Andrew Merse Wilson and Catherine – Brother of Nancy Jane Beaver, Uncle of Mikiel E. Beaver

Andrew Merse (Uncle Andy) ‘Wilson was born in Kentucky, August 7, 1840, the youngest of the five children of John and Kitty Wilson. He married a girl named Catherine, whose sirname we are not sure of. Uncle Andy moved with his family to Bates County, Missouri in 1858. He was drafted into the Confederate Army during the Civil War. I have written an episode about him in the chapter on Grandma Myers Beaver. Uncle Andy was also a gospel preacher. Novella said in her book that one of his places to preach was Lanham Mill, near Glen Hose, Texas. Ada Beaver Brothers said that he came to visit them at Seymour, and preached at the Cache Creek schoolhouse, the first Church of Christ preacher to ever preach there. He was living in Oklahoma at the time; Oklahoma was still Indian territory.

Uncle Andy and Aunt Catherine had three children, one born in Kentucky and the other two in Missouri. They were:

1. Malinda Wilson, born in Kentucky in 1867. She married Steve Castleman and they had a large family. One son, named John, was in the service during World War I.
2. John Lee Wilson was born August 5, 1870, in Butler, Bates County, Missouri. He married Lena Slaugnter and they had nine children:
   1. Ada Lerona Wilson, born 1892, Hico, Texas. She married Isom Brand and they were both killed in a truck-train accident in Granbury in 1941.
   2. Andrew Elvis Wilson, norn 1894. died 1894.
   3. Linnie May Wilson, born December 26, 1896, died 1976.
   4. Delbert Lee Wilson, born December 22, 1399, died 1974.
   5. Lora Opal Wilson, born January 21, 1902, lives at Elm Mott, Texas.
   6. Laura Lucille Wilson. born 1904, lives in nursing home at Stephenville, Texas.
   7. Lena Letha, born 1907, killed in car wreck at Littlefield, Texas in 1953.
   8. Margie Lola Wilson, born 1911. lives in Plainview.
   9. John L. Wilson, born June 29, 1914 in Hico, he married Mary Frances McClatchy August 17, 1917. They live at Hico.
3. Della Wilson, born in Butler, Bates County, Missouri. She married Frank Allbright. They lived in the Bray Community near Bokchito, Oklahoma, where they became quite wealthy. She is buried there. They gave each of their children a farm.
   1. Ora Allbright, Twin to Dora. Her daugnter, Kitty Nell Franks and husband own the banx in Bokchito.
   2. Dora Allbright, twin to Ora. Dora’s son married one of the Duponts.
   3. Bill Allbright, deceased. Wife lives in Bokchito.

Novella quotes from a letter to Chris Ramfield from his brother Mike. The letter was not dated. It reads: “I guess you will be surprised to hear of Aunt Catherine’s death. She died day before yesterday. She fell in the floor while Uncle Andy was after a load of wood, and never spoke but a few words after wards. Uncle Andy and John took it awfully hard.”

Uncle Andy died May 12, 1911, in Bokchito, Oklahoma.

REQUEIM

Under the wide and starry sky

Dig the grave and let me lie.

Glad did I live and gladly die,

And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you grave for me:

Here he lies where he longed to be.

Home is the sailor, home from the sea.

And the hunter home from the hill.

Robert Louis Stevenson