Robert Jacob Wilson
Selden Advocate, Selden, KS,
September 28, 1950
Robert Jacob Wilson, oldest son of Robert D. and Nancy Elizabeth Wilson
was born in DeWitt County Illinois, February 21, 1871, and departed this
life at his home near Dresden, Kansas after a lingering illness of about
six months. All was done that loving hands could do but the end came
peaceably Saturday evening at 9:00 o'clock, September 9, 1950 at the age
of 79 years, 6 months and 12 days.
As a small boy he, with his parents, came west and settled in Hebron,
Nebraska, where he lived for eight years.
In the spring of 1882, he drove his father's ox team to Kansas where he
and his parents and brother Charley settled on their homestead in
Prairie Dog Township, the same being his home at the time of his death.
"Jake," as he was familiarly known, suffered the hardships of pioneer
days but through it all he seemed happiest when surrounded by a crowd of
friends. He was a great lover of children, music and nature. His friends
are numbered only by his acquaintances.
One brother, Frank, preceded him in death 20 years ago. He leaves to
mourn his untimely departure three brothers: Charley and Lee of the home
and John of Oberlin and two sisters, Mrs. Lovina Jackson of Kilgore,
Nebraska and Mrs. Ada Johnston of Cope, Colorado, besides a number of
nieces, nephews, and a multitude of friends.
Funeral services were held in the Methodist Church in Oberlin, Wednesday
afternoon, September 13. Rev. Howard Smothers officiated and the
Griffith Funeral Home of Oberlin had charge of the funeral service.
Burial was in the Dresden Cemetery.
[The 1880 census of Thayer Co. NE shows his age to be 7 years; the 1900
Decatur Co. census gives his birth date as February 1873.]
Submitted by: Keith E. Johnston, 2602 31 St., Lubbock, TX 79410, E-mail:
kjay6@webtv.net