ON THE WEST BANK of the Mississippi River, about 25 miles above the mouth of the Des Moines on the site of early
Fort Madison where occurred some of the memorable Indian encounters described by the old Pike county Indian scout,
Colonel John Shaw, in his narrative of Indian war on the Pike county border, there was born one hundred years ago
a girl baby, the first white child born in the town of Fort Madison, Iowa. She was Ann Eliza Wheelock, who in 1860,
married Abraham Scholl's grandson, William LaGrande Wilson.
Barton Wheelock had come from Vermont to this region in an early day, down the Ohio and up the Mississippi to Adams
county, Illinois. In Adams county, he married Eliza Hunter. He was a millwright; in Adams county he built the first
mill at Kingston. Later he removed to the site of early Fort Madison in Iowa and built a mill there. There, late
in 1836, the Wheelocks became parents of twins, one of whom was named Ann Eliza. Her mate, a boy, died.
The history of early Fort Madison is veiled in obscurity. One author writes that "Fort Madison was erected
by Lieutenant Pike (Zebulon N. Pike for whom Pike county was named) in 1805, a few miles above St. Louis, and later
evacuated and rebuilt in 1813." Another historian says that "the United States built Fort Madison in
1804 on the west bank of the Mississippi, opposite the Des Moines rapids." A third author relates that "the
city of Fort Madison derived its name from a fort erected in 1808 and named in honor of James Madison."
It is known that Pike notified the war department following his exploration trip along the Mississippi in the early
1800s that he had selected a site at the head of the "de Moyen" rapids as an ideal location for a fort.
The Indians regarded the building of the fort as a violation of the treaty of 1804 and soon after its erection
made an unsuccessful attempt to destroy it. General Harrison's victory in the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811 broke
the back of the Tecumseh conspiracy and drove the Winnebagos from the Wabash valley. This incited the Indians to
a general war against the whites and the fort became the site of savage warfare. John Shaw relates that Fort Madison
was evacuated and burned early in November, 1813, for the reason that the contractor had failed to supply the garrison
with provisions, the evacuation causing great alarm among the white settlers throughout this region.
It appears that for 19 years after the abandonment of Fort Madison the valley where it stood was unoccupied by
the white man. In 1832, Peter Williams built a cabin on the bank of the river near the site of the early fort.
As the territory had not been opened for settlement, a detail of soldiers from Fort Armstrong at Rock Island drove
Williams from the land and destroyed his cabin.
The same year General John Knapp, who had purchased the site from another settler, built a cabin near the river
and opened a trading post. In 1833, when the United States acquired title to the land, Williams returned and built
for himself another abode on his earlier site. He later moved to the Des Moines river, where he died in 1835. In
this year came Barton Wheelock and occupied the Williams cabin. In the same year John H. and Nathaniel Knapp employed
Adolphus Allen to survey and lay out a town, the beginning of the city of Fort Madison. Here, shortly after the
new town was surveyed, Ann Eliza Wheelock was born, the place of her birth being then in Michigan Territory.
Some question arose as to the validity of title to land acquired by Williams and on which the Wheelocks resided
and in 1836 Congress passed an act providing for the platting of certain tracts of land in the Black Hawk purchase
into town sites, one of these being the site of Fort Madison. The town was incorporated by an act of the territorial
legislature of Wisconsin on January 19, 1838, this part of the old Michigan Territory having passed in the meantime
to the jurisdiction of Wisconsin.
The Wheelock family later moved into Pike county and resided southwest of present Fish Hook in what is now Fairmount
township. The daughter, Ann Eliza, on June 20, 1860, married William LeGrande Wilson, their marriage taking place
in Brown county, Illinois, with Justice Joseph Patterson officiating. They resided in Buckhorn township, Brown
county, just north of Fairmount in Pike, their log abode being near a present Shinnebarger bridge across the north
fork of McGee. Here, a short distance from the McGee crossing, Abraham Key Wilson was born. Another child, John
S. Wilson of Baylis, now 71, was born in a log house on the site of the residence now occupied by Bertha (Shinnebarger)
Smith, near the Shinnebarger bridge which stands as a memorial to John S. Wilson who, when a supervisor from Buckhorn
township, fought for it unceasingly.
Ann Eliza Wheelock was a noted horsewoman of her day. At the first Brown County Fair held in Mt. Sterling she won
the prize offered for the best exhibition of horseback riding, her prize being a gold breastpin, long a treasured
keepsake among her descendants but which has now been lost.
Mrs. Wilson's father and her husband's father in early days were partners in sugar-making in a great sugar camp
on McGee, about three miles below Wilson's Ford. Here grew some of the mightiest sugar trees of those days. Sometimes
the sap ran so freely on a good day that it accumulated faster than it could be boiled down. William Wilson, probably
the greatest wood chopper this county has known, felled a huge tree in the camp. Wheelock, carpenter and millwright,
with his foot-adze and other tools, hollowed out the huge trunk, making the largest trough ever seen in this region,
so large that it could not be moved from where it was fashioned. A partition was left in the center and Wilson
taking one end and Wheelock the other, they stored the sugar water until it could be "biled down."
John S. Wilson of Baylis, in a recent interview, told of some of the pioneer "occasions" that have stuck
in his memory. He has often heard his family tell of a "wool-picking" that occurred when he was a baby,
at the George Shinnebarger home in the McGee Creek country in Buckhorn. A wool-picking was an occasion when the
neighbor women gather at some pioneer home and picked burs from the sheep's wool after the shearing. Carding machines
were yet rare in the McGee country.
Mr. Wilson remembers being told that five of the fattest boy babies ever seen at a wool-picking in these parts
were paraded by their proud mothers at this Shinnebarger "picking." Besides himself, there were Joe Shinnebarger
and his mother, Mrs. Alonzo Shinnebarger; Delbert Aurand and his mother, Mrs. Henry Aurand; Isom Medlick and his
mother, Mrs. Solomon Medlick; and Fred Lewis and his mother, Mrs. James Lewis. This was in 1865 or 1866. The baby
boys were all nearly of an age. Today, John Wilson of Baylis, at the age of 71, is the only one of the five living.
Josephine, first daughter of William LeGrande Wilson and Ann Eliza Wheelock, was twice married, her second husband
being William Skinkle, credit man with Butler Brothers in New York City. He is said to have perfected the first
complete ice-making machine. Following the death of her husband, Josephine lived at the old Wilson home at Wilson's
Ford in Fairmount, and there, while living with her younger sister, Jane Beard, she died November 12, 1924. She
is buried beside her mother in Wilson cemetery on McGee.
Charles Nelson, second son of the Wilsons, born September 10, 1862, died of whooping cough January 11, 1864, and
is also buried in the little Wilson plot.
Abraham Key Wilson, first of the sons, was born in Buckhorn township. Brown county, February 5, 1861. He is living
at the age of 75 at 210 North 56th Street, Lincoln, Nebraska. He was an early schoolmaster in Pike, Brown and Adams
counties, and once lived on the old John Conkright place in the northwest corner of Newburg township and there
his eldest daughter Maud was born July 6, 1883. He married Mary J. Mathes of Pittsfield, July 13, 1882, the wedding
occurring in Pittsfield with the late Squire C. W. Patterson officiating, and Alva St. John and his wife, Eliza
Jane, whose first husband was Peter Scholl, witnessing. Mary Mathes was a daughter of William and Susannah Odin
Mathes. She was born in Kentucky. Their children were Maud, an educator and research worker, now in home economics
work at Corvallis, Oregon; Olive, in California; Myrtle of Omaha, Nebraska; Ninon at home; Brice, in Ohio; and
Susie. Emma, another daughter, is dead, survived by two children in California.
John S. Wilson of Baylis, youngest brother of A. K. Wilson, was born in Buckhorn township, Brown county, February
10, 1865. He married Lizzie McNeff of Buckhorn at Pittsfield, Illinois, September 21, 1892, Rev. James O. Emerson
officiating, with Adeline E. Mather and Anna M. Emerson as witnesses. She was a daughter of Michael McNeff and
Elizabeth Shields and was born in Louisville, Kentucky. She died and is buried in the Catholic cemetery at Mt.
Sterling, county seat of Brown county, Illinois. A daughter, Thelma, who died in her 20thyear, is buried beside
her mother. Another child died at birth. Mr. Wilson served Brown county as a supervisor from Buckhorn township
and for some time was proprietor of the City Hotel in Mt. Sterling. On September 25, 1916, he again married, his
second wife being Nora McWherter of Kellerville, Brown county, a daughter of William J. and Celia (Plunkett) McWherter.
Mr. Wilson was then in the hotel business in Mt. Sterling. He and his wife now reside in Baylis, Illinois.
William Wilson, next of the children after John S., was born in 1867 and was drowned in a spring at the age of
four, November 17, 1871. He also is buried in the little family cemetery on McGee.
Almeda, sixth of the children, married George W. Balston and with her husband is living in St. Louis, Missouri.
Jane Wilson, the youngest, born September 6, 1874, lives on the old Wilson homestead at Wilson's Ford on McGee
near the Pike-Brown county line. Her address is Siloam, Illinois. She married John Beard and they resided in Kansas.
Her son, Frank Beard, was born in Kansas in 1912. He married Inez Jones of Fish Hook August 23, 1933, Judge Lee
Capps of the Pike county court officiating. She was a daughter of Fred and Minnie Jones and a native of Benville,
Brown county. Frank and his wife live near his mother in the McGee country.
Ann Eliza (Wheelock) Wilson died in Brown county May 3, 1882 and is buried in Wilson cemetery in Pike county. Her
husband survived until March 18, 1914 when he died in St. Vincent's Home in Quincy at the age of 84. He, too, is
buried amid the wild and beautiful McGee Creek hills in the little plot devoted to the Wilson dead. His daughter,
Almeda Wilson Balstone, wrote the following in tribute to her father and descriptive of the burial spot:
"Neath the beloved sod and the sheltering trees, with the dear familiar streams and the friendly hills to
keep eternal vigil, we lad the worn, aged body down. The restless, troubled spirit is free; years of toil and self-denial,
and at the end, his inheritance, six feet of earth. Those nearest and dearest lay nearby, and the sweet wild rose
blooms at its appointed time. We remember him as honest, truthful, intelligent, capable and thorough, and with
it all a winsome courtesy peculiarly his own."
Erastus Wilson, second child of William H. and Matilda (Scholl) Wilson, and a brother of William L., was born in
1832. In April, 1854, he started from Versailles in Brown county to the California gold fields. He had $300 and
a good team. Word came back to the family that he had been killed on the trail in western Missouri by the kick
of a mule. Relatives suspected that he had been murdered and robbed. He is believed to be buried somewhere near
St. Joseph, Missouri, on the banks of the Missouri river. He was never married. No relative has ever seen his grave
or known for certain the circumstances of his untimely end.
Nelson M., third child of William Wilson and Matilda Scholl, was born November 30, 1835, and died in a Union Army
camp near Pilot Knob, Missouri, February 24, 1863. He was buried there but the body was later removed by his brother,
William L. Wilson, and brought to Wilson cemetery on McGee, he being the first of the Wilsons buried there. He
was unmarried. It is related that there were two roads leading from the station to the Union camp where Nelson
was buried. As William L. Wilson went down one road to get the body of his brother, William Waters, a neighbor
in Fairmount and Nelson's comrade in Company F of the 99th, was leaving by the other road on his return from the
war. Waters, one of the few remaining survivors of that period, is living in Fairmount township at the age of 96.
He was born June 22, 1840.
Charles Gillam Wilson, fourth of Matilda Scholl's children, also went to war with his brother Nelson, enlisting
in Company F, 99th Illinois Infantry, August 23, 1862, leaving that day from Florence enroute to Benton Barracks.
On March 5, 1863, in Brown county, F. Byland, justice of the peace, officiating, he married Mary E. Norton, and
they became the parents of three sons and three daughters, namely, George H., Nellie, Benton, Annie, Boone and
Mary Grace (Gracie). George H., who became a merchant at New Salem, married Ella D. Ellsberry of New Salem, December
23, 1886, she being a daughter of John W. and Mary J. (Mace) Ellsberry. George died in Wyoming and is buried in
that state. He had one son, Norton, who lost his life at the age of 21 in an elevator accident in a store in Spokane,
Washington. He is buried in that city.
Charles G. Wilson and his wife moved to Washington and settled at Chewelah in Stevens county, bordering British
Columbia. Both died and are buried at Chewelah. Mrs. Wilson and her youngest son, Boone, died a little over four
years ago. Boone left a wife and young son; Boone's son and A. K. Wilson's son Brice being the only male Wilsons
of their generation now living. Nellie is buried in Spokane, Washington. Her son, Clyde Thompson, lives in Spokane
and a daughter, Mrs. Verna Nelson, resides in Eugene, Oregon. One grown son lost his life in Moses Lake. Annie
Wilson is buried in Spokane. Mary Grace, who died August 20, 1883, at the age of two years, is buried in Wilson
cemetery, Pike county. Benton M., the only one of the six children now living, resides at Chewelah, Washington;
He has mining interests north of the International Boundary in the Sheep Creek Camp Nelson District. He is unmarried.
To Benton, the historian is indebted for the foregoing record of the Charles Wilson family.
Elizabeth Jane (Betsy) Wilson, first of William and Matilda Wilson's daughters, was born February 17, 1840. She
married William A. Hines, November 19, 1857, Rev. J. H. Barger officiating. They had two children, Mary and William
Hines. Mary was the first wife of William Percy Saunders of Dutton Station; she died many years ago. William married
in the state of Washington, died there and is buried at Grant's Pass.
William Hines, Betsy's husband, enlisted in Company K, 99th Illinois Infantry, in the Civil War. Returning home
from the battle front during the war, he died within a few days after his arrival here. He is buried in Woodland
cemetery. His widow, later, on November 11, 1864, married John R. (Bob) Brewer, who also was in the war, a member
of Company L, 4th Illinois Cavalry. They were married by R. M. Atkinson, a Pittsfield justice of the peace. They
became parents of four sons and two daughters. Three sons are buried in Woodland cemetery, two miles south of Fish
Hook, namely, Levi, who died February 6, 1890, at the age of 21; John E., who died November 19, 1898, at the age
of 28; and Charles F., who died April 2, 1902, at the age of 21. James is still living. Minnie married J. C. Davis
of Baylis, at Pittsfield on January 18, 1899, Perry C. Allen, justice of the peace, officiating, and Percy Saunders
and the bride's sister, Bertha Rose, witnessing. She lives in Oklahoma. Bertha married George L. Rose of Mt. Sterling,
Illinois, December 31, 1896, Rev. George L. Snively officiating at the wedding in Pittsfield. He was a native of
Iowa and a son of A. J. Rose and Mary M. Hall. The bride was 19. She is now a resident of Jacksonville, Illinois.
Her daughter, Helen E. Rose, is an art teacher in the public schools of Chicago. An infant son, Emmett, born March
23, 1898, died June 10 that year, and is buried on the Brewer lot at Woodland.
John R. Brewer was born April 17, 1840 and died March 22, 1913; his wife, born February 17, 1840, died March 11,
1917. Both are buried in the cemetery at Woodland church in Fairmount township.
At Abraham Scholl's grave in Griggsville cemetery are two bronze markers, one of them dedicated on Memorial Day,
1932, to the old Indian fighter's memory by his granddaughter and great granddaughter, Bertha Brewer Rose and her
daughter Helen. The memorial bears this inscription: "Abraham Scholl - Revolutionary Soldier - erected by
Bertha B. and Helen E. Rose - 1932."