Person:Samuel Wilson (63)

Samuel was born and reared near Middlebury NY. The families of his grandfather Capt. Ebenezer Wilson, his father Maj. Ebenezer Wilson, and his uncles were among the founders of Middlebury NY which they named for their previous home town, Middlebury VT. In the mid to late 1830s most of the Wilson clan removed to Illinois, becoming the founders of Batavia IL.

After the death of his mother Katharine (Bowers) Wilson while Samuel was yet a teenager, his father Maj. Ebenezer Wilson remarried Samantha Van Epps and then moved to Oakland County MI in 1828. About 1835 Samuel built the first frame house in Oxford Township. In 1838 Samuel recorded title to 80 Acres in the south edge of Oxford Township - probably acquired by Samuel after his father died. Samuel and his younger brother Rowley probably returned to Middlebury NY shortly thereafter. Meanwhile Louisa, Ebenezer Jr. and Lucinda remained in Oakland County MI with their spouses.

In 1840 Samuel's brother Rowley married Adaline Harrington and soon thereafter removed to Illinois. In 1841 Samuel married Susan Newton and soon thereafter followed his brother to Illinois. Adaline (Harrington) Wilson died in 1942 and Rowley remarried Adaline's sister Eveline. Their older brother Ebenezer Jr. moved to Illinois around the same time, where he remarried Salome Mead in 1846, after the death of his first wife. Ebenezer Jr stayed near his uncles and cousins at Batavia IL. Samuel and Rowley eventually moved on to northwestern Illinois and the Wisconsin Territory.

Before 1850 Samuel and Susan were back in Oakland County MI, living nearby his sister Lucinda and her second husband Burgess Calkins. Before 1860 Samuel B and Susan moved to Ottawa County MI where they settled for the rest of their lives. Around the same time Lucinda and her husband moved to Kent County MI about 40 miles away. Around 1850 Rowley left his wife and children in Wisconsin and joined the California Gold Rush. He brought his family to California a few years later and eventually they settled in Oregon.

Ebenezer Jr and his wife Salome moved to Kansas, where she died before 1860 and he died in the early 1860s. It appears that Mary Salome Wilson, daughter of Ebenezer Jr and Salome, lived with Samuel and Susan in Ottawa County between the death of her father and her marriage in 1867 to David Everts.

It is indicative of the times that Samuel's father, his two brothers and his sister Lucinda were each widowed young and soon re-married. In his immediate family only Samuel and his sister Louisa are known to have lived the remainder of their lives with their first spouses. The Wilson brothers each lived in at least four different states and territories. They and their wives were buried in New York, Michigan, Illinois, Kansas and Oregon.

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1 1.2} Wilson Family Record, in Nettie (Wilson) Hamstra and one of her daughters. Family Records. (Compiled in 1973 - unpublished).

   "Samuel Bauer Wilson
   born April 24, 1813
   died Aug. 30, 1885"

2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1 2.2} Allendale Cemetery [1], 22 Sep 1942.

   "WILSON Samuel B. Apr. 24, 1813 – Aug. 30, 1885"

3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3} Allendale Cemetery [2], 2006.

   "149 WILSON, SAMUEL B. 24 APR 1813 30 AUG 1885 VETERAN"

4. ↑ CHAPTER XII. MEXICAN WAR, in History of Fulton County, Illinois: together with sketches of its cities, villages and townships, educational, religious, civil, military, and political history, portraits of prominent persons and biographies of representative citizens : history of Illinois, embracing accounts of the pre-historic races, aborigines, French, English and American conquests, and a general review of its civil, political and military history, digest of state laws. (Peoria: C.C. Chapman & Co.,  J.W. Franks & Sons), 1879), p 341.

   "4th REGT. ILL. INF. VOL. COMPANY K."
   
   "Wilson, Samuel, B., e. July 4,'46. disch, Oct. 4,'46. dis."

5.   7-140 SAMUEL, in Stevens, Ken. Descendants of Henry Wilson of Dedham, Massachusetts. (Walpole, New Hampshire: K. Stevens, c1996), p 123.

   "7-140 iii. SAMUEL, born circa 1808."

6.   Deed Index, 1789-1845, Letter "W" [3], in Ontario County Records and Archives Center [4].

   Wilson | Samuel | Wilson | David | 1840 | 68 | 209
   Willson | Samuel | Vincent | Thomas | 1841 | 69 | 244

   It is not certain that this was Samuel B Wilson however he is known to have lived at Bethany in 1841.

7. ↑ Oakland Co., MI -- General Land Office Records - 1807-1907 [5], in Oakland County MI USGenWeb Archives [6].

   PATENT_L_N | PATENT_F_N | PATENT_M_I | SECTION_NR | TOWNSHIP | RANGE | TOTAL_ACRE | L_O_CODE | DOCUMENT_NR | SIGN_DATE
   
   WILSON | SAMUEL | B | 34 | 5 N | 10 E | 40.0000 | 02 | 27638 | 1838/09/04
   
   WILSON | SAMUEL | B | 34 | 5 N | 10 E | 40.0000 | 02 | 27824 | 1838/09/04

8. ↑ ^8.0 8.1 1872 Oakland County MI Plat Atlas - OXFORD TOWNSHIP [7], in MARDOS Memorial Library of On-Line Books & Maps [8].

   Much of Section 34 is now wetlands.
   
   "Marl Lake" on this map is now called "Manitou Lake".

9. ↑ CHAPTER XXIX - OXFORD TOWNSHIP, in Seeley, Thaddeus DeWitt. History of Oakland County, Michigan: a narrative account of its historical progress, its people, and its principal interests. (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University Microfilms, 1989), pp 418-420.

   "About 1835 Samuel Wilson a New Yorker located on section 27 within the present village limits and built the first frame house in the township"

10. ↑ Samuel Wilson [9], in Michigan. Secretary of State. Death Records, 1867-1897. (Lansing, Michigan).
11. ↑ First Land Owners of Oxford Township [10], in Oakland County Michigan [11].

    Wilson | Samuel B. | Oakland Co.,MI | 34 | 40 | | Sep 9,1837 | 5N10E | Oxford | 27638 | Sep 4,1838 | NE ¼ NE ¼
    
    Wilson | Samuel B. | Oakland Co.,MI | 34 | 40 | | Dec 14,1837 | 5N10E | Oxford | 27824 | Sep 4,1838 | NW ¼ NE ¼

12. ↑ COMMISSIONERS OF HIGHWAYS. , in Young, Andrew White. History of the town of Warsaw, New York, from its first settlement to the present time: with numerous family sketches and biographical notes, embellished with portraits and views of residences and churches. (Salt Lake City, Utah: Genealogical Society of Utah, 1968).

    "1839 John A. McElwain, Samuel Wilson, Cyrus Tanner. "

    It is not certain that this was Samuel B Wilson however he is known to have lived at Bethany in 1841.

13. ↑ ^13.0 13.1 His name is Samuel B Wilson in most public records.
    
    It appears he was named for his mother's father Samuel Bowers.
    
    The middle name Bauer seems to have been passed as oral tradition and does not appear on any contemporary documents. No public records have been found for a Samuel Bauer Wilson that match any of the known facts of his life. The village of Bauer lies near the border of Allendale and Georgetown Townships, Ottawa County MI so it is easy to understand that Nettie and her daughters would use that spelling when writing the Wilson family history.
14. ↑ ^14.0 14.1 It is not certain that this was Samuel B Wilson however he is known to have lived at Bethany in 1841.
15.   Identification of parents of Samuel (Bauer or Bowers) Wilson:
    
    1) Ken Stevens book says Ebenezer and Katherine (Bowers) Wilson had a son Samuel who moved to Michigan with Ebenezer and Samantha (Van Epps) Wilson in 1828. Only the newborn daughter Irena was buried in New York.
    
    2) Both of Samuel's brothers were named for their parents or grand-parents (Ebenezer Wilson, Lydia Rowley) so it seems likely that Samuel was named for his maternal grand-father Samuel Bowers, who died shortly before Samuel was born.
    
    3) The obituary and census records of Rowley Winfield Wilson describe his migration from New York to Michigan, back to New York to marry, then to Illinois and Wisconsin Territory, then to California and finally to Oregon. It appears that Samuel followed a parallel path until Rowley decided to join the California gold rush - about this time Samuel seems to have headed back to his sisters in Michigan. Clearly Rowley was a leader and adventurer whereas Samuel appears to have been a follower.
    
    4) Mary Salome Wilson, the daughter of Ebenezer and Salome (Mead) Wilson (living with her widowed father in Kansas in 1860), first married in 1867 at Georgetown Township, Ottawa MI which adjoins Allendale Township where Samuel and Susan (Newton) Wilson were living. It is not likely that an orphaned teen-age girl would travel from Kansas to Michigan, then meet and marry there, unless she had close family nearby. The most plausible conclusion is that she was living with her uncle and aunt in Allendale when she met and married.
    
    5) Proximity to close relatives of Ebenezer and Katherine (Bowers) Wilson:
    
    a) Ebenezer Wilson (father) and Ebenezer Wilson Jr (brother) in 1834-1835 - Oakland County MI
    
    b) Lucinda (Wilson) Calkins (sister) in 1838 - Oxford Township, Oakland County MI
    
    c) John Sanford Bowers (uncle) in 1841 - Bethany, Genesee County, NY
    
    d) Ebenezer and Rowley Wilson (brothers) in 1840s - Illinois and Wisconsin Territory
    
    e) Louisa (Wilson) Gould and Lucinda (Wilson) Calkins (sisters) in 1850 - Oakland County MI
    
    f) Mary Salome Wilson (orphaned niece) in 1867 - Ottawa County MI