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George Albert
Wilson Sr. was born ca 1800-1810. He emigrated to New Brunswick, Canada, ca
1830. His family does not seem to know whether he came from England or
Scotland, but he named his property Dumbarton and said that he named it after
the place he had come from. Dumbarton is a city in Scotland and there seems to
be no city of this name in England. George was not a farmer; he bought 100
acreas half-way between St. Andrews and Fredericton, the captial of the
province, and there he had an inn, stagecoach stables, tinsmithy, etc., and
travelers going from St. Andrews port to the capital stayed there. He built a
school-house for his children, and he had a tenant farmer to take care of his
land. His descendants know little about him other than that he and his wife
were congenial, and that he used solid silver plates on his table, and that he
kept his silver sugar box locked! George Wilson died ca 1885 and was buried on
his own property at Dumbarton. Except for the sign, Dumbarton Station, along an
old railroad track, and the school-house, nothing else remains.
On 17 November 1838 George Wilson married Lydia
Hitchings, who is remembered as a tall and handsome woman. Her descendants
thought that her name was Sarah, but in an old family Bible her name was
written as Lydia. Lydia was born 21 June 1818 in Mill Town, a section of
Calais, Maine. She died ca 1890 and was buried in the Rolling Dam Cemetery
which is in New Brunswick.
Fires destroyed the
records of Calais, Maine, and those of St. David's across the river. I examined
the records at Machias, Me., and found the Hitchings Family. There seems to be
just one family and both Sarah and Lydia are family names. If this is her
family, Lydia was descended from Josiah Hitchings who emigrated from
Londonderry, Ireland, to New Boston, New Hampshire, before the American
Revolution. The Hitchings Family was Tory during the Revolution, and they moved
to St. David, New Brunswick, Canada. People move freely across the river to
Calais, Maine, and that is where her family was living when she was born. This
history is somewhat consonant with the statement made by my great grandmother,
Mary Jane Hughs, to my mother, Roleen Hughes, when she was a little girl and
had provoked her, "That is the Irish-Canadian in you."
______________________
The information on George Wilson Sr. is from his
grandson, Robert Leroy Wilson who lived in Calais, Me.
George Albert Wilson Jr. was one of six sons and two
daughters born to George and Lydia Wilson. He was born at Dumbarton, 24 August
1840, and died in Malden, Massachusetts, in 1920. When very young he went to
sea and sailed to China where he lived for about two years. He learned to speak
some Chinese, and a statement of his is remembered - That he felt so sorry for
the little girls who had their feet bound. As young men did then, he bought
shares in the cargoes in the China Trade. On a voyage his ship suffered severe
damage in a storm; the rudder was gone, the mast broken, and they were drifting
helplessly. When they ran out of water, he thought that they were lost, but the
ship drifted into a port and they were saved. On a voyage he sailed into San
Francisco Harbor, and he decided that eventually, he would go to California.
This he did by crossing the continent in the early 1860s.
According to family legend, George went west via Salt
Lake City. He was liked by the Mormons and was invited to stay, but he still
thought that he would find gold in California. He mined along the American
River, but finding no gold, he got a job in the lumber camps there. Later he
went to Sonoma County and worked on Peter Ricklifs's ranch. He married Peter's
daughter, Serena Ann, and they had four children. However, he had a falling-out
with Peter and was forced by him to leave California. So George returned East
and after his divorce, he settled down in New England where he married Annie
Brooks Powell, a widow with three children. They lived happily and had six
children of their own.
______________________
The above information is from Rev. John F. Wilson and
Robert Leroy Wilson.
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