Wilson, Samuel R. (Samuel Ramsey), 1818-1886

Joshua L. Wilson, born in Bedford County, Virginia in 1774, acknowledged, in his autobiography, a life of immoral behavior, crime and vice during his formative years. Later he became a farmer, opened a school in Frankfort, Kentucky, and in 1801 was married to Sarah Mackay of Bardstown, Ky. In 1802 he was licensed to preach, did so in Bardstown, Kentucky and moved to Cincinnati in 1808. There he preached at the First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati with his son, Samuel Ramsey Wilson, until his death in 1846.

Clergy

Samuel R. Wilson was born in Cincinnati. After attending Miami University for a time, Wilson received his A.B. degree from Hanover College in Hanover, Indiana in 1836. In 1840, he graduated from Princeton Theological Seminary and was licensed to preach. He then became an assistant pastor to his father, for the First Presbyterian Church of Cincinnati. He took over the pastorate upon his father's death in 1846 and served there until 1861. After he resigned, he served at a church in New York briefly, served at the Mulberry Presbyterian Church in Shelby County, Kentucky (1863-1865), the First Presbyterian Church of Louisville (1865-1879), and, finally, the Second Presbyterian Church in Madison, Indiana (1880-1883).

Samuel R. Wilson married three times and had fifteen children. His second marriage, to Mary Catherine Bell, produced Samuel Mackay Wilson (1871-1946), a noted Kentucky lawyer and writer.

From the description of Samuel Ramsey Wilson papers, 1835-1885. (University of Kentucky Libraries). WorldCat record id: 15300351