VALENTINE WILSON, son of Jacob, the first known ancestor, came to Ohio with his father in 1802. He was born near Harper's Ferry, Va., Oct. 1, 1785. He moved to Kentucky with his father in 1790, when five years of age; and was seventeen when he came to Ohio. In 1806, he was married to Miss Eleanor Judy of Greene County, Ohio, daughter of John Judy, a Swiss, and Phoebe (Lamaster) Judy, by wife - a woman of French parentage. To them were born six children - William D., born Feb. 27, 1807; James, born Dec. 20, 1808; John, Oct. 19, 1810; Eli, July 12, 1812; Matilda, Oct. 12, 1814; Malinda, Jan. 12, 1817.
On the 5th day of September, 1818, Eleanor (Judy) Wilson died; and in the year 1819 he was married to Miss Susannah Humble who became the mother of four children - Lucinda, born Jan. 7, 1820; Washington, Sept. 7, 1821; Louisa, Jan. 5, 1823; Jackson, Sept. 3, 1824.
On the 18th day of August, 1825, Susannah (Humble) 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., born June 28, 1828; Alexander Hamilton, Feb. 7, 1830; Emeline, Sept. 12, 1831; Mary Ann., Oct. 1, 1832; Valentine C., Jan. 19, 1834; Margaret, May 5, 1835, and died in infancy, June 3, 1835; Jacob W., Apr. 29, 1836; Daniel Boone, Dec. 4 1837; Nancy Frances, Oct. 26, 1840. By the three marriages he became the father of nineteen children, seventeen of whom became heads of families. Margaret died in infancy, and Daniel Boone died, unmarried, at the old homestead, Apr. 26, 1860.
It was not by pleasure to have had a personal acquaintance with Valentine Wilson; but that he was a man of no ordinary gifts, both mental and physical, seems to be a fact of general acceptance among those who knew him the most intimately. He was a man of great presence of mind - which gift stood him in good stead on more than one occasion. Once, when riding after night, he was halted by highwaymen who suspected him of having money in his possession, whom he completely disarmed by answering in a calm and unruffled tone of voice: "Well, well, boys, you have got me this time; I have 25 cents in my pocket, and if you will go back to the tavern with me, we will take that out in a treat all round." They then let him pass without a search or further parley, without suspicion of the fact that he had upon his person, in "genuine coin of the realm," more than $7,000, besides his 25 cents! He was also an unconscious psychologist. He could divine a man's errand when approaching him, when a long distance off - forming an opinion which was seldom founded in an error, as to whether he was coming to buy, to sell, or to borrow money; and he often robbed a refusal of its poignancy, from this latter class, by forestalling them with the question if they knew of any of their neighbors who had $200 or $300 that they would loan for a few days! He died of dropsy, on the 2d day of July, 1855, on the farm where he settled in 1816; but from the small beginning of 160 acres - his first purchase - in the thirty-nine years of his afterlife, he accumulated about seven thousand acres of land! besides over $60,000 in personal property, and died the wealthiest man who had ever been a citizen of Madison County!
http://www.ohiogenealogyexpress.com/madison/~madisonco_bios_1883/madisonco_bios_1883_w.html
