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.
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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

Personal Info________________________________________
Father: Edwin Earl Wilson  “Earl”
Born: May 21, 1886         Diona, Illinois
Died: October 11, 1971   Webster City, Iowa    Age  85
Parents: James & Emily Wilson

Mother: Ethel Belle Shields
Born: February 16, 1886    Illinois
Died: April 6, 1967           Webster City, Iowa   Age  81
Parents: John & Martha Shields

Married: March 12, 1905 for over 62 years

Buried: Webster City Cemetery, Webster City, Iowa.
Go west on the small road that heads to the northwest
corner of the cemetary. When it starts to turn left (south),
look for the Wilson plot on the right side, a few feet
from the road.
___________________________________________________

The Wilson family started out farming near Louisville, Illinois then later moved to Iowa. Their hard work paid off and at one time they had over $16,000 in cash. This was during the Depression, which saw many banks fail, so the money was kept buried in the garden.

Earl was a hard working, serious man. His politics, like many Midwest farmers of the early 20th century, were very conservative — and set in stone. His oldest son once teased him that he’d vote for a snake if it was Republican.

In a family consisting of three boys and two girls, Earl was often the disciplinarian. When one of the boys burned down the outhouse door, his punishment was to spend a day tied to the clothesline outside. A rug had to suffice as a temporary door until a new once could be built.

Earl also had very definite ideas about how and when things should be done. In his view, none of the children were ever too old for a bit of advice or assistance. When one of his sons (by this time a grown man with a family of his own) postponed the spring plowing for a day because the fields were too wet, Earl drove out to the farm to do the plowing himself. Upon returning from an afternoon of fishing, the son was then greeted with the site of his tractor firmly mired in the middle of the field!

Ethel was a frail woman who was often sick during her long life. She was especially troubled by headaches which she eased by wearing a wet washcloth on her head. This was eased by finally, at the age of seventy-eight, being persuaded to go to a chiropractor. Ethel also had contracted tuberculosis when a young mother. She was always afraid of her children getting it from her and was therefore not very affectionate.

Her ailments did not prevent her from being an industrious and kind woman. Her strength of character was often a perfect foil for her husband’s excitability and provided a strong set of values for the family. During the Depression, when it began to look like the bank that held their savings account was going to close, Earl went down to withdraw the family’s money. While there, he was persuaded to take out only half of it. When Ethel discovered this she said to him, “You have taken my half out of the bank. Now go back down there and get your half!”. All of the Wilson family money was thus safely retrieved.

After farming for many years, the couple retired in Webster City, Iowa. Sunday afternoons during the summer would often find them fishing off the Old White Bridge over the Iowa river after enjoying a picnic lunch. Both were avid fishermen and would often travel up to Minnesota on fishing trips. Earl also liked working in his garden and woe to the grandchild who entered it without his permission! (The buried money may had something to do with this attitude.)

Ethel’s declining health resulted in her eventually being put in a nursing home, but the stay was a short one. After only a few days, Ethel called her husband and said, “Earl! Come down and get me out of here!”. She was moved back home and died there of a heart attack one April evening in 1967.

Earl lived four more years and continued to fish whenever he could. Leukemia and the loss of his driver’s license eventually made it difficult to get around, but he never stopped trying. Even up to his final days he was optimistic about retaking his driving test and regaining his independence.

Children of Earl & Ethel Wilson

Glen Shields Wilson – Farmer, Woodworker
Born: October 13, 1905Died: October 22, 1997

Mildred May Wilson (Hoverstein) – Housewife
Born: February 1, 1907Died: ??

Lesslie Earl Wilson – Farmer
Born: September 5, 1908Died: 1987

Ruby Belle Wilson (Caudle) – Housewife
Born: January 16, 1911Died: May 11, 1995

William Edwin Wilson – Farmer
Born: October 13, 1920Died: 2011