The Wilson Family Prospectus
by Vicki Wilson Shaffer

This is an unusual story about how I tracked down my greatgrandfather's Wilson family in Gibson Co. Tennessee!

I started where everyone does...........going back to the first Wilson I knew of and working backwards. My first Wilson ancestor that I knew of was my great-grandfather, William Thomas Wilson b. 2-4-1851 in TN m. 1-17-1878 to Willie T. Vance in Gainesville, Texas and died 8-23-1928 in Bowie, Texas.

I knew all this information because my mother has W.T. Wilson's family bible which had been passed down to my father.

W.T. Wilson settled in Bellevue, Texas and was a farmer by trade. I got his death certificate and believe it or not........it really had a little information on it. It said that he was born in Tennessee and his father's name was "Ben" and mother's maiden name was "Harper". (This was found later to be Hooper) So that is where I started.......looking through Tennessee 1860 census records for anyone named Ben with a son named William, nine years old. There were none! I ended making up a list of all Wilson's in Tennessee in 1860 with a son named William, 9 yrs. old. I carried it with me whenever I was researching.

I took a genealogy trip to Cooke, Clay and Montague counties and came up with nothing.

A first cousin in Fort Worth and I had been doing a lot of communicating about W.T. Wilson and he had told me that he had W.T.'s family bible. I thought this was a little strange as I knew my mother had one, too! The one my mother has is in perfect shape and my cousin kept telling me that his was very fragile and needed to be rebound. I stopped in Fort Worth to get a better look at his "family bible".

My first cousin brought out his bible to show me. I was astonished.......it was beautiful......with a wonderful leather cover. And as my cousin had said, it was in very fragile shape. I opened it up and was surprised to see that on the other side of the beautiful cover was another leather cover that was different from the front cover. And then I turned it over and saw another different cover on the back with "W.T. Wilson" engraved on it. And on the other side of the back cover was another different leather cover! I remember my comment was, "Wonder why W.T. had his name engraved on the back of his bible?"

All the correct family information was recorded in the births, deaths, and marriages in W.T's handwriting. In the back of the bible were some really nice photograph pages with tin types inserted into them. One picture was of W.T. Wilson about 18 years old taken in Charlotte, NC. The others were all tin types of children and two women. We just assumed that this was his family...........mother, sister, brother, etc.

Click Here to see pictures in back of Prospectus

Another cousin took it and started looking through it and after a while said, "This is really a weird bible............not all of the Old & New Testament is here and then there's a bunch in German and then a section that's like a biblical biology book." I looked and she was right! By this time, all of us were all saying, "What is this?". Then I found in the very middle of it, a section of plain white pages that were blank. The very first page of this section was stuck together with the next page. I ran my hand down the two pages and separated them. A little piece of paper fell out that said "Please handle the Prospectus with care".   Written  on the first plain white page in W.T.'s handwriting was a list of names, addressees, cover style and cost.

It only took a few seconds for me to blurt out, "W.T. was a bible salesman!". We all started laughing at the same time! This discovery really brought W.T. to life! And I said that his spirit was there and laughing when he heard his grgranddaughter saying, "Why would W.T. have his name engraved on the back of his bible?"

And the reason it was so fragile was because half of Gibson Co. TN had thumbed through it!  

The different leather covers were samples. This was a bible you used to order your family bible. For some reason W.T. had always recorded the births, deaths and marriages in it, too. I guess you could order the bible in German or English or even order a biblical biology book from it.

We got out a map of Tennessee and located all the towns listed.  All the "bible buyees" had addresses in  Gibson County TN.  I got my list out and found only one listing for anyone with a son named William, 9 yrs. old in 1860. It was an S.T. Wilson.

Upon returning home, I went to the library and ordered a better film of the 1860 Gibson Co. TN and when it came in I discovered that it really said "B.F. Wilson". And it was the same family listed in 1850 as "Benjamin F. Wilson". My Benjamin F. Wilson had been indexed incorrectly! That is why I couldn't find him!

Guess our family will always have jokes to tell about W.T.'s Prospectus! Strangely enough, it took 120 years for us to discover that this wasn't really a bible!  W.T. had just always kept it and recorded all the family information in it, too. It explained why he had two family bibles!   And my biggest question is, "Are the tin types in the back of the Prospectus W.T.'s family or just fillers, like you find in new pictures frames?"  I really do believe they are photos of his family, though.

We are still laughing.........but it got me to Rutherford, Tennessee and I found the Wilson family.

Click here to see Pictures of the Prospectus

The Prospectus was published in 1875 by F.A. Hutchinson & Co. St. Louis, Chicago and Cincinnati.

The unreadable black print in the middle says:

A CAREFULLY ABRIDGED EDITION OF DR. WM. SMITH'S COMPLETE DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE, A CONCORDANCE, THE PSALMS IN METRE, A HISTORY OF THE RELIGIOUS DENOMINATIONS OF THE WORLD, A HARMONY OF THE FOUR GOSPELS, HISTORIES OF THE TABLES, TREATISES, Etc., Etc., DESIGNED TO PROMOTE AND FACILITATE THE STUDY OF THE SCRIPTURES.

.....NAME...................RESIDENCE..........STYLE OF BINDING.

J.H. Scearce ..............Rutherford.....................No. B............$ 7.00

W.L. Thomas..............Rutherford.....................No. A..............7.00

C.A. Wilson................Rutherford.....................No. F..............20.00

Liazey A. Thomas.......Rutherford.....................No. A...............7.00

A.J. Fletcher...............Rutherford.....................No. F..............20.00

J.M. Landrum............Bradford Sta..................No. B................7.00

N. Holland.................Rutherford Sta...............No. F...............20.00

*S. Wilson....................Rutherford Sta...............No. E..............17.00

R.B. Tinkle.................Rutherford Sta...............No. F...............14.00

B. Smith.....................Rutherford Sta...............No. E..............17.00

Jhon Hall....................Kenton Sta....................No. F..............20.00

* S. Wilson was Shadrach (Shade)  Wilson, a merchant  in Rutherford, TN.   I have even located the bible he bought from W.T. Wilson, which is to this day owned by another Shade Wilson.   We still are unable to prove that these two Wilson families are related.

Click here to see the bible salesman as he probably appeared in 1875 when he was selling bibles in Gibson County TN.-----

There are some wonderful pages in the back to insert tin-types or photos into.

I would love to hear from anyone that has one of these bibles that was passed down in their family.   I found most of the "buyees" on the 1860 & 1870 Gibson Co. TN censuses and most of them are buried at Walnut Grove Baptist Cemetery in Rutherford.

Click here to see my family file

Click here to Return to Wilson Family Page

Click to email me.    

Go to Gibson County TN Genealogy

Visit Shelby County TN Genealogy