Henrietta (Dryden) Wilson (1793 - 1894)

Born 8 Sep 1793 in Snow Hill, Maryland

Descendants

Died 28 Mar 1894 at age 100 in Eliza, Illinois

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Dave Fletcher [send private message]

Biography

Henrietta Dryden Wilson (1793-1894): OBIT

"Henrietta Wilson was born September 8, 1793, in the state of Maryland and died at the home of her daughter, Mrs John Stevens, in this township, Wednesday, March 28, 1894, and will be buried at 2 PM today in the Shields cemetery; Funeral services from the home, Rev. Puffer officiating. The deceased was the youngest daughter of William and Rachel Dryden and when quite young moved with her parents to Ohio where she grew to womanhood. When quite young she was married to Noble Grimes and a short time after marriage they moved to Indiana where the young husband died. A few years afterward she married Allen Wilson. In 1835 they moved to this state and settled on what is now the Fred Muhlenburg farm in Eliza township. in the spring of 1854 her husband died and was buried in the Shields cemetery. For the past twenty years she has made her home with her daughter, Mrs. John Stevens. To her first marriage were born three children, Wm. Grimes and Rachel Duffield, deceased, and Noble Grimes who resides in Oregon and is nearly 75 years old. To the last union were born seven children, Sara Shields, Capt. W. A. Wilson of Ainsworth, Iowa, Chauncey Wilson of Medford, O.T., Lavena Woodward and Jay Wilson of Belle Plaine, Iowa, Mrs Louisa Stevens of this township and Allen who died while serving his country in the Civil war.

"Henrietta Wilson was the oldest person in Mercer county and perhaps the oldest Methodist in the world, having belonged over 80 years. Think of it, born in 1793 when Washington was President, at a time when steamboats, electricity or railroads were not thought of, when Ohio and Indiana fromed a part of the northwest territory. What wonderful changes in national life, commerce and education she has lived to see and during all these years she has been blessed with a keen sight, a good hearing and a memory of which any one might be proud. At one time she was a passenger from New York to Albany on the Clermont, Robert Fultons first steamboat.

"For the last twenty years she has made her home with her daughter, Mrs. John Stevens, and has devoted a great deal of her time to the study of the Bible and especially to the gospel of St. John. For a few days before her death she had not been feeling as well as usual but when asked how she felt replied she did not have an ache or pain but was full of glory and that the end was near at hand. The morning of her death she was up early and asked if breakfast was ready. Her daughter told her is was not and gave her a cup of coffee which she drank and in a few minutes asked to be helped to her bed where she died, after telling Mrs Stevens to tell the family good-bye for her."

Sources

• Family history; Life Along the MIssissippi River in the 1800's....New Boston and Eliza Townships, Mercer County, Illinois