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biography
Read
bio from the History of Mercer County, 1888 |
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JAMES M. WILLSON was born in Brookfield township, Trumbull county, Ohio, August 7, 1820. His father,
James V., was a native of Ligonier Valley, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and removed in boyhood with his father, Colonel
Samuel Willson, an officer of the Pennsylvania line in the Revolutionary war, to Washington county, Pennsylvania, where he grew to maturity. He went to Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and learned the wheelwright trade with Thomas Kennedy, of Brady's Run. He was there married to Jane Kennedy, a sister of his employer, and in i8o6 removed to Brookfield township, Trumbull county, Ohio, where he was afterward joined by his parents,
Colonel Samuel and Jane (Vance) Willson, both of whom resided with him the remainder of their lives. He served under Harrison in the war of 1812. He reared a family of nine children, all of whom are dead. In 1834 the family removed to Greene county, Ohio, where the mother died in the Presbyterian faith in 1842. After her death he spent his days among his children, and died at the home of his son, James M., in January, 1865, aged eighty-one years.
James M. Willson grew to manhood in Ohio, and in the fall of 1842 came to Hartstown, Pennsylvania, where he learned the furniture business with his brother Samuel. In February, 1845, he located in Sharon, and in partnership with
Joseph Partridge and William Logan, under the firm name of Willson, Logan and Partridge, engaged in manufacturing furniture. He was married December 4, 1849, to
Miss Mary Quinby, (born April 8, 1829, died October 17
1903, daughter of Samuel Quinby, whose father was a pioneer of Sharon. Of this union nine children have been born, five of whom survive:
Anna, widow of Edwin D. Echols; John R.; Olive M., wife of Robert A. Hannah; Herbert M.; and Mary T.; all of Sharon. Mr. Willson was an original anti-slavery man, was afterward a Republican, and in the later years of his life was a Prohibitionist. He served in the council and as school director, and both he and his wife were members of the Presbyterian church. Mr. Willson died January 24, 1899.
In 1846 Mr. Willson erected a new building for the accommodation of his furniture business on a plot of ground purchased from the late
Lafayette Budd for the sum of $2oo. This was the first building erected in Sharon on the south side of State street, between the old Erie canal and the river, and the said furniture business has always occupied the same identical spot which is the most centrally located in the city and testifies to the good judgment of the purchaser. The furniture business established by Mr. Willson in 1845 is still carried on by his children under the firm name of J. M. Willson & Sons, and is the oldest and largest retail store in Mercer county.
Twentieth Century History of Mercer County, page 940 |
