John T. Wilson
The words of Miss Edna Dean Proctor's poem are ringing in my ears. She inquires if the heroes are all dead; if they only lived in the times of Homer and if none of the race survive in these times? The refrain of the poem is; "Mother Earth, are the heroes dead?" And then she proceeds to answer it in her own way, and she answers it thus:
"Gone? In a grander form they rise.
Dead? We may clasp their hands in ours. "
* * * * *
"Whenever a noble deed is done
'Tis the pulse of a hero's heart is stirred."
Then comparing our modern heroes with those of Homeric days, Jason, Orpheus, Hercules, Priam, Achilles, Hector, Theseus and Nestor, she continues:
"Their armor rings on a fairer field
Than the Greek and the Trojan fiercely trod:
For freedom's sword is the blade they wield,
And the light above is the smile of God."
We have heroes in these, our days, who will compare more than favorably with those of the Homeric, or any subsequent times; but having known them as neighbors and friends, and having associated with them from day to day, we do not appreciate them till death has sealed their characters, and then as we study them it begins to dawn on us that they have done things to be canonized as heroes.
Till since his death, we believe the public has not fully appreciated the character of the Hon. John T. Wilson, a former congressman of the tenth (Ohio) district, though it is his record as a patriot, and not as a congressman, we propose especially to discuss.
He was a hero of native growth. He was born April 16, 1811, in Highland County, Ohio, and lived the most of his life and died within ten miles of his birthplace. His span of life extended until the sixth of October, 1891, eighty-five years, five months and twenty days, and in that time, his manner of life was known to his neighbors like an open book.
In that time, living as a country store keeper and a farmer, and resisting all temptation to be swallowed up in city life, if such temptation. ever came to him, he accumulated a fortune of about half a million of dollars, which, before and at his death, was devoted principally to charitable uses.
To attempt to sum up his life in the fewest words, it consisted in trying to do the duty nearest him. He was never a resident of a city, except when attending to public official duties, and to expect a hero to come from the remote country region about Tranquility in Adams County, Ohio, was as preposterous as looking for a prophet from the region of Nazareth in the year one; yet the unexpected happened in this instance.
Till the age of fifty, he had been a quiet unobtrusive citizen of his remote country home, seeking only to follow his vocation as a country merchant and to do his duty as a citizen; but it was when the war broke out that the soul which was in him was disclosed to the world. He showed himself an ardent patriot. When government bonds were first offered, there were great doubts as to whether the war would be successful, and whether the government would ever pay them.
No doubt occurred to Mr. Wilson. He invested every dollar he had in them, and advised his neighbors to do the same. He said if the country went down, his property would go with it, and he did not care to survive it; and if the war was successful, the bonds would be all right. As fast as he had any money to spare, he continued to invest it in government securities. In the summer of 1861, he heard that Capt. E. M. De Bruin, now of Hillsboro, Ohio, was organizing a company for the Thirty-third Ohio Infantry Regiment, and he went over to Winchester and arranged with the Rev. I. H. DeBruin, now of Hillsboro, Ohio, that his only son and child, Spencer H. Wilson, then nineteen years of age, should enlist in the company, which he did, and was made its first sergeant, and died in the service at Louisville, Ky., March 4, 1862.
In the summer of 1861, Mr. Wilson determined that Adams County should raise a regiment for the service. He did not want to undertake it himself, but he believed that Col. Cockerill, of West Union, Ohio, would lead the movement; it could be done and he sent Dr. John Campbell, now of Delhi, Ohio, to secure the co-operation of Col. Cockerill. That was not difficult to do, as Col. Cockerill felt about it as Mr. Wilson. It was determined to ask Brown County to co-operate, and Col. D. W. C. Loudon, of Brown, was taken into the plan, and the Seventieth Ohio Infantry was organized in the fall of 1861. Mr. Wilson undertook to raise a company for the regiment and did so, and it was mustered in as Company E.
The captain, the Hon. John T. Wilson, was then fifty years of age, and he had in the company three privates, each of the same age, and one of the age of fifty-five, so that the ages of five members of that company aggregated 225 years. Hugh J. McSurely was the private who was past fifty-five years of age when he enlisted in Capt. Wilson's Company. He is the father of the Rev. Wm. J. McSurely, D. D., pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of Hillsboro, Ohio, and has a separate sketch herein.
Capt. Wilson's company was much like Cromwell's troop of Ironsides. It was made up of staid old Scotch and Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, who went in from a sense of duty. Col. Loudon, of the Seventieth O. V. I. says that Capt. Wilson did more to raise and organize the Seventieth Ohio Infantry than anyone else. At the time he went into the service, he was physically unfit, and could not have passed medical examination as an enlisted man. He had an injury to his leg, from the kick of a horse years before, that greatly disabled him, but he wanted to go and felt he owed it to his friends and his country to go. He would not consider his own physical unfitness.
He led his company into the sanguinary battle of Shiloh. His personal coolness and self-possession inspired his company, and he held it together during the entire two days' battle.
During the march to Corinth, after Shiloh, he was taken down with the fever, and by order of the surgeon was sent north. At Ripley, Ohio, he was taken much worse, and lay there for weeks, delirious and unconscious, hovering between life and death. Owing to the most careful nursing, he recovered. He was not able to rejoin his regiment until September, 1862, at Memphis, Tenn.
Col. Cockerill was then in command of the brigade, and made him brigade quartermaster, so he would not have to walk; but it was apparent that he was unfit for service; and was imperiling his life for naught. Col. Cockerill and Lieut. Col. Loudon both told him he could serve his country better at home than in the army, and insisted on his resigning and going home. He resigned November 27, 1862. Col. Loudon says his record was without a stain, and none were more loyal than he.
Capt. Wilson was married in 1841 to Miss Hadassah G. Drysden. There was one son of this marriage, Spencer H. Wilson, born September 13, 1842, and whom he gave to his country, as before stated. Capt. Wilson's wife died March 23, 1849, and he never remarried.
Captain Wilson not only invested his fortune in the war securities and sent his only son and child to the war, but went himself, and served as long as he could. Could any one have done more?
In the summer of 1863, he was nominated by the Republicans of the seventh senatorial district of Ohio, to the state senate without being a candidate, and without his knowledge or consent he was elected. In 1865 he was renominated and re-elected to the same office, and served his constituency with great credit and satisfaction. In 1866, he was nominated by the Republicans of the Eleventh Ohio District for a member of congress, and was renominated and re-elected in 1868 and in 1870; though just before his congressional service, and just after it, the district was carried by the democracy.
When Mr. Wilson was first nominated for congress, it was not supposed that he was a speaker, or that he could canvass the district, but he made appointments for speaking all over the dictrict, and filled them to the satisfaction of every one. He made a most effective speaker, and moreover, the farmers all over the district believed what he said, and were justified in doing it. He was never present at a convention which nominated or renominated him for office, and never in the slightest way solicited a nomination or renomination.
He was the most satisfactory congressman ever sent from his district. Every constituent who ever wrote him, got an answer in Mr. Wilson's own handwriting, which was as uniform and as plain as copperplate. The letter told the constituent just what he wanted to know, and was a model of perspicuity and brevity. Those letters are now precious relics to anyone who has one of them, and they are models of what letters should be.
If a constituent wrote for an office, he was sure to get an answer which would tell him whether he could get an office or not, and if Mr. Wilson told him he could get an office, and that he would assist him, he was sure of it. Mr. Wilson had the confidence of the President and of all the appointing officers, and if he asked for an office inside of the district, he usually obtained it, because he made it a rule never to ask for an office unless he thought he was entitled to it, and that it would be granted him.
Mr. Wilson retired from congress at the end of his third term with the good will of his entire district, and with the feeling that he had served to their entire satisfaction.
On March 6, 1882, he gave Adams County, Ohio, $46,667.03 towards the erection of a Children's Home. The gift was really $50,000, but was subject to certain reductions, which netted it at the sum first named. As the county built the Home, he issued his own checks in payment for it, until the entire gift was made. That Home is now one of the best and finest built institutions of the kind in this state. By his last will and testament, he gave to the Children's Home an endowment of $35,000 and $15,000 in farming lands. He also gave $5,000 towards the erection of a soldier's monument to the memory of the Adams County soldiers who had died or been killed during the Civil War. This momument has been erected in the grounds of the Wilson Children's Home, and occupies a site overlooking the surrounding country.
Mr. Wilson made many private bequests in his will, which it is not within the scope of this article to mention; but to show his kindly disposition we mention that he gave $1,000 to a church in which he was reared and held his membership, and $1,000 to the church at Tranquility, where he resided. His housekeeper, a faithful woman, he made independent for life As a residuary bequest, he gave to the commissioners of Adams County, $150,000 to be expended in the support of the worthy poor.
It is to the interest of the state that every citizen should be law abiding; that he shall faithfully follow some occupation and support him self and those dependent upon him; that he shall accumulate and hold property to guarantee his own independence and that of his family, and that he shall be able to contribute to the needs of the state.
It is also to the interest of the state that, in case of war, its citizens shall place their entire property and their personal services fully at its disposal. A citizen who performs all these obligations is said to be patriotic, and the virtues of patriotism are more admired than any other, because what is given in that direction is given for the common good of all the people of the country.
One may take the entire list of patriots, from Leonidas, the Spartan, down to Lincoln, the great war president, or in our country, from Gen. Warren down to the last man who fell at Appomattox, and none can be found who did more work for his own country than the Hon. John T. Wilson.
He periled his entire fortune; he gave the life of his only son, and he freely offered his own. What more could he have done?
Patriotism is and must be measured by the station in life which a man occupies when his opportunity comes.
If each man does all he can, and offers or gives all he can, he is as great a patriot as any one can be. Measured by this standard, Capt. John. T. Wilson filled the full measure of patriotism.
When he came to the last of earth, he not only remembered those upon whom the law would have cast his estate, but he devoted the greater part of it to public benefactions and especially to the relief of the innocent unfortunates who were not responsible for their own misfortunes.
In his public duties as captain in the line, as brigade quartermaster, and as a representative in congress, he performed every duty apparent to him honestly and conscientiously, and in the very best manner in which it could be done. His entire life consisted in the performance of each and every duty as he saw it at the time. He never did anything for effect, or for show, or to be spoken of and praised by his fellow men.
In size, he was like Saul, head and shoulders above his fellows, over six feet high, but with a most kindly disposition. His features were at tractive and commanding. He was willing to meet every man, to estimate him according to his manhood, and to bid him God-speed, if he deserved it.
He never tried to do anything great, but his punctuality to every duty before him, from day to day, made him known all men. He simply tried to do right, and, this simple devotion to duty in war and peace, in public office and as a private citizen, cause his memory to be revered as a perfect patriot so long as his good deeds shall be remembered.
From History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900