Thomas N. Wilson

Thomas N. Wilson is my 3rd great-grandfather on my paternal and maternal line.  As I have mentioned before, my parents are second cousins through the Wilson line.  So the Wilson line is of particular interest to me.  Last week I mentioned my adventures of discovering where Thomas Wilson was buried in Junction.  This week I am going to share the little history that was given to me from Donna Behunin.  Donna was the helpful woman that I met at the Piute County Courthouse building.  The papers that she gave me do not include the name of the author, but I believe it is part of the Junction/Circleville History that her mother wrote.  I will need to correspond with Donna for confirmation.   

Thomas N. Wilson Family

Thomas N. Wilson was born in New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana, 22 December 1811, son of Thomas Wilson and Nancy Keel.  He married Nancy Lindsey in 1842.  

Nancy Lindsey was actually the daughter of Zadock Adair and a Cherokee Indian maiden.  He father lived and worked among the Indians.  She was born 29 August 1824 at Perry County, Alabama and was raised by Morris and Nancy Rogers Lindsey. (She always went by their name instead of her father's.) She married her first husband, Edward or Edwin Lee in 1841 at Lauderdale County, Mississippi.  They were the parents of one child - Amanda Jane.     

It is not known what inspired Thomas and his family to migrate to Utah.  While en route to Utah he was converted and baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints while in Texas on 24 June 1855 along with his wife Nancy and Step-daughter Amanda Jane being baptized on 29 June 1855.     

The next record that was found of him was in Utah County, Utah in 1860 and in 1862 put him in Sanpete County, Utah.   Here his ninth child Emma Ann was born on 22 November 1862 along the road in a dug-out about where the town of Gunnison, Utah now stands.  Her parents were migrating into Southern Utah and settled in North Creek, six miles above Virgin City in Dixie Country.  Here they had to dig sego-lillies to have something to eat.  They never knew what it was to have a loaf of bread at that time.  Later on they raised corn and buckwheat and ground it to make bread and coffee to drink.  Then as the valley grew they raised fruit, molasses cane and cotton.  Emma Ann said the younger children picked cotton for her oldest sister Amanda Jane to card, spin and weave and make clothes for all the family.  At the age of eleven years, she knit stockings for her father and brothers to wear.

Thomas' wife, Nancy, died 24 April 1875 at Mountain Dell and was buried in Virgin, Utah.     

Emma Ann married Stephen Mansor on the 17 September 1878 at North Creek. Her father, Thomas, performed the ceremony.  The following spring (1879) they moved to Circleville and lived in the United Order on the east side of Circleville.  Later many of the family followed them to Circleville.    

According to records in Kane County and Piute County Thomas was involved in mining from 1870 to 1880.  He came to Piute County in 1871-72 along with friends: Wm. Shoemaker, Reece Richards, Charley Penney, John Mickleson, and E.M. Vanburen and located at City Creek one mile north of the present site of the town of Junction.     

City Creek was the original name for present Junction.  The Creek was one of the main sources of irrigation water for the cultivated lands that were being developed during the first settlement period.  City Creek drained water from the west mountain, and surplus water went to the Sevier River.  Along with filing on water rights, Wilson homesteaded land on Public Domain, on the Southeast quarter of the Northwest quarter, the south half of the northeast quarter of the northeast quarter of the southeast quarter section 33 in Township 29 south of Range 3 west of Salt Lake Meridian in Utah Territory containing 160 acres.  Homestead certificate #3910-Application #3210 deposited in General Land Office, and was grated a patent on said property - signed by President Benjamin Harrison.     

During this time period Thomas and his family had a falling out and no one seemed to care about him anymore, perhaps because of him falling away from the church.  He became very bitter towards the church and Mormons.  It is not known for sure what turned him away from the church, but is believed it had something to do with the "United Order."   

He died 15 February 1885 at Junction, Piute County, Utah and was buried in Junction down Scott's Lane Northeast of Junction on the north side of the road on a little knoll on the Black Hill in a lone grave with an iron wrought fence around his grave.  He died a tragic death - he was found burnt to death in his home - apparently had fallen in the fireplace being too feeble to get out.  (According to "Kingston United Order" journal, Thomas joined the Order 4 March 1880.)

Thomas was the father of 1 step-daughter, Amanda Jane Lee, and 9 children, Nancy, Morris, Mary, Thomas, Elizabeth, William Crestfield, Eliza, Emma Ann, and Hannah Arilla Wilson.

My dad, DuWayne Squire, told me that he had heard from his cousin, Reed Wilson, that Thomas Wilson had fallen away from the church because Brigham Young had asked him to move to Dixie and to build up that area the same way that he had the Junction/Circleville area.  I am just grateful, that his son, Morris Wilson, my 2ggf, stayed strong in the gospel and
his son, Thomas' grandson, Morris Wilson, Jr., my ggf, was a loyal servant to the Lord as he served 24 years as the first Bishop in the LaVerkin ward. I am proud of my Wilson heritage!