Mildred
Dixon Harrod
Flat Rock,
Indiana
February
25, 1968
Dear Alice,
With great pleasure I have been reading the will of Henry Wilson Sr. of Prince William County, Virginia and the notes on Jeremiah. I sent for Jeremiah's pension record several years ago. You are the first of my correspondents who has been able to give me anything at all on Jeremiah's parents. Therefore I am unable to answer you concerning Sarah, wife of Henry Sr. or any of Jeremiah's brothers.
Mrs. Mary Lee Mahin, of Keene, Kentucky, is a descendant of Jeremiah and has 18 original letters of Catherine Wilson Walker (my great-great-grandmother) written to her brother, Benjamin Wilson at Mortonsville, Kentucky between 1849 and 1860. These letters seem to have been kept as receipts for money sent to Catherine in Indiana. Money which she had her brother, Benjamin, invest for her. I have copies of these letters but none of the original ones.
Jeremiah Wilson is on tax list of Woodford County, Kentucky from 1791 to 1814 on a film. Here is the listing of Jeremiah's children:
1. Archibald
(Archie) probably born 1780 or 1782 before Wilsons came to Kentucky March
1802.
2. John
Thomas probably born 1785-1791. March 1811 or 1812. Died before September
1825.
3. William
never married. Will probated 1840.
4. James
born about 1790.
5. David
born about 1789. Ma. 1899.
6. Isaac
born about 1800-1805. Married 1834.
7. Catherine,
called Aunt Kitty, the quilt maker. Mildred's
great-great-grandmother.
8. Evaline
(Lina) born 1797. Died 1881. The ancestor of the correspondent in Louisville.
She married Edward Burris Atkins in 1820.
10. Elizabeth
married John Gill, February 1810. Born 1790.
11. Martha
(Patsy) lived in Mortonsville next door to her sister Evaline an in sight
of her brother Benjamin. Martha married William
Schooler.
12. Benjamin
born February 1, 1805. About 1830 married Eliza
Davis.
From Mrs. Steel at Louisville--Jeremiah Wilson was granted a tract of land near Paris in Bourbon County, Kentucky in 1790 for his Revolutionary War service and he brought his family to Kentucky in that year. However the Indians were so dangerous that he sold his land in Bourbon County and bought land in Woodford County near Mortonsville in order that his family might have the protection of Gen. Scott and his garrison. Jeremiah, an educated man, was a surveyor. Gen. Scott has a very high regard for Rhoda Wilson and often introduced his Washington friends to her, much to her embarrassment, for as she said, "One could not be fashionable in the backwood Indian county." When there were reports of Indians around, Gen. Scott would send his big slave "Isaiah" to protect Rhoda and her young children, for Jeremiah being a surveyor was often away from home".
There is lots of information on the children of the above children of Jeremiah, grandchildren, etc. compiled by Mrs. Mahin. She is one of the few descendants of Jeremiah who lives in the Mortonsville area. Mrs. Steele, at Louisville, said she has seen the stone of Jeremiah in the old cemetery I visited.
I have a newspaper clipping of Catherine Walker's death which reads:
Died on Monday, June 20, 1881, Catherine Walker, aged 86 years, 6 months and 26 days, at the residence of her son-in-law, Thomas J. James, near Lovett. (This is Jennings County, Indiana.) The deceased maiden name was Wilson. She was born in Woodford County, Kentucky, November 24, 1794, and was married to John H. Walker on the 4th of June, 1811. They came to Jennings County, Indiana in April 1818. She joined the Baptist Church at Vernon in 1819, and was a member of it for 62 years. During her last illness she said, "I will never get well." Her daughter asked is she was willing to die, and her reply was, "Oh, yes, I want to go and be at rest with the loved ones gone before." She leaves five children; one son and four daughters; twenty-two grandchildren and forty-four great grandchildren to mourn her loss. She was a kind and generous mother to her children, and spent her life industriously and worked to within four weeks of her death. She was generally known as Aunt Kitty Walker. Her children say"farewell Mother till we meet on the golden shore."
She died at the home of her daughter, Savannah Ellen Walker James. I have a picture of Catherine and one of her daughter, Savannah. Catherine's husband, John Walker was clerk of Jennings County for twenty years and died in 1847. John was a soldier in the War of 1812 and Catherine got a pension. I also have a black silk shoulder shawl and cap which belonged to Catherine Walker, and a shuttle of Savannah's which was probably used on a big loom.
Thanks heaps
for the will which I am returning and all the other hints and
notes.
Love,
Mildred
Submitted
by Barbara Wilson. If
you have additional
information
on this family or questions, please -email Barb.
Used
with permission.