Union County, Ohio Biographies Project - James Wilber
JAMES WILBUR
James Wilbur was born in the State of New York;
emigrated to Ohio and settled in Union County about 1830. He
married Sarah Cameron. He first settled on the Williams farm,
then took a lease of land; but about 1836 -37 bought a tract of land
where he still lives, and has made a continued residence of forty-five
or forty-six years. He is the father of the following children:
Sarah Ann, who married George Carpenter; Owen, married Sarah Jane
Marsh; Edwin, married Orange Eaton ; Olive, married Randolph Marsh, is
deceased ; William, married Mary Welch, and resides in Kansas ; Addie,
married Deville Wood; Zachariah married Addis Allen, and resides on the
home place with his aged father, who is aged and feeble, being now
eighty-three years of age; and Joseph and Almedia, both deceased.
Mr. Wilbur is one of the oldest surviving pioneers of Allen Township.
JAMES WILBER
James Wilber was a pioneer of Union County,
and he was born in Rhode Island November 22, 1799. When a boy his
parents, Owen and Sarah (Pierce) Wilber removed to Madison County, N.
Y. His father was a soldier for awhile in the war of 1812, and
died in 1820; his widow survived him over forty years, she dying in
January 1861, at the ripe age of ninety-three years. Mr. Wilber,
the subject of this sketch, spent his early life and manhood on a
farm. In 1817, he came to Ohio with Mr. John Coolidge and family,
who settled near Milford Center, Union County. He returned to New
York in 1820, and remained one year, but having a preference for the
West, which he considered afforded superior advantages for the young
man, he returned to Union County, where he worked by the day and month,
till 1829, when he married. In 1837, he purchased 100 acres of
his present farm, which then dwelt in its forest state. He
cleared a site for a house, which he erected of logs. He, with
the assistance of his sons, cleared up the land of a farm of about 200
acres. Mr. Wilber aided in making numerous improvements in the
way of early roads, schools and churches. October 29, 1829, he
was united in marriage to Miss Sarah Cameron, daughter of John and Anna
Cameron, who removed from Pennsylvania to Hamilton County, Ohio, in
1811, thence to Warren County, and in 1824 to Champaign County, and ix
years later (1830), to Jackson Township, this county. Mr. Cameron
died July 27, 1849, aged eighty-three years. When a young man he
spent several years in transporting provisions by flat-boat, from
Pittsburgh to Cincinnati. His widow survived him a number of
Years, and died August 17, 1873. Mr. and Mrs. Wilber have been
blessed with nine children; of these six are living-Sarah A., wife of
George Carpenter, Owen, Edwin, William, Addis, wife of D. J. Woods, and
Zachary; Almeda, Olive and Joseph, are deceased. Mr. Wilbur has
made farming and stock-raising his sole occupation, and followed it
successfully up to December 15, 1878, when he was stricken with
paralysis, which has entirely disabled him from all business. Mr.
Wilber has been called upon to fill various offices of trust in his
township, and among them Treasurer and Trustee, which positions he held
for several years. He has always been an active citizen and has
displayed a lively interest in all improvements and enterprises of his
township and county. And now when age and relentless disease has
unfitted him for the performance of other duties it can be said of him
that his life was one of industry, usefulness and success.
**The History of Union County
gives two accounts for James Wilber. This history also gives two
variations on the spelling of his surname.**