The Wilsons of Michigan

Did you know I'm named after my great-great-grandmother, Rebecca Eleanor Wilson Manary? Well, now you do.

The Wilson family came from England. Rebecca Wilson Manary was born in the U.S. in 1852, and married Joseph Charles Manary in 1871. Her son, Otto, was my great-grandfather.

The Wilson family Bible has some interesting information about the family, although there seems to be a mish-mash of material inside. 

The Bible has a leather-embossed cover, fairly typical of the time it was printed, in the mid- to early-1850s. It is in decent shape, although the spine is falling apart. You can see my thumb holding it on in the picture above.

The first page inside the cover reads "Eleanor Wilson". This would, presumably, be Rebecca Wilson Manary's mother. The handwriting is fine but not extremely fancy. I mention this because someone who wrote in this Bible did have beautiful calligraphy. I assume it was not Eleanor Wilson, based on the handwriting on the front page. 

The second page reads "This book was purchased about the year 1858 at a book store near the corner of 5th and Water St. Bay City, Mich. given to C.J. Manary by his mother" It looks to me like this is different handwriting, but I can't particularly tell. C.J. Manary would be Otto's older brother, Charles, which would make "his mother" Rebecca Wilson Manary. I'm not sure how the Bible ended up in our branch of the family, but Rebecca Manary did live with her son Otto when elderly and died in his house.

As usual, the best information comes from the family pages between the Old and New Testaments. There are several pages of births, marriages, and deaths.

The first page has "Parents' Record". In fancy calligraphy, under Father it reads "John Wilson was Born Nov the 6 1810". Someone added, in much poorer handwriting, "in Suttontown Linconshire, England". The handwriting looks to me very similar to the name "Eleanor Wilson" on the first page. The E is the same. Under Mother, the Bible records "Eleanor Wilson was Born April the 13 1823". Again, in the same shakier handwriting, someone (perhaps Eleanor) added, "in Yorkshire England."

The Births page has a list of all of John and Eleanor's children. It has two columns, and most of what is in the column on the left is repeated on the right. Most of the writing here is the fancy calligraphy. I wonder if that is John's handwriting or if they hired someone to write the information when they first got the Bible? The actual information reads:

Elizabeth Wilson Born March the 7 Seventh 1842

Robert Wilson Born April the 9 Ninth 1844

 Thomas Wilson Born May 29 1846

Burton Wilson Born Oct the 10 Tenth 1848

Rebeckah Born February the 8 Eighth 1853 [note: there seems to be some confusion about when she was actually born, because it is written in on the left column where the date was missing entirely, and on the right column someone wrote over the original in blue pen. The original said February 9, 1852]

Jabus Born Nov the 1 First, 1855

John Born July the 10 1860 

The marriages page includes a list of the childrens' marriages, as well as that of their parents. The left column has three different versions of the parents' marriage information. It looks like someone was practicing their fancy calligraphy and just started over when things when bad. The information on the page is as follows:

John Wilson and Eleanor Pearson married February the 13 in the year of our Lord 1841.

 Elizabeth Wilson Married April the sixth in the year of our Lord 1859 [note: there's no mention of who she married. Maybe they didn't like her husband?]

The two entries above were written in the fancy calligraphy. Everything below was written in a much shakier hand:

Robert Wilson and Elizabeth J. Petherick were joined in holy matrimony April 20 1871 

John Wilson and Margaret Hagerty married September 28th, 1868

Thomas Wilson and Lizzie Garner were joined in holy matrimony Oct 28th, 1875

Joseph C. Manary and Rebecca E. Wilson married July 27th 1871 

 

The last page, of course, catalogs the deaths. It seems to have been filled in by a number of different hands over the years. The information is a little muddled in order because some deaths were put in the left column and others in the right. 

Jabus died July the 4 fourth in the year of our Lord 1857 [He would have been not quite two. A note in the bible, which I'll show later, said he died of whooping cough]

John Wilson died March the 28th 1866 [This is the son of John and Rebecca Wilson, who would have been five at the time. The same note that mentioned Jabus's death said John Jr died of typhoid fever]

Joseph C. Manary Died Nov 22 1916

Rebecca Manary Died May 1st 1930

The above entries were in the left column. In the right column are listed:

Eleanor P. wife of John Wilson died February 19th 1867 [note: the E looks a lot like the one on the first page, which does discount my theory that it was Eleanor's own hand.]

John Wilson Sr died January 20th 1897

Elizabeth Wilson Fagg died Feb 6th 1920

Thomas Wilson died Feb 28 1921

William W. Fagg husband of Elizabeth Wilson Grant [not sure what the Grant is there for?] died January 11, 1922

Elizabeth Garner wife of Thomas Wilson died November 1924 

One of the great things about family Bibles is that people often left important papers in them for safekeeping.  The papers I found in this Bible were mostly underwhelming. For some reason, there's a receipt for a piano payment from Eleanor Manary, Joseph and Rebecca Wilson Manary's daughter, dating to Nov 8, 1902. There is also some assessment paperwork from Monitor County in 1877. Maybe related to buying their farm out there? There are also some obituaries pasted onto the page. Two are for John Wilson. One reads:

John Wilson, aged 86, of Monitor township, died Wednesday night of cancer. He was one of the pioneers of Bay County and was well known in this city. The funeral will be held from the house at 10 o'clock tomorrow morning. Interment at Pine Ridge cemetery.

The second reads:

John Wilson, of Monitor township, died last evening of cancer, aged 86 years. He leaves a wife and four children, Mrs. W.W. Fagg of Bay City, Thomas Wilson of Vassar, and Robert Wilson and Mrs. J. Manary, of Monitor. He was one of the early settlers of the valley and had been a resident of Monitor for about 20 years.

Note the comment about a wife. Eleanor would have been dead for 30 years. It looks like he remarried, but if they had any children, none survived. The wife is not mentioned at all in the Bible.

Two other obituaries are pasted on this page, both related to the Pearson family, which is Eleanor's maiden name. The older obituary is for William "Pierson" [note: later in the same obituary it is written as "Pearson"] who died at the home of his daughter, Mrs. Robson, on Dec 2, 1887 at 87 years old. I do not know who this person is in relation to Eleanor Wilson, but my best guess is an uncle. The obituary says that he was a native of England. He married Sarah Blackburn in 1832, and that they came to the U.S. in 1844 and had lived in Milford since. This is clearly the Milford near Howell, MI, as the final obituary makes clear.

The other obituary is for Huldah Cordelia Stedman Pearson, the wife of Joshua Pearson. She was born in Pennsylvania in 1840 but moved to her aunt's house in Howell. She married Joshua Pearson in 1862. They had three children, but only Burton and Frank survived. I have no idea who Joshua Pearson was, but I would guess William Pearson's grandson.

The final treasure in the Bible was a hand-written note about the maternal line for Otto Manary and his siblings. This is the note that gave the causes of Jabus and John Wilson's deaths. It gives the names of Rebecca Wilson Manary's parents John Wilson and Eleanor Pearson Wilson, noting that John Wilson had six sisters and no brothers. Then it gives Eleanor Pearson Wilson's mother's name as Elizabeth Massom Pearson. It does not state what her father's name was. John Wilson's parents were Thomas Wilson and Rebecca Gravis Wilson. 

I've been updating the Wikitree pages for John and Eleanor Wilson with all of this new information.

The interior has some water staining on the pages.