David Merl Wilson (1907 - 1988)

Born 29 Mar 1907 in Checotah, McIntosh County, Oklahoma

Ancestors

Husband of Beulah Katherine (Hunt) Floyd — married 4 Jun 1933 (to about 1951) in Mosca, Alamosa County, Colorado

Descendants

Died 13 Jan 1988 at age 80 in Alamosa, Alamosa County, Colorado

Problems/Questions Profile managers: Allen Brown [send private message] and David Wilson [send private message]

Biography

David Merl Wilson was born March 29, 1907 in Checotah, Oklahoma to Preston and Carrie Hockensmith Wilson. ^{[1] [2]} He had two older sisters, Alice, born in 1900; and Eva, born in 1903. A younger brother and sister were also born in Oklahoma. John was born in 1909, and the youngest sibling, Juanita, in 1915.

The Wilson family sold that farm in 1917 and moved to the San Luis Valley in Colorado. Dave said, "Dad came on the freight train so he could look after the livestock. He brought a team of horses, a cow or two, and the furniture. Mother and the kids came in the passenger train." Dave was ten when they moved. Eva, Dave, John and Juanita went to school in Hooper. Alice stayed in Oklahoma to finish high school. ^[1]

Everybody worked hard on the farm. Dave said they got up before five in the morning to do chores. They had to chop wood, which they brought from the hills in wagons, feed the animals, gather eggs, milk the cows, and bring in the water. "Mother would have a big breakfast ready for us when we finished. She served two or three meats, biscuits, pancakes, and eggs for breakfast." ^[1]

"Dave Wilson learned to play the banjo while he was riding on the farm equipment, around and around and around the fields; plowing, planting, mowing, haying, season after season." ^[1] Music was an interest he maintained throughout his life. ^[3]

"Alice went to teacher's college in Gunnison, Colorado. She taught school in the valley until she married O.B. Cooley, about 1923. He was a farmer at Mosca. They built a new house in Mosca, Colorado and raised their family there." ^[1]

"His sister, Eva, married Cliff White in 1922. He was the mail carrier at Mosca. They moved to Boise, Idaho in 1934." ^[1]

"Dave dropped out of school after Ninth Grade, about 1924. He said there was too much work to do on the farm. In 1928, he went to Sweeney's Auto and Electric School in Topeka, Kansas. That may have been around the time Dave and John played the mandolin and saxophone on the street corner in Kansas to earn enough money to get back home." ^[1]

"Dave and John worked for the forest service with frescoes, and four head of horses building roads. Dave worked two years in the garage, but didn't like it. He worked as a night clerk in Alamosa at the Victorian Hotel. He drove a truck to Pueblo, back in '30 and '31." ^[1]

Dave and Beulah Hunt were married at the parsonage next to the Mosca Church on June 4,1933. ^[4] The following year his brother, John, married Fanny Gann on February 25, 1934. "They each started farming near the home place." ^[1]

Donna Mae Wilson was born July 19, 1934. Norma Jean Wilson was born April 4, 1937. The family enjoyed fishing trips to Hermit Lakes, near Creede. They owned a cabin about 200 yards from the Cooley cabin. David Merl Wilson, Jr. was born May 25, 1941. Sydney Kay Wilson was born September 13, 1948. ^[2]

"Dave's father, Preston died unexpectedly in 1938. He was 69 and still working his farm. Dave and John pitched in to help on their mother's farm." ^[1]

Dave and Beulah divorced in 1951. ^[1]

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10} Brown, Donna Mae Wilson, "History and Memories about the "Wilson" side of our Family" , August 23, 2003
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Brown, Donna Wilson, "Family Pedigree Chart", 2002, copy in the collection of Allen Brown
3. ↑ Brown, Allen, First hand information
4. ↑ "Wilson Family Bible" Family information recorded by Beulah.