Old

Old Wilson Papers

Monticello, Jasper Co., Georgia 1783-1849

PAPERS OF JOSEPH WILSON, ABEL PENNINGTON WILSON

This is a work in progress. My twin brother, Harold Kelvin Wilson, and I “discovered” the papers in my Dad’s barn when we were in our teens. They were given to my father when my grandmother, Alice Olelia Blocker Wilson, sold the old home place and moved in with my Aunt Edith Wilson. We discovered that the papers had belonged to my great, great grandfather, Joseph Wilson, who lived in Jasper County , Georgia , and his son, my great grandfather, Abel Pennington Wilson, who moved to Drew County, Arkansas, in 1849. We were fascinated by the papers; the Civil War type bayonets; the photo of General John Hunt Morgan; and what we think is a Georgia Militia uniform coat. Abel Pennington Wilson was a colonel in the 38^th Regiment of the Georgia Militia. We pored over the papers, excited by the letters from the soldiers during the Civil War. After I grew up and married, my wife, Ruth Ann Wilson and I examined each paper and indexed them by year. This was a time consuming affair, as each paper had to be read and sometimes deciphered. I put the papers aside for a number of years and finally returned to them in the winter of 1999. I have spent the last 12 months updating the index and scanning the documents into a computer. In addition to those papers, I am including papers in later CD’s that belonged to my grandfather, George Morgan Wilson, and my father, Woodrow Kelvin Wilson.

The following index is continually being updated. I started out being interested in the papers because some were about the Civil War. I am now more interested in them for the family information I can get from them. However, I still get excited about them. They are a great history source for my family. Care has been taken to be accurate in the transition of information from the papers to the index. However, I cannot verify that errors were not made. In fact, I am continuously finding errors in the work as I reread documents. Some of the documents are hard to read, and some of the names are spelled differently than they should be. Perhaps it is hard to read because sometimes people seemed to take more pride in their penmanship than in their spelling. Hopefully, the index and the scans will help in doing genealogical research and will be a source of family information and help to my sister, Deanna Wilson Walker, and to my children, Ruth Manon Wilson and John Morgan Wilson.

I want to thank my wife, Linda Miller Wilson, for her help and support in this project. It has taken months of time and work when I could, and should, have been doing other things. I also want to thank my cousin, Carlton Measels, a great, great grandson of Abel Pennington Wilson, for helping me decipher the names of the people in the documents. Getting the names in the index correctly is one of the most important parts of the project and one of the most difficult parts. We spent a lot of time trying to read names.

Also, I want to dedicate this work to the memory of my twin brother. It is wonderful to have a twin. Whether you are growing up together, or growing old together, you have a soul mate. You have someone who looks like you, thinks like you, and dreams like you. Therefore, I dedicate this effort of love to Harold Kelvin Wilson, 1939-1998.

Done this 24^th day of March, 2001.

Harry Keith Wilson

Transcriber’s notes: There were many, many more documents included in the Wilson papers prepared by Harry Keith Wilson, however, I have transcribed only those pertaining to Jasper County , Georgia .

Harry Keith Wilson recently passed away, however his wife, Lisa Wilson is attempting to carry on his work. You can contact Lisa at ([email protected]) for any additional information.

THANK YOU HARRY FOR ALL YOUR WORK ON THIS FAMILY AND YOUR GENEROSITY IN SHARING IT WITH OTHERS!!

Suzanne Forte ([email protected]) October 2004 (Sept 2008)

Documents contained in the Old Wilson Papers: