A Wilson Family Tree
Notes for Micajah D. Wilson
The Hotchkiss manuscript says that Micajah joined an adventurer named William Walker on an expedition to Central America. Hotchkiss quotes John Wilson (Micajah's father) as writing "Micajah has become a wiser and I hope, a better man, having gained amongst the Walkerites a great name. He went away a wild and rather thoughtless boy weighing 220 pounds. He came back a sober, sedate and thinking man, weighing 160 pounds. He gives evidence of great maturity of manhood." Unfortunately, Hotchkiss says that he was killed somewhere in Honduras on Walker's second expedition. However, "Bear Flag Lieutenant: The Life Story of Henry L. Ford (1822-1860), with Some Related and Contemporary Art of Alexander Edouart (Continued)" by Fred B. Rogers (California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol. 30, No. 1, pp. 49-66, March 1951), in end note 172, says that Micajah died at Ukiah, CA, on 29 Oct 1862. He gives the Mendocino Herald (Ukiah), 31 Oct 1862, as the source for that statement. This death announcement was also in the Sacramento Daily Union on 10 Nov 1862 (p. 2), which is available from the California Digital Newspaper Collection, cdnc.ucr.edu/cdnc.
From the Wikipedia article on "William Walker (filibuster)", accessed June 2021:
William Walker (May 8, 1824 – September 12, 1860) was an American physician, lawyer, journalist, and mercenary who organized several private military expeditions into Mexico and Central America with the intention of establishing English-speaking colonies under his personal control, an enterprise then known as "filibustering". Walker usurped the presidency of Nicaragua in July 1856 and ruled until May 1, 1857, when he was forced out of the presidency and the country by a coalition of Central American armies. He returned in an attempt to re-establish his control of the region and was captured and executed by the government of Honduras in 1860.
[Apparently Hotchkiss thought that Micajah was also killed on the ill-fated 1860 expedition, but he was not.]
Medocino Herald, 31 Oct 1862 (obtained from Fred B. Rogers' notes in the John Wilson Papers, BANC MSS C-B 420, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA):
"Sudden Death" - M. D. Wilson, Esq., was taken ill with a cold Tuesday last. On Wednesday he was found to be laboring under an inflammation of the stomach and congestion of the lung; and on Wednesday night at 11 o'clock, he expired. Mr. Wilson was a member of the Bar, and a young man of more than ordinary talent in his profession. His loss is seriously felt in the community.
End note 172 of “Bear Flag Lieutenant: The Life Story of Henry L. Ford (1822–1860), with Some Related and Contemporary Art of Alexander Edouart (Continued)” by Fred B. Rogers says that Micajah attended the University of Missouri.
The John Wilson Papers (BANC MSS C-B 420, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, CA) also include a couple of short letters from Micajah to his father. Here is my transcription of one that is fairly interesting:
Trinidad [California] 26th June 1851
Dear father
I arrived here yesterday from above with the intention of going down but there being a few of our old Company here we have Concluded to raise a small party and retake the Gold Bluff. We generally believe here that the Pacific Mining Company have given up their Claim entirely and we intend to go in on our own hook. All of us were willing to do anything in our power to sustain the interests of the Company, but they have acted through-out the whole affair like a set of Jackasses and we did not determine to do this until our last hope was gone that the Pacific Company would do anything. Keep this to yourself until you hear more
Your Son
M D Wilson
Note: Some of the information in these pages is uncertain. Please let me know of errors or omissions using the email link above. ...Mike Wilson
Page generated on 14 September 2024