Biographies

Source:
The Biographical Record of Knox County, Ohio
To Which is Added an Elaborate Compendium of National Biography
Illustrated
Publ. Chicago : The Lewis Publishing Company
1902
 

JAMES P. WILSON.   So long has Mr. Wilson resided in Knox county that he is numbered among its early settlers and from the age of twenty years he has made his own way in the world, so that whatever success he has achieved is the just reward of his labors.  He now lives on section 24, Pike township, where he owns and operates a good tract of land.      Mr. Wilson was born in this township May 30, 1839.  His grandfather, Aaron Wilson, became one of the pioneer settlers of this county, as did Lewis Wilson, the father of our subject, who took up his abode here when a young man.  He married Hannah Cochran, a native of the county and a representative of one of its early families.  When she was a maiden of ten summers she attended a school taught by the gentleman whom she was afterward to marry.  James P. is their second living child and was reared in Pike township, where he also acquired his education, pursuing his studies in a log school house with a clapboard roof.  He remained at home until twenty years of age and then started out upon an independent business career.  At the time of his marriage he located upon a rented farm and later purchased fifty acres of land, upon which he lived for a year, removing thence to his present home on section 24.  He has carried on agricultural pursuits throughout his entire life and thereby acquired a comfortable competence.      Jan. 20, 1861, Mr. Wilson was united in marriage to Miss Ruth Reed, also a native of Pike township, born Sept. 24, 1836, on the farm which is now her home. She is a daughter of John and Nancy (Phillips) Reed, pioneer settlers of Knox county.  They were natives of Maryland but were married in Knox county, to which place the mother had also come from Maryland when a widow with four sons and three daughters, all now deceased.  When John Reed settled on this farm, it was then a wilderness, but he succeeded in placing about one hundred acres under cultivation.  Here this worthy couple spent the remainder of their lives, the father dying Mar. 18, 1873, aged seventy years, and the mother on Mar. 26, 1885, aged eighty-two years.  Mrs. Wilson is the fourth of their five children, all of whom were reared on this farm, and all are still living.      Unto our subject and his wife was born one daughter, Elda Ann, who became the wife of Dr. Edward Leonard and died leaving an infant son, Eldon, who was born Apr. 8, 1885, and who has always made his home with his grandparents.  They have a very pleasant home in the midst of one hundred and twenty-one acres of land, which was formerly the Reed homestead, and there Mr. Wilson's time is passed in general farming.  He gives the political support to the Democracy, though prohibitionist in principle, for he is a man of strong temperance principles and sometimes votes with the party which advocates the abolition of the liquor traffic.  He is a consistent and active member of the Methodist church, in which he has served as steward and has taken a very active part in church work.  Socially he is an Odd Fellow, belonging to Barthalon Lodge, No. 692, at Amity, in which he has passed the clairs and is a past noble grand. Source: The Biographical Record of Knox County, Ohio - Publ. 1902 - Page 286

EPHRAIM M. WINELAND.  With the building interests of Knox county, Ephraim M. Wineland was long and actively associated and in many of the substantial buildings of the community are seen evidences of his thrift and handwork.  He has also to some extent followed farming, but now he is living a retired life, enjoying the rest which should come to one as the shadows of life's evening lengthens.      Mr. Wineland was born in Bedford county, now Blair county, Pennsylvania, July 27, 1827.  His father, Jacob Wineland, was born, reared and married in that locality and about 1842 came to Knox county, locating in Pike township, where he died when about forty years of age.  He married Elizabeth Mock, a native of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, who died in Knox  county.  they were the parents of four daughters and two sons that grew to mature years and they also lost two children in early life.  In taking up the personal history of Ephraim M. Wineland we present to our readers the life record of one who is widely and favorably known in this county, for he was only about six months old when brought by his parents to Ohio, where he has since lived.  When a boy he pursued his education in a log school house in Pike township and there mastered the common English branches of learning.  He remained at home until he had attained his majority and assisted in the work of the fields, early becoming familiar with all departments of farm labor.  On starting out in life for himself he served an apprenticeship to the carpenter's trade, his term of indenture covering three years, during which time he was engaged in building barns and houses.  For two years after the expiration of his term of apprenticeship he remained with his employer as a journeyman, and then began contracting and building on his own account.  He was then twenty-one years of age, and he followed that pursuit for a quarter of a century, during which time he erected many barns and residences in Pike and other townships.  In 1848 he took his first contract - for the erection of a house for David Long.  It was a frame structure and is still standing in the northwestern part of Pike township, being occupied by Daniel Keller.  He then took and executed a contract for the building of a house for George Wolford, of Brown township.  He has erected more houses and barns than any other contractor in Knox county and is numbered among the pioneer carpenters here.  He built two school houses, one in Berlin and the other in Pike township and during the most of the time he employed men to assist him in his work.  To a limited extent he yet follows his chosen vocation but is now largely living retired.  He also engaged in farming in connection with carpentering and owns the land upon which he now resides.  He has always remained in this county, with the exception of the time he has spent in travel.  He has visited many of the western states, going as far as the Black Hills, in South Dakota, and for a short time he worked at his trade on Omaha, Nebraska, and in other places in the west.      About 1848 Mr. Wineland was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Hedges, and of this union seven children have been born, namely:  Jane, the wife of Robert Shira; Amanda, who married Amsey Horn; Hiram, who is living in Nodaway county, Missouri; Jefferson, who was killed when about sixteen years of age; and three who died i childhood.      In his political views Mr. Wineland has been a life long Democrat, and has done all in his power to promote the growth and insure the success of his party.  He was at one time township treasurer, serving for seven years, and has also been elected justice of the peace but refused to qualify.  He has been road supervisor and has ever been found a faithful public officer, prompt and reliable in the discharge of his duties.  He holds membership in the Methodist church and has ever been a honorable career.  For almost seventy-five years he has lived in Knox county, has witnessed, therefore, the greater part of its development as it has merged from the wilderness and  takes a just pride in what has been accomplished here. Source: The Biographical Record of Knox County, Ohio - Publ. 1902 - Page 51

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