Personal Info________________________________________
Father: James Edwin Wilson
Born: March 13, 1856            Virginia
Died: May 14, 1943               Nevada, Iowa   Age  87
Parents: Samuel & Caroline Wilson

Mother: Emily Elizabeth Flesher  “Lizzie”
Born: March 25, 1858            Virginia
Died: April 28, 1916              NE of Webster City, Iowa   Age  58
Parents: Unknown

Married: December 6, 1877 for 38 years

Buried:
James Wilson: Nevada Cemetery, Nevada, Iowa.
About 60 yards northeast
of the Sexton’s Building.
Emily Flesher: Charleston Cemetery, Charleston, Illinois.
___________________________________________________

James and Emily were both originally from Virginia. Later they moved to Illinois where the family was raised.

James Wilson was a distinguished looking, tobacco chewing farmer. His penmanship was very artistic and stylish. Together, he and Emily raised a family of five boys and four girls. Of these, seven lived to adulthood.

Little is known about Emily aside from her being a housekeeper — a busy job with so many children to attend to. She died unexpectedly one day while cutting potatoes outside with one of her granddaughters.

After Emily’s death, James moved back to Virginia to live with his son Kenneth. When the money began running out, James then returned to Iowa to live with another son, Earl. While there he babysat the children, cooked, and helped out with the farm work.

In 1925, pushing seventy, James married a second time. His bride, Cora, was only in her thirties and may have figured her elderly bridegroom had some money stashed away. They moved to Nevada, Iowa to live. Here James split ash to create sledgehammer and ax handles for a living and also tended a garden. Cora would periodically make him take flowers to the cemetery to place at the grave of her first husband.

Amongst James’s many talents was the ability to make moonshine out of yeast and sugar. One afternoon when Cora was away, he made up a batch for himself and her father, who was slightly younger than James. The two often got into arguments and this time, prodded by the moonshine, ended up fighting and breaking a few things. When Cora finally got home and saw what had happened, that was the end of the home brew!

As he aged, James’s memory began to falter and sometimes he would get lost while downtown. (This was probably a form of Alzheimer’s.) He died in his late eighties with a life that spanned from before the Civil War to the middle of World War II.

Children of James & Emily Wilson

Samuel A. Wilson – Farmer
Born: November 4, 1878Died: November 6, 1956
Samuel had serious problems with his temper, and spent time 
at the mental hospital in Cherokee, Iowa.

Lillie O. Wilson – Housewife
Born: December 17, 1881Died: August 24, 1956

Cary A. Wilson
Born: July 28, 1884Died: March 14, 1897
Cary died in late childhood of an illness.

Edwin Earl Wilson – Farmer
Born: May 21, 1886Died: October 11, 1971

William O. Wilson – Prison Guard
Born: April 18, 1889Died: July 28, 1965

Benjamin Wilson – Farmer
Born: February 28, 1891Died: March 19, 1939

Dovie Lee Wilson
Born: April 29, 1893Died: June 22, 1894

Kenneth Price Wilson – Black Sheep
Born: March 23, 1895Died: November, 1955
Kenneth operated a taxi service in Webster City for a time, 
but then skipped town, leaving his brothers Samuel and Earl 
to pay off the loan on the 2 cabs. Kenneth is also rumored 
to have killed a man in Chicago. He died in Wisconsin under 
an assumed name. His sister Electie was the only family 
member to keep in touch with him over the years.

Electie Wilson – Housewife
Born: August 6, 1898Died: 1971

• Family History
• Wilsons