Butte County
Biographies
LEWIS E. WILSON
LEWIS E. WILSON.--Chance has undoubtedly had much to do with the careers of successful California pioneers, and among those who were thus brought to this state to reside is Lewis E. Wilson, who received the handsome inheritance of an uncle and so, after he had once bade good-bye to the East, was encouraged to undertake the difficult but not impossible task of worthily representing his benefactor in the land of the Golden West. How well he has accomplished what he set out to do may be seen from a brief outline of his interesting career.
Mr. Wilson was born in Clinton County, Ohio, April 10, 1857, the son of James and Margaret (Plymire) Wilson, natives of Ohio, and Washington, Pa., respectively. He was the second youngest of their nine children and was reared on a farm and attended the public schools there, enjoying the advantages in education for which his native state is famous. At the age of twenty-five, when he had become an experienced farmer, in 1882, he came to Gridley, Cal., but after working for a year and a half on his uncle’s ranch, he returned to Ohio. He then learned the trade of painter and paperhanger and followed it for seven years in that state.
In 1891, Mr. Wilson was called back to California by the illness of his uncle, Samuel Plymire, but before he could reach the sufferer’s bedside, the latter died. On his arrival he found that his uncle had willed him his splendid ranch, and this led him to settle here permanently and to return to farming. The ranch consists of three hundred five acres of land and is devoted to wheat and barley, and supports fifty head of cattle. He has a dairy of fourteen cows and excels in dairy-products; and he raises the best of work-horses. Particularly successful has Mr. Wilson been with his crops. In 1917 he had one field of eighty acres of volunteer barley, which yielded twelve sacks per acre, and another field where the yield was twenty sacks; sixty acres of wheat yielded twenty sacks to the acre. The yield of crops in 1918 was almost as good. To operate his ranch he has a Holt sixty-five horse power caterpillar engine and a modern combined harvester, and this he not only uses for his own work but since it is the only one in the neighborhood, places it at the disposal of other ranchers. From the early days when Mr. Plymire owned the ranch it was known as the Model Ranch, on account of its being kept in such excellent condition and from yielding such bountiful crops of grain and hay, as well as fruits and vegetables. This high degree of excellence has been maintained by Mr. Wilson. There is a natural grove of white and live oaks covering about five acres, which he uses for his corral, this grove being much prized by the owner, and every tree is spared. Evidencing the fertility of the soil, he has grown pumpkins weighing one hundred twenty-five pounds, which, when exhibited at the Rice Show at Gridley, brought him the premium.
While in Ohio, Mr. Wilson was married at Sabina, March 25, 1886, to Idella Hickman, born in that town, a daughter of Rev. Z. D. Hickman, a Virginian, who followed the ministry since he was seventeen, and who was married in Virginia to Miss Elizabeth Cottrell. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson three children have been born: Harry, born in Ohio; and Norman and Alta, born in California. Norman is a bugler in the United States Naval Reserves. All the children give promise of the same enterprise and character which have marked the life of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson. Mr. Wilson is a Republican and has served on the grand jury.
Transcribed by Vicky
Walker, 2/22/08.
Source: "History of
Butte County, Cal.," by George C. Mansfield, Pages 764-767, Historic Record Co, Los Angeles, CA, 1918.
© 2008 Vicky
Walker.
Golden Nugget Library's Butte County Biographies