ADAM H. WILSON is operating his splendidly
improved farm of four hundred and eighty acres, four hundred acres of
the estate, his homestead, lying in Jackson township and the remaining
eighty acres in Monroe township. He came to Benton county in the spring
of 1869, locating first in Homer township, and he is numbered among the
self-made men who have achieved both wealth and position from the
fertile lands of Benton county, for when he came here his capital did
not exceed perhaps two hundred dollars. About two years after this he
bought eighty acres in Homer township, and resided there for some
years, in the meantime adding to his landed possessions until he owned
a farm of two hundred and forty acres. In about the year of 1901 he
moved from there to his present home in Jackson township, purchasing
land in sections 30 and 31. He had improved his Homer township farm,
and he has also improved his estate here and has been very successful
in his operations. During the past twenty years or more Mr. Wilson has
bred and raised Hereford cattle, and now has the largest herd of
thoroughbred Herefords in Benton county, owning from one hundred to one
hundred and fifty head, his market covering this community as well as
territory outside of the state, shipping in car load lots. He has also
been identified with other lines of business, including the operation,
with others, of a cheese factory, and he is the president of the
Peoples Savings Bank of Garrison.
Mr. Wilson was born in Grenville county, Ontario, Canada, June 9, 1850,
a son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Erratt) Wilson, the former of Scotch
descent and the latter a native of Canada and a daughter of a Methodist
Episcopal minister. They were married in St. Lawrence county, New York,
and located then in Ontario, Canada. Samuel Wilson was by trade a brick
layer, although he owned a farm, and in about 1873 or 1874 the family
came to Benton county, Iowa, which continued as the parents' home until
death, Samuel Wilson dying at his homestead in Homer township in the
early '90s, aged about seventy-three years, and his wife died not long
since at the age of seventy-four. She was several years younger than
her husband. Adam H. was the first born of their eight children, seven
sons and a daughter, and all are living. James C. Wilson, the second
son, is now a resident of Corning, California. In former years he was a
large farmer in Benton county, and he now owns a section of land in
California and is extensively engaged in raising fruit. John Wilson, a
resident of Reinbeck, Iowa, was the cashier of a bank there for
twenty-eight years and is now the president of the Bank of Reinbeck.
Mrs. N. Minish resides in Cedar Falls, where her husband is a retired
farmer. Matthew Wilson is a farmer in Homer township, and he is also a
mechanic and an inventor. Albert Wilson resides near Hudson, Iowa, a
farmer. The Rev. Edward E. Wilson, a Methodist Episcopal minister, was
a missionary for eight years to Chili, South America, and during the
past five or six years he has been stationed at Porto Rico. Dr. William
H. Wilson is a practicing physician and surgeon in Chicago, Illinois, a
member of the faculty of the Hahnemann Medical College.
Adam H. Wilson was married in Illinois to Miss Mary J. Yalden, born in
St. Lawrence county, New York, but she came to Illinois when a child
with her parents, who were farming people. Six sons have blessed the
marriage union of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson: Vernon H., the cashier of both
the Grundy County National and the Grundy County Savings Banks at
Grundy Center, Iowa, married Maude Butrick, of Benton county; William
B., farming at home with his parents; Hillis R., attending the Ames
Agricultural College; John H., assistant cashier of the Peoples Savings
Bank at Garrison; and Ernest S and Walter I., both in school. Mr.
Wilson is a Republican voter, and both he and his wife are members of
the Methodist Episcopal church.
Picture of Adam Wilson
