JAMES WILSON, THE GLOBE MAKER, AND FAMILY

James Wilson, who has the honor of being the maker of the first pair of Terrestrial and Celestial Globes ever made in America, was a native of Londonderry, N. H.  He was born 1763. He early felt a strong love of knowledge, and gave proof of talents of the right stamp for acquiring it; but felt constrained by circumstances to devote himself to the laborious occupation of a farmer. Up to the age of thirty-three he pursued that employment in the place of his nativity; not, however, without reading, observation and reflection. His inclination and genius turned his thoughts and studies especially to Geography and Astronomy, with the means of their illustration. In the year 1796 he removed with his family to Bradford, in Vermont, and took up his permanent abode on a farm which he purchased there, on the Connecticut River, about one mile North of the village, When about thirty-six years of age Mr. Wilson had the pleasure of seeing and examining a pair of English globes, and resolved to imitate them.   He commenced with balls turned from blocks of wood, which he nicely covered with paper, and scientifically finished off with all the lines and representations which belong to such apparatus, drawn upon them.

This rude beginning was followed by a much better method. The solid balls were thickly covered with layers of paper firmly pasted together. This shell was then divided into hemispheres, which being removed were again united, and finished with due regard to lightness, strength and smoothness. But how were these spheres to be covered with maps equal to those of the European artists.  Mr. Wilson procured copper plates of sufficient size for his thirteen inch globes, protracted his maps on them in sections, tapering as the degrees of longitude do from the equator to the poles, and engraved them with such admirable accuracy of design, that when cut apart and duly pasted on his spheres, the edges with their lines, and even the different parts of the finest letters, would perfectly coincide and make one surface, truly representing the earth, or celestial constellations. Though in the use of the graver he was self-taught, and this species of design and engraving was incomparably more difficult than plain work, yet by his ingenuity and incredible perseverance he succeeded admirably, and brought forth globes, duly mounted, and in all respects fitted to rival in the market any imported from foreign countries. In the prosecution of his work and general studies, Mr. Wilson doubtless derived important assistance from the Edinburgh Encyclopedia, which constituted the principal part of his library.  He published the first edition of his globes in 1814; and personally presented to the. people of Boston the first American globes which were seen there. Quite a sensation was produced among the literati by such a novelty, and when earnest inquiry was made, " Who is this James Wilson?-where is he? he has been heard to say that he felt exceedingly mortified in consideration of his rustic garb and manners, when obliged to come out and confess himself. But the gentlemen in question knew how to prize his talents, and were proud of the honor which he had done to his country. They encouraged him to prosecute his undertaking, by the assurance that he should find there a ready market for all the globes he could furnish. For a time he pursued his vocation on a small scale at Bradford, Vt., and also at Londonderry, N. H., but finally, in company with his sons, who inherited a good share of their father's taste and ingenuity, he established, about the year 1815, a large manufactory in Albany, N. ,Y., and in 1826 brought out from fresh en-graving a still more perfect and splendid edition. These globes, consisting of three different sizes, so elegantly and scientifically constructed, are an honor not only to their makers, but to the American people. That manufactory at Albany was sustained for several years, though the young artists who commenced it went down to early graves, and their aged father not long after wholly withdrew himself from the business.

Mr. Wilson, with a remnant of his once flourishing family still with him, lived to old age, retaining his faculties remarkably. His love for geography, astronomy,, and the mechanical arts connected with them, remaining unabated. When past eighty years of age he contrived, and with his own hands constructed, a machine which finely illustrates the daily and yearly revolutions of the earth; the cause of the successive seasons; and the sun's place, for every day of the year, in the ecliptic. These movements are produced by turning a crank, which causes the earth to revolve about the sun in the plane of the ecliptic, always retaining its true relative position. The machine is also furnished with the- means of causing the student to see and understand precisely what is meant by the Precession of the Equinoxes; a difficult thing, without some such means of illustration.

The large copper plate, on which are printed the months of the year, with their days, and the corresponding signs of the zodiac with their degrees, was engraved by Mr. Wilson after he was eighty-three years of age!  Can a similar instance anywhere be found? A specimen of this curious apparatus may be seen at Thetford Academy, at Bradford Academy, or at Mr. Wilson's late residence, which last is an improvement on the others. Every academy ought to have something of the sort, and the aged and very ingenious maker deserved to realize some profit from so scientific and useful a contrivance. The machine, for the want of a more definite name, is called Wilson's Planetarium, the latter term being used in a restricted sense. If this Planetarium should be thought clumsy, still it finely illustrates what it was intended to, and it may yet be reduced to any degree of elegance. It would in any family be an appropriate accompaniment to Wilson's globes.

Mr. Wilson died at his home on the Upper Plain, in Bradford, March 26, 1855, at the age of ninety-two years and twelve days.

THE FAMILY OF JAMES WILSON, Esq.

James Wilson, when about twenty-one years of age, married Molly Highland, of his native place, Londonderry, N. H.

They had one son, James Wilson, Jr., who became Captain of a merchant ship plying between this country and Europe. On his third voyage, in 1812, which was for France, having run the British blockade at Norfolk, Va., his vessel, with himself and crew, was lost at sea. He left a widow and one child.

The first wife of James Wilson, the globe maker, died young, when he, in due season, married Sarah Donalson, by whom he had ten children, of whom three died young.  The rest lived to be men and women.   Of these, though much more might be said, the following brief notices must suffice.

Sally, the eldest daughter, married Stephen Tabor, of Bradford. She left at her decease a son, Dr. S. J. W.  Tabor, now auditor in some department at Washington. 

Samuel married Jane McBride, and died in Albany, N. Y., where he had for years been engaged in the manufacture of globes. They had four children. Their son James W. was educated at West Point, and has for years been employed in the United States service as a Civil Engineer.

John, who was considered by the family as particularly talented, married Rebecca Mandel; was occupied with two of his brothers in the globe business; and died at Albany, leaving his widow with six children.

Cyrus Lancaster, formerly Principal of Bradford Academy, but then in business with the Wilsons, married this widow, and took due care of her and her children. 

David married Eliza Taylor. He was also at Albany in the globe business, and died, leaving one son, Lavalette W., a promising young man.

Boyd Hopkins Wilson was a graduate of the University of Vermont; taught the Academy in this place for a while; studied law with Heman Allen, of Burlington; married Henrietta, eldest daughter of Moses Chase, attorney-at-law in this place, and, in delicate health, went South and established himself in the business of his profession at Gainesville, Alabama, where, in a little over two years, he died, March 17,1840, aged 39 years. The editor of 'the Republican Pilot, a paper then published in that place, said in a brief notice directly after Mr. Wilson's decease : " We take pleasure in recording a tribute of respect to the memory of an individual, the labors of whose virtuous and enlightened mind contributed so much good to the community in which they were bestowed. He was beloved by all who knew him, and respected by all who appreciated talent and a cultivated mind. As a neighbor, he was kind and charitable. As a companion, he was mild, affable and unostentatious. As a professor of the Christian religion, he was an honor to the cause.  As a scholar he was ripe, and we trust we shall be excused in saying that as a Democrat he was sincere and zealous." He left no children. His widow, an excellent Christian lady, married a Mr. Mobley, of that place, and after years of usefulness died there, in 1873 or 1874. 

Eliza, the next in this family, married a Mr. Wilson, of New York, and died in Albany.

Mary married a Mr. Van York, of New York city, and died, leaving one son and one daughter.  Mr. Wilson, as has been said, removed to this town in 1796; and his wife, the mother of these children, died here-After which he married for his third wife Agnes McDuffee, of Bradford, a sister of John and Samuel Mc Duffee, and by her had three daughters more.  Agnes, born January 11, 1811, died unmarried, August 8, 1855, in her forty-fifth year.

Mary Anne, born September 26, 1813, married Willard Waterman, of Norwich, Vt., June 8, 1843, and has ever since resided at her parental home, in Bradford; a lady of intelligence, ability and energy of character, she is at this date, August, 1874, the last survivor of her father's large family of fourteen children.

Willard Waterman and wife have three sons, namely:

James Aden, born May 14, 1845 ; William Willard, born February 16, 1848; and Mansfield, born November 19, 1873.   A daughter died in her childhood. 

Jane Wilson, the last of this family, born May 4, 1818, married William Waterman, of Norwich, December 30, 1845. He was a brother of Willard, above named, and subsequently bought and resided on the fine farm on the Lower Plain, in Bradford, still called the Waterman place.  Both parents have deceased. They left one son, William Fred, and two daughters, Jennie Eliza and Emma, all interesting and worthy young people. Jennie E. married George E. Gaffield, of Claremont, N. H., a worthy young man, engaged in mercantile pursuits. Her brother married and removed into the Western Country. 

Mrs. Agnes Wilson, widow of James Wilson, now, 1874, in her ninety-second year, is still living, with her daughter Mary Anne and husband, though in great feebleness both of body and mind. And here we must close our brief reminiscence of this somewhat remarkable family.  Biographie Index

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