ALBERT OSBORNE WILSON, prominent among Washington county's most successful young agriculturists, is a descendant of one of the oldest families in this section. Benjamin Wilson, the youngest of five brothers, was a native of New Jersey, born June 25, 1751, of Scotch-Irish parentage; he married in 1770, Esther Correll, also a native of New Jersey, born June 29, 1750. The three children by this union were Joseph M., born March 9, 1771; Sarah, born March 10, 1774 (married to one Giles, died March 1, 1846), and Margaret, born September 14, 1778. The mother of these passed away December 16, 1782, and the father married a second time (the full name, date of birth and marriage of this wife are not recorded, but it is known she died February 16, 1811). Nine children were born to this marriage, two in New Jersey, viz.: Benjamin, born January 11, 1788, and Samuel, born July 9, 1790, died June 14, 1818. In 1793 Mr. and Mrs. Wilson came with their children to Washington county, Penn., then a vast wilderness, and entered land about one and a half miles east of Prosperity, in Morris township, where they set about to prepare themselves a comfortable home. Benjamin Wilson was a weaver by trade, which he followed in conjunction with attending to his farm, though the number of inhabitants in the section at that time was not sufficient to give him steady employment in that line. After coming to this county the following children were born to him: Elizabeth, born September 18, 1794, died December 27, 1859; Jeremiah, born December 11, 1797, died November 8, 1804; Jacob, born August 4, 1800 (no record of death); William B., born April 24, 1803, died November 11, 1804; Esther, born May 19, 1805, died January 19, 1889; Nathan, born July 7, 1807, died March 8, 1853; and John, born February 23, 1810, died April 10, 1811. Esther Wilson (who died in 1889 in her eighty-fourth year) resided with her nephew, John C. Wilson, the father of A. O. Wilson, for thirty-three years, and with A. O. Wilson for the last seventeen years of her life. Benjamin Wilson, Sr., died May 24, 1839, having been bed-ridden for five years. He was married a third time, this wife being Barbara Orr, who died November 29, 1855. She was blind for several years prior to her death. The pioneer Benjamin, made three trips to New Jersey, after locating in Pennsylvania, each trip requiring about twenty-one days, the last being made about 1810. On one occasion he brought back from New Jersey, in the old-fashioned saddle bags, the nails to roof a dwelling which he constructed shortly afterward; they were of the old flat- jointed variety of wrought nails, and may still be found on the premises, now in possession of William Elliott. Benjamin Wilson, Jr., the eldest child born to Benjamin Wilson and Mary Wilson, was five years, of age when his parents removed to Washington county. He learned the trade of a weaver, and was also practically tutored in the knowledge of farm work. On March 8, 1810, he married Mary Pruden, who was born May 17, 1782, and to their union six children were born: Pruden, John C., Hannah, Gabriel, Mary and Eliza. The mother of these died July 22, 1828, and Mr. Wilson shortly afterward removed to Greene county, Penn., where he married, March 4, 1832, Mary Dewberry, to which union six children were born: Ephraim, Rhoda, Jacob, Luella, Samuel and Sarah Jane, all of whom lived to maturity. The surviving members of the two families are as follows: Hannah, wife of James Fry, of St. Louis, Gratiot Co., Mich.; Ephraim, of Morris township, Greene Co., Penn.; Rhoda (widow of William Dewberry), residing in Virginia; Jacob, a resident of Illinois; Samuel, living in Nebraska; Sarah Jane living near Jollytown, Greene Co., Penn. John C. Wilson, the second son of Benjamin Wilson and his first wife, was born May 11, 1816. He received a fair education, and assisted his father on the farm in Greene county. At the age of sixteen years he went to live with and care for his grandfather Wilson, who was growing an almost helpless invalid. After the latter's death (as before mentioned) in 1839, John C. gave his attention to farming, and on January 28, 1846, married Mary O. Wilson, born December 21, 1817, a daughter of John Wilson, of Washington, Penn. They reared a family of five children, viz.: Albert Osborne; Mary R., born October 5, 1848, married Moses Winget, and resides in Morris township; George M., born July 31, 1851, married Clara Breese, and resides at Lindley's Mill; Oliver, born August 15, 1854 married Viola Hanna, and also resides at Lindley's Mills; Sarah, born July 2, 1858, married Lindley Headley, and resides in Tyler county, W. Va. The mother died February 25, 1863, and the father July 29, 1872. For five years previous to his death Mr. Wilson was totally blind. For twenty years he was an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Upper Ten Mile at Prosperity. Albert Osborne Wilson was born December 7, 1846. He received a common-school education, and at the age of eighteen began learning the shoemaker's trade, at which he worked three winters, assisting his father on the farm in the summer. On June 14, 1868, he married Lavina Sanders a daughter of Thomas Sanders, of Morris township, and to them three children were born: Isadore June 21, 1870; Elsie Ann, June 24, 1873, and Edna Viola, January 3, 1880. In 1876 Mr. Wilson purchased the farm where he now resides about two and a half miles north of Lindley's Mills, but did not remove there until 1882. He is a successful business man, and a public-spirited citizen. In politics he is a Democrat, and he and his wife and three children are members of the Upper Ten-Mile Presbyterian Church at Prosperity, of which he has been an elder for ten years. He has now in his possession a hymnbook, bearing publisher's date of 1792, the family Bible and record, which belonged to his great-grandfather, Benjamin Wilson. It bears the name of the bookseller from which it was purchased one hundred years ago, also the cost mark, which was œ1 17s, 6d. From this volume the family have obtained an accurate record of the early ancestry of this family.

Text taken from page 487 of: Beers, J. H. and Co., Commemorative Biographical Record of Washington County, Pennsylvania (Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1893). Transcribed January 1997 by Neil and Marilyn Morton of Oswego, IL as part of the Beers Project. Published January 1997 on the Washington County, PA USGenWeb pages at http://www.chartiers.com/.

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