Individual Details

1888 Sep 11 born in Chase County, Nebraska
1900 Residence: Hamburg city, Fremont, Iowa with his parents
1910 Residence: Plattsmouth Ward 3, Cass, Nebraska with mother Ella A. Wilson
1920 Residence: , Washington, Nebraska with wife "Nellie" and infant son "Sry E. Wilson"
1923 Nov 22 Rex moved from Nebraska to Los Angeles, California with his mother, wife, and son.
1930 Residence: Los Angeles (Districts 1579-1606), Los Angeles, California with Nellie, Ivory E., and Ella A. Wilson together with the Weatherhogg family
1945 Mar 31 died of tuberculosis at Olive View Sanitarium in Sylmar, L.A. County, California
Find A Grave Memorial# 63877413.
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I was born on September eleventh, 1888, in the town of Imperial, Nebraska, the only child of Hymenus Eldeana Wilson and his first cousin, Ella Ann Ivory. My parents were first cousins because my father's paternal grandparents and my mother's maternal grandparents were the same couple: Thomas and Jane Wilson, who had emigrated from England to America in 1830.
When I was a child, Hymenus moved the family to the town of Hamburg, Iowa. My father was a school teacher and a painter, not of art, but of signs, a skill that he taught to me, and which I later taught to my only son, Ivory El Dean Wilson.
You may not be able to see from my photo, but I was over six feet tall and slender, with gray eyes and brown hair.
When I was 21 years old, my father died of Bright's Disease, which is a disease of the kidneys. Perhaps his condition was aggravated by his drinking. In later years his widow, Ella, remarked that her husband had died of booze.
When I was 25 years old, I married Nellie Baldwin, in Omaha, Nebraska. Nellie was five years older than me and had been married previously to a Mr. Dole. She had two sons, Harlan and Arthur, who stayed with their father, Walter Dole.
During the First World War, I was active in the Nebraska National Guard.
Nellie and I had just one son, El Dean, named after my father, Eldeana Wilson.
In 1923, when our son was 4 years old, I moved our family from Arlington, Nebraska, to the San Fernando Valley, which was then a rural area of Los Angeles, California. I established a poultry ranch, and Nellie became the proprietor of an art store. Unfortunately, when the Great Depression came a few years later, we lost both the ranch and the art store. I went back to painting signs, and Nellie took a job as seamstress in a garment factory operated by the W. P. A. My mother, Ella, also lived with us.
Life was difficult during the Great Depression. For example, in 1934 my income for the whole year was only 710 dollars. I became ill with tuberculosis and had to quit my job at the World's Largest Chicken Ranch. I moved with El Dean into downtown Los Angeles, where we rented a room for $1.25 per week near Frank Wiggins Trade School, where my son was studying printing. I painted posters whenever I could find someone who needed them. Before long, my wife and mother joined me in the city
In my old age, that is in my fifties, I became ill with tuberculosis. In those days there was no cure for tuberculosis, and it's a contagious disease, so patients were quarantined. I lived the last days of my life in the Olive View Sanatorium in Sylmar, California. My wife, Nellie, died in 1942, and I died in 1945. If you wish to visit my grave, you can find it in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Glendale, California.

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Birth	11 Sep 1888	Imperial, Chase County, Nebraska
Census (family)-shared	9 Jun 1900	(Hymenus Eldeana Wilson and Ella Ann Ivory) Hamburg, Fremont County, Iowa
Census (family)-shared	1905	(Hymenus Eldeana Wilson and Ella Ann Ivory) Hamburg, Fremont County, Iowa
Census-shared	15 Apr 1910	(Ella Ann Ivory) Plattsmouth, Cass County, Nebraska
Marriage	27 Aug 1914	Omaha, Douglas County, Nebraska - Sarah Ellen "Nellie Baldwin" Osborne
Draft registration	5 Jun 1918	Arlington, Washington County, Nebraska
Census (family)	21 Jan 1920	Arlington, Washington County, Nebraska - Sarah Ellen "Nellie Baldwin" Osborne
Residence (family)	22 Nov 1923	Move from Nebraska to Los Angeles - Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California - Sarah Ellen "Nellie Baldwin" Osborne
Census (family)	24 Apr 1930	Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California - Sarah Ellen "Nellie Baldwin" Osborne
Census (family)	13 Apr 1940	Sarah Ellen "Nellie Baldwin" Osborne
Death	31 Mar 1945	Tuberculosis - Olive View Sanitarium, Sylmar, Los Angeles County, California
Burial		Forest Lawn Memorial Park (Glendale), Los Angeles County, California

Spouse	Sarah Ellen "Nellie Baldwin" Osborne (1884 - 1942)
Child	Ivory El Dean Wilson (1919 - 1997)

Father	Hymenus Eldeana Wilson (1852 - 1910)
Mother	Ella Ann Ivory (1857 - 1946)

Notes