Page:The Granite Monthly Volume 7.djvu/384

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346

��THE GRANITE MONTHLY.

��God and the brotherhood of man." He observed the precepts of the golden rule, and may be safely judged by the precious fruits of his life. He died Jan. 4, 1S39. He left two sons and two daughters. A daughter of his first wife had died in infancy. Gen. James Wilson was also a child of the first wife.

The other son, Robert, and the two daughters, were the children of the second wife. Robert was born in Pe- terborough. Sept. 24, 181 1. He was always familiarly called Col. Robert. He was a colonel in the oM militia system, and was also the colonel first appointed for the Fourteenth N. H. Regiment, in the late war. Ill health, resulting from the malaria of Louisi- ana obliged him to leave the service, and finally killed him. He was a learned man, and very gentlemanly in his manners. He fitted for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and grad- uated at Amherst College. He was a great reader and student, and was well posted on the scholarly and scientific questions of the day. He was fond of manly sports, and was the cham- pion fisherman of the place. It was the great delight of young men to camp out with him, and he never was so old that they did not enjoy a fish- ing tour with him. He lived a very quiet life, and was not at all a society man, although highly educated and accomplished. He was married on his fiftieth birthday, and died child- less, April 8, 1870.

Elizabeth, the daughter of Squire Wilson, was born in 18 15, and Sarah M. A., her sister, in 1819. The for- mer married William G. Hunter, and the latter Frank Lee, of Boston.

��Gen. James Wilson, Jr., who inher- ited not only the practice but the- great talents of his honored father, was born in Peterborough, March 18, 1797. His early years were passed in his native town. His educational advantages were such as were obtain- able in a country town at that time. He had the misfortune to lose his mother at the early age of eight years. She was a good Christian woman whose influence he always remem- bered. He often spoke of a scene which made a deep impression on his youthful mind. It was when his mother was on her dying bed. He came suddenly into her chamber from his play, and, as he entered the door, he saw her wave her hand and motion him to be silent. He then observed that her aged father was kneeling by her bed in prayer. Being himself of a religious turn of mind, the scene produced a lasting impression upon his mind.

In 1807, young Wilson was sent to the New Ipswich Academy, and in 1808 to the Atkinson Academy. In 1 813, he attended the Phillips Acad- emy, in Exeter, for a part of the year. Our country was at that time involved in the second war with Great Britain. Young Wilson desired very greatly to enlist in the army. He was full of the military spirit and heroism of his Scotch- Irish ancestry, and longed for active service ; but his father would not consent to it. Chagrined and mortified, he left his academy and went to the North Factory, in Peterborough, and hired him- self out as a common hand. He continued to work in the mill until the peace of 18 15 was declared. Thati

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