http://www.amarillo.com/stories/020710/new_news2.shtml
Jon Mark Beilue: Last one in Texas and one of 32 in US
Son of Confederate soldier turning 97
Marion Wilson holds a photo of his father, Hamilton Wilson, in the living room of his apartment in the Park Central Retirement Community in downtown Amarillo. "Ham" Wilson fought for the Confederate Army in the Civil War, and Marion is the last surviving son of a Confederate soldier in Texas and one of fewer than three dozen in the United States.
Marion Wilson holds a certificate of life membership in the Sons of Confederate Veterans. Wilson's father was a soldier in the Confederate Army during the Civil War.
Hamilton Wilson was possibly as young as 15 when he joined the South in the Civil War. Marion was the youngest of Wilson's 16 children from two marriages.
This much is certain: There is no way 14-year-old Ham Wilson, hiding in a cave while being chased by a group of Yankee soldiers in North Carolina in the early years of the Civil War, could have imagined his youngest son would one day be watching ESPN and its coverage of the Super Bowl.
"No, probably not," said Marion Wilson.
But Wilson, after listening to a bit about New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees Thursday morning, turned off the television in his Park Central apartment to answer the door with the aid of a walker.
It was a big weekend for Wilson, an avid sports fan, and not because the Super Bowl is today. He had a birthday party on Saturday.
He turns 97 on Monday. Not a lot turn 97, but there's a number who do. But there are very, very few who can say their father fought in the Civil War. Wilson is the only one in Texas who can, and just one of 32 sons of Confederate soldiers in the U.S.
"All it makes me feel is lucky," he said. "There's nothing I've done to cause it."
Some have trouble believing it. Are you sure, the son, not the grandson of a Civil War soldier? He heard that when he moved to Park Central in November. He's heard it for a long time.
A Gideon for 40 years, Wilson and a retired Air Force colonel went to Clarendon one year to deliver some Bibles to Clarendon College, when they struck up a conversation.
"We were talking about our backgrounds, and I said I was the son of a Confederate veteran," Wilson said. "He said, 'You mean World War I.' I said, 'No, my brother fought in World War I.' He couldn't get over it. Every time from then on, he'd introduce me as the son of a Confederate soldier."
His father, Hamilton Benjamin "Ham" Wilson, got good and tired of being chased by Yankees and figured he might as well do something about it. He soon joined up for the South, possibly as young as 15. It was believed he was born on May 3, 1849, though it could have been 1847. Either way, he was a teenager when he was in the 29th NC Infantry of Ector's Brigade in 1864-1865. Times were rough at the end of the war, and the regiment surrendered in Alabama in May 1865.
Grateful to be alive, Wilson helped spread life for the next 48 years. He and his first wife, Elizabeth, had eight children after moving to Arkansas. When she died, Ham remarried, to Melissa Blankenship, 19, in 1891.
They had eight more kids, the last of which was Marion, born in eastern Oklahoma in 1913. Mother was 41. Dad was 64. Marion would have a brother who's 144, well, actually only 143. That boggles the mind.
So should this. His grandfather, Paul Wilson, also fought for the Confederacy, possibly making Marion Wilson the only living man whose father and grandfather both fought in the Civil War.
It's like the History Channel moved to the third floor of Park Central.
"He is a humble man, but he has a real sense of pride when it comes to his heritage," said his daughter, Sandra Allm.
Wilson, whose mother died when he was 5 from the influenza outbreak in 1919, remembers his father as a hard worker who raised corn and hogs along the Arkansas border. He never owned a car, and seldom rode in one. In his 70s, his father could keep up with him and his older brother. Ham Wilson was one of the most honest men he knew.
"He never owed anybody anything," said Wilson. "He was quiet and honest. He never cheated a man out of a dime in his life. He might put our own family in a bind to settle a debt."
Ham Wilson, never spending a day in a hospital or dentist chair, died in 1938 at the age of 90. By then, his youngest of 16 children was 25 and had taken a wife, Virginia, and moved permanently to Amarillo. He worked for 30 years for ICX truck lines as a diesel mechanic, shop foreman and purchasing agent. After retirement, he worked seven more years as a bus mechanic. For 64 years, he's been a Mason.
Virginia died in 2005 after 67 years of marriage. He has two children, five grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. For years, he had an incredible knack of making tables, canes and another items from petrified cactus.
Now, he follows sports, particularly the University of Texas, and works out on the exercise machines at Park Central. He's had a bout with pneumonia and had some recent food poisoning and grouses about the number of pills doctors make him take, but this son of a Confederate soldier is hanging in there just fine.
"He's a pretty tough old bird," said his daughter.
Wilson went to the national convention of the Sons of the Confederate Veterans in Hot Springs, Ark., last summer. He was the only son of a Confederate soldier in attendance at the convention. He got a standing ovation. Just a few months earlier, in April 2009, after the death of a man near Abilene, Wilson became the last Confederate son in Texas.
He's got a few reminders of his Confederate father, most notably a small framed picture of Ham Wilson on a small table in his spotless living room. As he said, he hasn't done anything to cause this.
"But I guess," he said, "it's good to be noticed."
Jon Mark Beilue's column appears Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. He can be reached at jon.beilue@amarillo.com or 806-345-3318. His blog appears on amarillo.com.