This is where I started in 1989...
GREAT AUNT MELISSA'S
FAMILY HISTORY NOTES...
Melissa & Margaret Wilson, c. 1905
WILSON & SUMMERS FAMILY HISTORY
from the 1964 manuscripts of Melissa (Wilson) Lambert (1885 - 1965)
Jump to Melissa's Lee Family History
All my information came from my father, Anthony Frederick Wilson, husband of Mary Jane (Lee) Wilson, generally called Janie. The early history was told to my father by his grandfather, John Wilson, who was a grandson of our Revolutionary War ancestor, Harry Wilson. Harry was first a captain then promoted to general, probably brigadier. He had a son and a grandson that fought in the same regiment. Reading over what Father has written, I note that John Wilson, his grandfather, was born in Massachusetts. I have an idea he moved across Lake Champlain to New York state since Frederick Fletcher Wilson, son of John, was born in Franklin Co., NY. George Loomis, grandfather of the Cantines, was a son of my grandfather's sister. His daughter Elva and I compared notes. We had the same story - mine from my father, hers from her father.
John said the Wilsons were English. They had left the Church of England and joined a group named the Separatists who believed each individual church should be a separate unit, govern itself, and have the right of choosing it's own minister. They were so persecuted in England that they went to Holland. Here they were free to do as they pleased, but the children learned corrupt ways from the Hollanders who loved fun, dancing, and drinking. Finally, they decided to go to America. In America, the Separatists were renamed the Congregationalists. The Wilsons came to America in 1621. They lived in Plymouth, Massachusetts apparently until John's time.
I think all information regarding John is accurate... John, the second son of Edwin Wilson, married Lois or Louise Stevens or Stephens, who was born about 1783. They had eleven children. The eighth was Frederick Fletcher Wilson, b.1 Sep 1826 in Franklin Co., NY. John lived to be ninety and was blind. He used to sit on his front porch and when he heard a neighbor coming whose horses he recognized would run down to the road and ride into town with them. One day, he slipped, fell, & broke his neck at age 90. If this was 1873, his birth date should have been 1783. Why he never mentioned his father I can't imagine. I suppose my father and Aunt Melissa were interested in the War stories only. I do not know if Edwin Wilson is the right name for John's father. My father, Anthony F. Wilson, talked with Stephen Loomis and his sister Carrie in Canada about this name. They said Edwin is correct.
My grandfather, Frederick Fletcher Wilson, started for Ohio from upstate New York via Canada. There he met Eliza Summers and married her in 1856 at Belmont, Ontario, Canada. They had two boys, Anthony Frederick and Roswell James in Ontario. By this time the Civil War was being fought and Grandfather decided he wanted to be in the United States. Grandfather said he would fight if drafted, not hire a substitute, for about $200.00, as many did. They finally landed in Riley Township, Michigan. Grandfather bought the Arnold farm but traded with George Arnold for a quarter section (93 1/3 acres of land).
Going back to Eliza Summers...She was born in Middlesex Co., Ontario, Canada 27 Nov 1835. She was sister to James, the father of Tuey, Eduard, Frank, Tenneson, & the older girls Mary, Rhoda, and Lizza or Elizabeth. Our Great Grandfather Summers was clearing a place in the woods and though an experienced woodsman was killed by a tree he had felled. My father used to tell how the neighbors carried him home and the wolves followed and howled around the house all night. Our Great Grandmother, Elizabeth Summers, had the twins, Eliza and Elijah, James, and Rhoda all small children. Later, Elizabeth was married to Anthony Steele. My father was named for him although Aunt Ann Summers used to tell how mean he was to James.
My father often told how his Grandmother, came to stay with our grandmother when Uncle Roswell was born in 1859. She had washed some diapers and was trying to hang them in front of the kitchen range to dry. My father kept pulling them down and throwing them on the floor saying, "Liza doesn't do that!" Finally she took him across her knee and spanked him and asked, "Liza ever do that?". Though only two, he never forgot it.
My Grandmother Wilson (Eliza) was a very fast worker and an immaculate housekeeper. Besides all her home work, she worked as a midwife. She had to do everything, term babies, keep premature ones alive. There were no hospitals nor even a doctor within a practical distance. However, she never lost a baby nor mother.
Our Aunt Melissa was born in Michigan. Grandmother Eliza Wilson also had twins who died, she said, because they couldn't keep them warm enough. Aunt Melissa also had twins, Winnie and a little brother too frail to live. Aunt Melissa married Charles Mulholland. Winnie was married to John Wilson.
LEE FAMILY HISTORY
from the 1964 manuscripts of Melissa (Wilson) Lambert (1885 - 1965)
Jump to Melissa's Wilson & Summers Family Histories
According to my mother, Mary Jane (Lee) Wilson, the Lee's were of English descent, but lived in Ireland from 1435. The land known as Castle O' My Barney, Rahugh Parish, County Westmeath, Leinster, Ireland was granted to them by the King of England in 1435 for valor shown during the War of the Roses. (Note dates do not coincide with the event.)
Edward and Jane Lee were the parents of Thomas, Eliza, and William Lee, but James Lee was a brother-in-law and a cousin, married to Eliza. His family also lived in County Westmeath, but I don't know how far from mother's folks. They used to visit one another.
All but William emigrated to the United States before 1860 and settled in Michigan: Thomas, 4 miles east of Almont; a brother-in-law, Thomas Glanvills, 1000 acres northeast of Almont {searching for this individual}; and James, in the Scotch Settlement.
In 1865, William Lee and his wife Margaret Neil or Neale Lee, of Scottish ancestry, followed his siblings to America. With them were their three children, Edward, Mary Jane, and George. It was a long and tedious voyage. A bad storm prolonged the trip and passengers were locked in their cabins for a time. It was feared the ship would be lost. Margaret became very sick, terribly frightened, and homesick. Mary Jane's most vivid memories upon arrival in New York were of hearing the newsboys calling EXTRAS that President Lincoln had been shot and being entertained by the Dobbyns for a time!
From New York, the family traveled to Michigan to live near Thomas and James. At Belle River, William bought or was given a grant of land with a small log house on it. Living conditions were very primitive. Margaret, a very beautiful woman with auburn hair and a heart-shaped face, never adjusted to her new home or regained her health after the trip. She finally passed away not long after their new baby, Richard, was born in Michigan.
Mary Jane tried to keep house for her father and brothers. Baby Richard was cared for by a neighbor. After a time, William brought home a new bride, Annie Murphy, much to Mary Jane's relief. She was a wonderful woman and a loving mother to the four stepchildren as well as her own three children, Sarah, Kate, and little Robert who died in infancy. To her and William were born three children, William Jr., Margaret, and Walter.
Grandfather Lee must have been very hard up financially for a time. He sold the sterling silver by the pound to a family in Memphis, MI. After he married our stepmother things were better. She was a hard worker. She raised turkeys, chickens, and geese. Every bed had one or two huge feather mattresses. She had a wonderful garden. Most important she gave the little half-orphans love. She must have been especially tender with little Richard. A neighbor, Mrs. Eastman told me that she and Mr. Eastman visited them and she thought our step grandmother very partial to Richard. Richard was small and Willy, her first born by our grandfather, was large so it was easy to mistake Willy for the stepson.
Edward, in his early teens, had idolized his beautiful mother and naturally wanted nothing to do with a stepmother. He ran away but Grandfather Lee went after him and brought him home. I think he finally succumbed to Annie's goodness. They used to argue about pronunciations. Grandmother Annie Lee had her English dictionary and Edward, an American one. She was well educated and had been a governess in wealthy homes in England. We begged her to tell us of London where she had visited all the famous places and laid her head on the block where Queen Mary was beheaded. My mother must have thought I might not love Grandmother Lee as much if I knew she was my step-grandmother - finally Grandmother herself told me. I don't remember any reaction except that I couldn't have loved her more. Grandfather Lee was very religious. I was always afraid of him.
My mother, Mary Jane, was a wonderful story teller. We never tired of tales of Ireland. There was the beggar Larry Hacket who used to come to the door with, "Shure Mistress Lee could ye be after letting me have a cup of foreign leaves and scalding wather?" and the old woman who crept up behind a Leprechaun and captured him! She wouldn't let him go until he showed her where his gold was buried. It was at the foot of a daisy which she marked by tying her garter to it while she went for a spade to dig up the gold. When she came back, every daisy in the field had a garter just like hers tied to it.
Eventually, Edward went to Flint, MI and became a lawyer. Richard Lee, MD was killed by a runaway horse when it hit a tree. He never married.
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Last updated 12 Dec 2006