Joseph Allen Wilson
Joseph Allen Wilson was born September 16, 1816, in Logan County, Ohio. His father. John Wilson, was born December 17. 1776. in Kentucky, and died October 5, 1824, in Logan County. His wife, Margaret Darlinton. was born in Winchester. Virginia. She was married to John Wilson, in Adams County, August 6, 1810, by Rev. William Williamson. She survived until March 8. 1869. Her father was born March 24, 1754, and died May 20, 1814. at Newark, Ohio. Her mother was born April 10. 1700, and died December 14, 1832. John Wilson, grandfather of our subject, moved to Maysville, Ky., about 1781, and bought land on the Kentucky side of the river for twelve or fifteen miles along its course. Tlvs land is all divided up, and a part of it, opposite Manchester, is known as Wilson's Bottoms.
The father of our subject had fifteen children, all of whom lived to maturity, married and had families. Our subject went to reside with his uncle, General Joseph Darlinton, in Adams County, in 1823. He was brought up in the Presbyterian Church and had such education as the local schools afforded. At the age of sixteen, in 1832, he became an assistant to his uncle in the Clerk's office of the Court of Common Pleas and Supreme Court. In 1837, when he had attained his majority, he started out for himself, with a certificate from J. Winston Price, Presiding Judge of the Common Pleas, that he was of correct and most unexceptionable moral character and habits. Gen. Darlinton also gave him a certificate that he was perfectly honest and of strict integrity; that he was familiar with the duties of the Clerk's office, and that he had had some experience in retailing goods from behind the counter and in keeping merchant's books. Between 1837 and 1840, he was a clerk in the Ohio Legislature at its annual sessions. In September, 1838, he was employed in the County Clerk's office in Greenup County, Kentucky. In November, 1838. he obtained a certificate from Peter Hitchcock, Frederick Grinke and Ebenezer Lane, Supreme Judges, that he was well qualified to discharge the duties of Clerk of the Court of Common Pleas of Adams County, or any other Court of equal dignity in the State. In November. 1840, he obtained employment in the office of Daniel Gano, Clerk of the Courts of Hamilton County, as an assistant for four years, at $380.00 per year. He was married to Harriet Lafferty, sister of Joseph West Lafferty, of West Union, April 14, 1839, by Rev. Dyer Burgess. He formed a great friendship with Nelson Barrere, a young lawyer who had located in West Union in 1834, and several of Barrere's letters to him are in existence. To Barrere, he disclosed his inmost soul, as to a father confessor, and Barrere held the trust most sacredly. He seemed also to have had the friendship of Samuel Brush, an eminent lawyer of that time, who practiced in Adams County. In 1846, he was an applicant for the Clerkship of Adams Court of Common Pleas, when General Darlinton's term expired. He was recommended by George Collings, Nelson Barrere, William M. Meek, Chambers Baird, John A. Smith, James H. Thompson and Hanson L. Penn, but Joseph Randolph Cockerill was appointed. However, on September 18, 1846, he entered into a written contract with Joseph R. Cockerill, the Clerk, to work in the office at $30.00 per month until the next spring and in that period to be Deputy Clerk. In April, 1848, he was admitted to the bar at a term of the Supreme Court held in Adams County, but it is not now known that he ever practiced. He always had a delicate constitution and died of pulmonary consumption, December 16, 1848. His wife died August 12, 1850. They had two children, a daughter, who died in infancy, and a son. John O., who has a separate sketch herein.
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