Individual Details
Thomas Wilson Jr.
(1834 - 1884)
Source: Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska - Dodge Co. - Part 10.
There was a Thomas Wilson born 18 September 1834, which may be him.
"United States Census, 1860," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M6RF-1ZS : accessed 30 Jul 2013), Thos Wilson, 1860.
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Yes.. he [Thomas Wilson, Jr.] died I believe in N.C. with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show where he was a horse trainer. We have a telegram from them wondering where to send his remains (by train)...they lived in Fremont, Nebraska.
Your family tree seems to jibe with what we know...I have a boat named after my great grandmother, Kate McGraw (your Catherine Platner McGraw)...she died at 37 due to medical malpractice. As a boy I knew my grandparents, Edward McGraw Spear and Lucia Wilson who lived well into their 90s...here they are (see attachment) in perhaps in the early fifties..with hat and Lucia to his right, our left. (that's me between them). "EM" was quite lucid up until his end at just shy of 100 years old...In his late to mid 90's I recall him shooting and hitting clay pigeons with a 12 gauge pump. He was a prison guard in Wisconsin at age 13 and from there headed west to around White Sulphur Springs Montana where he herded sheep and homesteaded in the 1880's or earlier. To get a sense of what this might have been like read "A House of Sky" by Ivan Doig....I like to think EM was in the generation who settled that valley...
Lucia had five boys with EM, all gone now, leaving only a handful of children and even less grandchildren. Despite her home being one of the nicest in Genoa, Nebraska, I remember her dutifully hand pumping water in the kitchen and boiling it for the dishes on a corn cob stove, again, in her nineties. She was a skilled elocutionist, and I believe as a girl won a prize for it. She could speak French they say, but I never heard it. If convinced it was really desired, she would recite moving poems at the end of a Sundaydinners such as "The Pig" or the "Wreck of the Hesperus" the boy on the burning deck and such like, replete with dramatic intonations and theatrical devices including elaborate hand gestures. If you are counting on your genes for a long life you will be happy to know her sister Alice lived well into her nineties too! The message for the Wilson's seems to be, to stay away from horses and you will do fine.
I know you are Wilsons but I wish I knew more of the McGraws. One of them, a Col McGraw seems to have been a major figure in Detroit shortly after the Civil war...I assume they are Scotch Irish as McGraw doesn't seem to ring a bell with anyone in Scotland, and, emotionally we all seem to be a better fit with what I read about the Scotch Irish sorts.
The Spears trace back to George Spear from England, (but of Scottish descent ..Spy-er..the Lookout) in Braintree, MA AND VT! In the 1650's or so...You might have heard about (the mistaken in my opinion) geography of Cape Spear..said to be the "Easternmost" point in North America. My hope still is to do something famous enough in Alaska to warrant the naming of the "Westernmost" point of North America on Amatignak Island something with Spear in it..Point Spear, or better yet, Spear Point or whatever...to complete the book-ends of this four century long journey across the continent...but alas, in my fifty years here I am afraid I have made too many enemies. (the "Wilson's" for instance below me here in Juneau are just completing a seven foot high spite fence to shut out even eye contact.) oh, BTW the Easternmost would be somewhere on Amchitka I. And that status was celebrated the year I got here with the explosion on it of an atomic, or was it a hydrogen? Bomb?
Tired of all this? Well, who can blame you..but, it is what you get when you go poking around in the brush with a stick...
Cheers Wm Spear
Events
Families
Spouse | Elizabeth Clark (1840 - 1864) |
Child | Clara J. Wilson (1861 - 1864) |
Child | Walter M. Wilson (1863 - 1864) |
Spouse | Martha Blood Glidden (1842 - 1896) |
Child | Wallace H. Wilson (1867 - 1940) |
Child | Cassie M. Wilson (1870 - 1871) |
Child | Lucia Mary Wilson (1872 - 1963) |
Child | Alice B. Wilson (1874 - 1973) |
Father | Thomas Wilson ( - 1868) |
Mother | Jane (1805 - 1887) |
Sibling | Ann Wilson (1827 - 1868) |
Sibling | William Slater Wilson (1829 - 1890) |
Sibling | Mary Wilson (1832 - 1835) |
Sibling | Wilson (1836 - 1836) |
Sibling | Rebecca A. Wilson (1837 - 1915) |
Sibling | John Henry Wilson (1840 - 1869) |
Sibling | Harrison E. Wilson (1843 - 1895) |
Sibling | Eunice E. Wilson (1845 - 1928) |
Sibling | Arthur Wilson (1849 - 1869) |
Notes
Census (family)-shared
1 M 5-10 [Thomas]1 M 10-15 [William Slater]
1 M 40-50 [Thomas S.]
1 F 0-5 [Rebecca]
1 F 10-15 [Ann]
1 F 30-40 [Jane]
Census (family)-shared
Thomas Wilson M 45 England - FarmerJane Wilson F 45 England
Thomas Wilson M 16 Ohio
Rebecca Wilson F 12 Ohio
John H Wilson M 9 Ohio
Harison Wilson F 7 Ohio
Eunice Wilson F 4 Ohio
Arthur Wilson M 0 Ohio
William S Wilson M 20 England - Carpenter & Joiner
Ivory M 23 - Carpenter & Joiner
Ann Ivory F 22 England
Marriage
Thomas Wilson's biography states, "In 1859, he married in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Miss Elizabeth Clark." However, the Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934, shows that the marriage was recorded 27 Nov 1859 in Mills County, Iowa.Census (family)
Thos Wilson M 26 Ohio - Farmer $200 real estate, $300 personal estateElizabeth Wilson F 19 Illinois
In 1859 a post office was established at "Jalapa" on Maple Creek.
Marriage
7 Jul 1866 by one sourceCensus (family)
Thomas Wilson M 36 OhioMarthey B Wilson F 28 Ohio
Wallace Wilson M 2 Nebraska
Mary Gliden F 18 Ohio
Census (family)
Thomas Wilson M 46 Ohio, United StatesWife Martha Wilson F 39 Ohio, United States
Son Walace Wilson M 12 Nebraska, United States
Daughter Lou Wilson F 7 Nebraska, United States
Daughter Alice Wilson F 5 Nebraska, United States
Other Barbra Brolish F 14 Czechoslovakia
Death
He died I believe in N.C. with the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show where he was a horse trainer. We have a telegram from them wondering where to send his remains (by train)...they lived in Fremont, Nebraska.Source: email from his great grandson William Spear: bill@wmspear.com
Burial
GPS (lat/lon): 41.4417, -96.52366Endnotes
1. "United States Census, 1840," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/XHYV-1PZ : accessed 06 Mar 2014), Ths Wilson, 1840..
2. "United States Census, 1850," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MXQ2-H8F : accessed 17 Aug 2013), Thomas Wilson, 1850..
3. "Iowa, County Marriages, 1838-1934", database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KLW4-5DV : 8 March 2016), Thomas Wilson and Elizabeth Clark, 1859..
4. "United States Census, 1860", database with images, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:M6RF-1ZS : 30 December 2015), Thos Wilson, 1860..
5. "United States Census, 1870," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/MHDS-TTT : accessed 05 Mar 2014), Thomas Wilson, Nebraska, United States; citing p. , family 275, NARA microfilm publication M593, FHL microfilm 000552327..
6. "United States Census, 1880," index and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/M8YC-HMM : accessed 05 Mar 2014), Thomas Wilson, Fremont, Dodge, Nebraska, United States; citing sheet 433D, family 0, NARA microfilm publication T9-0746.
7. Find A Grave Memorial# 138906110.