Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/379

 THE WILSONS OF KEENE.

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��The ancestor of the Keene Wilsons and allied families was William Wil- son, who came to America from Ty- rone, Ireland, in 1737, bringing his son Robert iind one daughter, Let- tuce., who alterwards married a man of the name of Swan. They passed the winter of 1737-38 in West Cam- bridge and then removed to Towns- end, Mass. Some members of the family have a tradition that the emi- grant was named James, but William seems to be the name best supported by evidence. The son whom he brought from Ireland was Robert, who was about three years of age when he came to New England. There were two other sons known to us, James and Daniel. James settled in Stod- dard, and was the father of one daughter, I^ettuce, who married a Reed, and lived in Tovvnsend, Mass., and five sons, James, John, Jonas, Joel, and Jesse, the parents having used scrupulous care that all their sons should be named for Bibli- cal worthies and that their names should all begin with "J." A large portion of the town of Stoddard was once owned by these Wilsons, who were then a large family circle, own- ing several farms, but the writer is not aware that a single descendant of either branch of the family now re- sides in that town. John Wilson, Esq., of Lunenburg, Mass., a prominent citizen, is a son of John, and Mrs. Theodore Butterfield, of Lowell, is a daughter of James.

Daniel, another son of the emigrant William, settled at first in Keene, but moved afterwards to Sullivan. He was the father of five daughters and six sons. Hannah, the eldest daugh-

��ter, married Moses Adams, of Dublin. Her sons, Capts. Moses Adams, of Dublin, and Samuel Adams, of Peter- borough, have been prominent citi- zens of those towns. Frederic M. Adams, Esq., a lawyer in New York city, is her grandson, and Henry Fiske Adams, m. d., of Newburyport, who graduated with honor from the class of 1 88 2 in the Harvard Medical School, is her great-grandson. Abi- gail, the second daughter of Daniel, married Nathaniel Osgood, of Nelson. Polly, the third daughter, married Josiah Seward, Jr., of Sullivan, whose father was the first deacon of the church in Sullivan. Her oldest son, who bore the name of his father and grandfather, was a young man of sound learning and scholarly tastes, who was evidently destined for an honorable career, but died of an attack of typhus fever, in 1831, at the early age of 22. Her other sons v/ere Daniel and David, the latter being the father of J. L. Seward, pastor of the Unitarian church in Lowell, and J. B. Seward, with the house of Mills & Gibb, in New York city. Bet- sey, the fourth daughter of Daniel, married James Osgood, of Sullivan. She was the mother of three daush- ters (of whom two, Mrs. D. W. and Mrs Asahel Nims, are living), and two sons, Harry, who died while a young man, and James Mason, who resides in the West. Sarah, the young- est of the daughters, married Roswell Nims, of Keene. Two of her daugh- ters are living, Mrs. B. E. Webster, of Walpole, and Mrs. Dennis Hubbard, of Springfield, Mass. ; also two sons, George, of Westmoreland, and John, of Illinois. Mr. Oscar Nims, treas-

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