My Genealogy Hound

LYDELL L. WILSON. Among the varied industries of Chautauqua county there has been probably none that have given more intelligent, successful and useful men to the citizenship of the county than that of lumbering. There are many reasons for this, too many indeed to enumerate here; it is sufficient to say that the risk involved, the development of a trade and the multitude of details connected with the business, all tend to develop man’s many-sided business nature. With those who stand first in the general manufacture of lumber in the county is the gentleman whose name heads this sketch. He was born in the town of Poland, Chautauqua county, New York, on April 5, 1859. His father was James Wilson, Jr., and his mother Maria (Lydell) Wilson, born respectively in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, and Cooperstown, Otsego county, New York. Grandfather Lydell was a native of New York State and moved to the town of Poland in 1832. Grandfather Wilson was a native of Pennsylvania, took part in the war of 1812 and removed with his parents to Worksburg (now Falconer), New York, where he secured a tract of land from the Holland Land company. The land was heavily covered with timber, hence the early part of his life was spent in lumbering and the preparation of his farm for cultivation. He was a resident of Falconer for over seventy years. At the battle of Chippewa, near Buffalo, New York, he was severely wounded. James Wilson was of Scotch ancestry and married Elizabeth Porter, an Englishwoman of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the year 1809. He belonged to the class of pioneer settlers of the town of Ellicott and was the founder of the old Methodist Episcopal church in Jamestown, New York. He was a man of great strength of character, firm in his religious views and convictions, and honest in his deportment toward his fellow-men. James Wilson, Jr., (father of subject) had seven children: Laura M., Lilian W., Mary L., Ida M., Jennie M., Burton J. and Lydell L. He is and has always been a stanch supporter of the Republican party. Both he and his wife are still living in the town of Gerry at a ripe old age.

Lydell L. Wilson was reared in Poland town, county of Chautauqua, New York, and attended the schools of his native town. After about two years he went to the State of Michigan as an employee in lumbering, but returned in about one year and resumed the same business in his native State. At first he was connected with the Hortson mill for a period of two years, at the expiration of which time he leased a mill at Moon’s station, New York, and operated it until it was destroyed by fire in 1885. The mill was rebuilt in 1886, and his orders, meanwhile, were transferred to the Hortson mill. In 1888 Mr. Wilson put a new mill at Moon’s station, removed to Gerry in 1890, and rebuilt a mill upon lands obtained from Levi Pratt, known as the “Wilson Mills.” These mills have no superior in the county, either in equipment or capacity. They have a capacity of fifteen million feet per annum, the greater part of which is shipped to Buffalo, Jamestown and other large centres. Lydell L. Wilson is a man of untiring efforts, careful business habits and large business resources. He began life a poor boy, at the very bottom, and by his business acumen has accumulated from nothing his present great business.

On November 10, 1880, he was married to Anna Booth, daughter of James Booth of Buffalo, New York. Their union has resulted in the birth of four children: Alice M., Mertie D., Willis L. and Nellie S., all of whom are still young.