His purchase was under water nearly half of the year; but it produced an abundance of wild grass during the summer and autumn, and when cut and cured, made a fair article of sustenance for cattle during the winter. So, in this direction, as his father before him had done, he directed his attention. Moving on to his farm, he built a cabin, and within a few years was on the high road to fortune. it was his father's rule, from which he seldom departed, to go security for any of his children who wanted money to buy either cattle or land; and while his father seldom loaned him money, he was often and generally on his notes to others.
But buying the right kind of cattle at the right time, and at low prices, and selling at the right time, at good prices, when his stock were fat, was the general outline of his policy. Before the days of railroads his fat cattle were often driven over the mountains to the Eastern markets.
Thirty years ago, nearly all business was transacted in our country without the aid of banks — payment by checks or drafts being unusual. Often, when a lot of cattle was sold to parties not having the necessary funds with them, Mr. Wilson would send some one with the purchaser and stock to receive the pay when they had reached their destination. As illustrative of this mode of doing business, as well as a phase of Mr. Wilson's character, the following fact is related:
In 1848 Mr. Wilson sold a lot of cattle to Mr. Newton, who lived eighteen miles from Cleveland. There being a balance of one thousand dollars due on the cattle, Mr. Wilson sent his son Alexander, then a youth of seventeen, to assist in driving the stock and to bring back the money. Arrived at their destination, Mr. Newton took young Wilson with him in a buggy to Cleveland, drew the $1,000 from a bank, and insisted that the young man take charge of it there, which he did, placing it in an old portmanteau, which he fully intended not to lose sight of for a moment. They spent the afternoon in looking about the city, starting for Mr. Newton's just at sunset, the portmanteau being placed under the seat, and a buffalo robe covering it. After driving twelve miles, Mr. Newton suggested that they stop at a country tavern and water the horse. Young Wilson volunteered to go to the barn, some rods away, and get a bucket, while Mr. Newton remained at the buggy. After some delay in getting the bucket, the horse was watered, and they proceeded on their way, reaching home about midnight. Just here the somewhat startling discovery was made that the portmanteau was missing. It was very surprising, as both parties were sure they had never left the buggy alone since they left Cleveland. Mr. Newton, however, finally concluded that it must have been shaken out of the buggy while driving over some very rough road a few miles back, and said they would start back early in the morning in search of the missing saddle-bags and money. The proposed delay did not suit the young man's ideas of business; so, borrowing a fresh horse, he took the back track, reaching Cleveland just at daylight, but seeing nothing of his money. On the return-trip to Mr. Newton's, he met that gentleman at the tavern where they had stopped to water their horse the night before. The fact of the loss of the money being pretty generally talked of by this time by the persons in about the tavern, somebody who had slept the night previous in a room that overlooked the barn and yard, made the statement that while young Wilson was at the barn looking for a bucket, the man at the buggy ran down the road, and after an absence of a few minutes, came back in just as great a hurry. This circumstance was so suspicious, that Wilson determined to make a search in the direction in which the man was said to have ran the night before, and after a short hunt the portmanteau was found in some weeds, the "pocket" being cut open and the money gone. After writing these facts to his father, the young man had Mr. Newton arrested, who after a preliminary trial, was bound over for trial at the next term of Court of Common Pleas.
All this arranged, young Wilson started on horseback for his home in Madison county, a journey requiring some days; meantime, his father having received his letter, determined to go to Cleveland and see how matters stood for himself. As the journey was a long and tedious one, he took James Guy with him. Mr. Guy was a captain of a company of light-horse, who were armed with formidable looking brass-mounted horse-pistols; and having plenty of these weapons about the house, he placed three or four of them in the buggy when they started. Reaching Cleveland, they called on Mr. Newton, who was glad to see "Uncle Billy," and was filled with regrets at the unfortunate misunderstanding between himself and Mr. Wilson's son. Mr. Newton was an oily, plausible rascal, that would have imposed on most men; but Mr. Wilson was too good a judge of human nature to have the wool drawn over his eyes. Probably, fearing the result of a trial, and detesting the delays incident to law-suits, he determined to bring the matter to a point there and then. He assured Mr. Newton of his good feeling for him, and that he disliked to press a matter of that kind, but he had come a long distance for that $1,000, and that he could not make up his mind to go home without it. As he said this, he carelessly uncovered his arsenal of "hoss-pistols," and, as he fully expected he would do, Mr. Newton wilted.
The craven wretch had cunningly planned the robbery, and fully intended to stand a trial in court; but a glance at Mr. Wilson's artillery demoralized him at once, and he refunded the money, begging hard that no one should appear against him in court.
This affair afforded Mr. Wilson great amusement in after years, and he always related it as the most successful game of bluff he ever attempted. The pistols were as guiltless of powder and bullets as was Mr. Wilson of any intention to harm Mr. Newton. He belived him to be the thief, and that a little bluster would make him disgorge — and the result proved the correctness of his judgment.
Only about a year before his death, a friend of mine asked him how he had managed to accumulate so much land, and his reply was, that there was no mystery or magic about it; that all he had ever done was to "gather together and spread out — gather together and spread out;" that is, when he had a surplus of capital, he bought more land, instead of investing in bonds or stocks.
But there was where he was mistaken in himself; it all appeared easy and plain to him, because his Creator had given him an uncommon and great mind to comprehend. For, with the same surroundings, the same facilities, the same air to breathe, and sky to cover; the same desires, and the same energy and zeal, while he went up in a little more than forty years from a day-laborer, at seven dollars a month, to the possessor of nearly half a township of the richest, best drained, fenced, and best improved and cultivated lands in the county, his neighbors advanced but little, or stood still, or went down entirely. More than half a hundred deserted houses stood, like gloomy sentinels, scattered over his estates, which had been the homes of neighbors whose farms he had gradually absorbed. The free turnpike from London to Plains City passes for seven miles through his home farm! and in three years his taxes for building free turnpikes amounted to over twenty-eight thousand dollars!
But, because I have spoken of him as a cattle-king, it must not be supposed that horned cattle were the only kind of stock he handled. For some years before the war he "turned off" annually about ten thousand dollars' worth of mules, of his own raising; and when sheep were down to one dollar a head, he bought about eighteen thousand, and two or three years later, when they got up to seven or eight dollars, he sold out and changed over to all cattle again.
Many anecdotes characteristic of the man have been common property for years, and served for a kind of stock-in-trade on all convivial or hilarious occasions. His wit was keen, and always original and practical. Once, when a fiddler at a country tavern stopped to rest up his arm and retune his instrument, "Uncle Bill" reminded him of the waste of time, by saying, "Mr. Tucker! Mr. Tucker! you must remember, every time a sheep stops to bleat, he loses a mouthful."
Often when going to the neighboring villages when there was a probablilty of not returning before night, he would take with him some trusted and tried man for company and protection — for highwaymen, for moneyed men like him, existed twenty years ago, just as they do now. Besides which, if he received money, his nearest bank was at Columbus, twenty miles away. One of these protectors, not infrequently, was Ira Kilbury, an infant, who kicked the beam at two hundred and forty pounds, and who could "whip his weight in wild-cats." Returning one night from Plain City, alone, highwaymen — probably citizens who knew him personally flanked his carriage on either side, and were about to intercept his horse. But his coolness and presence of mind saved him. He spoke very loud, and in a convivial tone, "Ira! Ira! my boy! whip up, or we won't get home till midnight." Visions of the infant who kicked the beam at two-forty, and could whip his weight in wild-cats, struck terror to the hearts of the highwaymen, and they gave a wide berth and a fair field, when Ira, in reality, was snoring away in the quiet and security of his cabin-home, five miles away.
But, because I have presented first, and kept uppermost the idea of his tact for making money, it must not be inferred by strangers, or believed by those who knew him, that this was his only element of strength. He had an unusually retentive memory, and what he once learned he always retained. He had powers and mind for versatility, and the man who made the great fortune could as easily and would as surely have attained to the Congress of the nation, to the Supreme bench of the State, or to the Presidency of some great corporation like the Erie, Central or Pacific, had his tastes led in that direction, or had he been placed in the line of any of the several directions when he first entered upon active life. Work seemed a necessity to him; and with all his vaired duties to perform, he was so methodical that work never — as in lesser minds — never degenerated into wrong. For many years before his death he was so fleshy as to lose his activity of body; but up until the very last month of his life he made frequent rounds in his carriage among his herds, preferring to have the general supervision of salting his stock; and while seated in his carriage, on the public square, at the county-seat, he bought the greater part of his stock at the "monthly sales," that supplied his pasture-lands.
There was another peculiarity which he shared in common with his father, and which is characteristic of the family — a disinclination for law-suits. I have heard it said, and suppose it to be true, that neither of them were engaged before any court, either as plaintiff or defendant.
There are other members of the family who have been but little less successful than the subject of htis sketch; but this is written by one who greatly admired him, and who feels bereavement, as an in memoriam for the dead, and not as an eulogy upon the living.
Eight children were born to him in wedlock, six of whom still survive.
Alexander Wilson was born on the 22d day of February, 1831, and on the 9th day of February, 1854, was united in marriage with Miss Martha Jane Millikin.
Ellen Wilson was born on the 27th day of July, 1836, and on the 25th day of December, 1856, was united in marriage with Benjamin Morris. She died childless, on the 3d day of December, 1857.
James Monroe Wilson was born in the 16th day of September, 1833, and on the 18th day of October, 1855, was united in marriage with Miss Axa Burnham, of Madison County.
La Fayette Wilson was born on the 19th day of December, 1839, and on the — day of —, 18—, he was united in marriage with Miss Sarah Temple, of Plain City.
William M. Wilson was born on the 10th day of August, 1841, and on the 10th day of January, 1857, was united in marriage with Miss Mary S. Slyh, of Madison County.
Sarah Wilson was born on the 10th day of March, 1844, and on the 8th day of —, 1859, was united in marriage with Mr. John Price, son of James Price, of Jefferson Township.
Washington Wilson was born on the — day of —, 18—, and on the — day of —, 18—, was united in marriage with Miss — Wilson, of Kentucky.
Taylor Wilson was born on the 28th day of January, 1851, and on the 26th day of January, 1871, was united in marriage with Miss Eliza Daily. He died on the 17th day of February, 1875, at Plain City.
The entire family were born on the old homestead, where the father died.
William D. Wilson was the son of Valentine and Eleanor Wilson, and was born February 27, 1807, and was principally raised in Somerford Township, being but nine years of age when his father settled there on Deer Creek. Soon after arriving at his majority, he married Miss Nancy Moore, and purchased 200 acres of land on the Darby Plains in Canaan Township, at 80 cents per acre. This purchase amounted to $160, to meet which he borrowed the money, his Uncle Daniel being his bondsman. Much of his purchase was under water nearly half of the year, but it produced an abundance of grass during the summer and fall. He was not an early settler of Canaan Township, having located here about 1829-30. He at once built a cabin, and very soon entered quite largely upon the stock business, as his land was better adapted to grazing at that day than to tillage, and from his future success it seems he was peculiarly adapted to dealing in stock. As a financier and a trader, he was a remarkable success. Shrewd and careful in all his transactions, economical and industrious, and carefully investing his gains in more land, he soon became the owner of a vast amount of the best of land upon the Darby Plains, counting his acres by thousands and his dollars by thousands upon thousands. He died at his homestead place March 25, 1873, aged sixty-six years. He was the father of eight children—Alexander, who married Martha Jane Millikin; Ellen, married Benjamin Morris, she died childless, December 3, 1857; James Monroe, married Achsa Burnham; La Fayette, married Sarah Temple; William M. married Mary M. Slyh; Sarah, married John Price; Washington, married Miss Wilson, of Kentucky; Taylor, married Eliza Daily, he died February 17, 1875.
From ATLAS OF MADISON COUNTY - J.A. Caldwell [Condit, Ohio, 1875]