THE WILSON HOUSE
Listed in the Tax Records as built in 1866 by William Pettus Wilson (1847-1931), the house has 4,769 square feet of heated area. It was built in the Victorian Queen Anne style. The porches were changed in the 1950s, thereby changing the architectural style.
William Pettus Wilson was the only child of Thomas and Emily (Barker) Wilson and was born in Greene County on June 26,1847. His parents both died when he was 12 or 13 years of age and he went to live in Spalding County with his aunt and uncle.
Mr. Wilson was a Confederate soldier, enlisting in 1864 at the age of 16, in Company A, 2nd Battalion of Georgia Reserves, and held the rank of corporal. He left his company on sick furlough at Thomasville, GA, having a severe case of typhoid pneumonia, from which it was thought he could not recover. He was not able to rejoin his company which surrendered with General Joseph E. Johnston’s army at Greensboro, NC on April 26, 1864. Mr. Wilson, still recovering, was paroled from service on or about May 1, 1865.
He became an extensive planter and acquired business interests in town. He had a furniture store, hardware store and an undertaking business. He also had a partnership in the Buggy Factory of Wilson and Hennessee and eventually bought out Hennessee’s interest and continued on his own. In 1902, it was known as the Hampton Buggy Company. Mr. Wilson was vice president of the Hampton Cotton Mills on their organization in 1902. He was the first president of the original Bank of Hampton and continued for more than 20 years. He was one of Hampton’s most valued and esteemed citizens, well known for his dignified bearing and gentlemanly manner and for his contributions to the town and the Hampton Methodist Church.
Mr. Wilson was married twice, to sisters; first in 1869 to Malinda Idahlia Manley, daughter of Richard Manley of Spalding County. After her death, he married her sister, Martha Frances Manley, in 1892. A third Manley sister, Ava Ann Manley married William Madison Harris whose home was the one “recently owned” by the Jenkins family and was two house down from the Wilson house. Therefore the Wilson and Harris children were double first cousins.
Mr. Wilson and his first wife, Malinda, were the parents of two children; Mary Emily (Emma) Wilson born Dec. 8, 1872 and died January 14, 1962, and Henry Bertha Wilson, born September 8, 1878.
Mr. Wilson and his second wife, Martha, had the following children; Loy Augusta Wilson, born February 23,1883, died June 29,1886, William Arthur Wilson, born November 9,1884, Thomas Alwyn Wilson, born May 11,1889, died June 30, 1974, Malinda Idahlia (Linnie) Wilson, born July21,1893, and Richard Blanton Wilson, born December 28,1898.
Mr. Wilson died in Hampton on January 29, 1931. His second wife, Martha died April 23, 1941.
The house was in the Wilson family until after the death of Mrs. Wilson in 1941.
(Information provided by Richard McBrayer, Hampton Historian, and the Henry County First Families book.)