Thomas Falls Wilson

Thomas Falls Wilson was born in Ireland in 1810, the son of Andrew Wilson and Jane Falls. The Wilson family came to the U. S. by 1820 and settled in Schenectady, New York. They had twelve children. Thomas came to Cook County in 1839; he worked on the Asa Dunton farm and then in 1840 settled on government land in the vicinity of Baldwin and Roselle Roads. He had married Mary Angeline Norton in 1832; she died in 1850. He would marry three more times. Mr. Wilson was licensed to preach in 1849 by the Rock River Conference of the Methodist Churh. For about five years he rode a circuit in Lake County. He served the Methodist Church here as a local preacher, a class leader, steward, and trustee of the church. In his later years he lived at 200 N. Bothwell St. in a house his children built for him. It is said that he was a character and was often called Uncle Tommy by people who knew him. He died in 1886 and is buried in Hillside Cemetery.