One of the reasons why Emmett left Florida and moved to Illinois in January of 1906 (in the middle of a blizzard) is because he was desperate. He wanted to get away from his family, because his loved ones were in his face about his life — and especially his drinking. Emmett […]
Am I going soft on Emmett’s womanizing older brother, Cephas Love Wilson? A friend who had read this recent essay on Cephas asked me the other day if I had changed my mind about Cephas — did I now view him as less of an antagonist? I told her it wasn’t […]
Emmett’s grand niece Elizabeth alerted me to another Cephas find the other day. One immediate takeaway from this piece was interesting — Ceph described as gossipy. Honestly, I don’t find that surprising. Cephas knew the value of the media in building one’s political career, as did Emmett. Both Ceph and […]
Emmett’s grand-niece (his sister Katie’s granddaughter) discovered a hidden cache of Wilson family clips the other day, and (God bless her), she promptly sent me copies! Today, I’ll share an interesting one about Cephas. The source is unidentified, but it is likely a West Florida newspaper, because of the way […]
Our last sibling essay in Emmett Wilson’s family story focuses on the youngest son, Walker Wilson. Walker was born in Chipley, Florida in 1884, six months after his family emigrated back to the U.S. from Belize, when Emmett was two years old. I have a few clips from the Chipley […]
Earlier this week, we looked at a few of Emmett’s colleagues from his early days in Pensacola. Since then, I’ve had an update on Emmett’s uncle, Walker Anderson Maxwell, from the excellent Sue Tindel of the Jackson County (Florida) County Courthouse. Just to review, here’s the newspaper clip from the last post: […]
Yesterday, we explored the life of Everard Meade Wilson, Emmett’s older brother. While Meade wasn’t exactly a mentor in Emmett’s life — that title was reserved for Cephas Love Wilson — he was certainly a positive, solid influence on Emmett. Meade did help Emmett get his first real job with […]
Today’s Wilson family essay is about Emmett’s older brother, Everard Meade Wilson, 1873-1914. Meade was the fifth son of Dr. Francis C. and Elizabeth Wilson. He went by “Meade;” named for Everard Meade, Elizabeth’s brother-in-law, and husband of her sister, Lucy Brockenbrough Maxwell Meade. Meade was born in Holly Springs, […]
The research project about Emmett’s junior-year dorm-mates was not some big distracting side-adventure: I was going somewhere with it. Namely, Ormond Beach. Two months before the essay about the Earls of East Hall appeared in The Stetson Collegiate, I came across this item: Which of these guys had an automobile […]
In case you are just tuning in, I’m trying to locate the Wilson family Bible. I’m betting that it is in the hands of the descendants of Cephas Love Wilson, Jr. (1894-1985). I haven’t found the descendant…yet. But I’ve found something else: The Jackson County enlistment record for soldiers and […]
Tell my story. 