Almon E. Wilson

Almon E. Wilson was born on May 3, 1843, in Lorain County, Ohio, the son of Clark (1809-1882) and Betsey (b. 1812).

Vermonters Clark and Betsey were married and had settled in Canada sometime before 1833. Between 1836 and 1839 they moved the family to Ohio and between 1846 and 1848 moved from Ohio to Michigan and by 1850 had settled in Byron, Kent County where Almon attended school with four of his older siblings, one of whom was William who would also enlist in Company F Third Michigan. By 1860 Almon was attending school with four of his younger siblings and working as a farm laborer and living with his family in Byron.

He stood 5’7” with gray eyes, dark hair and a light complexion and was an 18-year-old farmer probably living in Boynton or Byron, Kent County when he enlisted in Company F on May 13, 1861 along with his brother William.

On December 22, 1861, from the regiment’s winter quarters in Virginia, Camp Michigan, Almon wrote home to his “dear parents.”

Your letter came to hand last night. We were glad to hear from home & to hear that you were well. As you requested me to write I will do so now that I have a little leisure [time]. I am well as usual and so is William. He is getting tough as a bear; he weighs 168 lbs near as much as he did when he enlisted. My weight is 152 lbs. We are encamped in the woods about __ miles from Alexandria. Some of the boys are building log houses but our squad keeps their tent yet. We have been raising up our tent about four feet from the ground. There is fifteen persons in our tent, all good fellows.

I was sorry to hear that you had not received that money. I sent ten dollars home four weeks ago today. The reason of my not writing before was because I was waiting to hear from the money. I was obliged to send it in a letter for I could not get to Washington to send it by express. But the capt. Has promised me a pass when we get our next pay which will be in a week or so & then I will try and send some in such a way that it will be safe.

I received a letter from Jane Arnold last Tuesday. She wrote the news of Jesse’s marriage, also Mercy Smith’s. Well I wish them much joy but I must close for it is time for inspection. Give my love to all. Write soon & believe me your affectionate son, Almon E. Wilson.
PS I will send you the portrait of our brigade general.

Almon was sick in the hospital in July and August of 1862, again in November, and was probably absent sick until he was discharged on March 16, 1863, at Camp Pitcher, Virginia, for consumption and chronic pleurisy. According to the discharging physician, Wilson “had measles and enteric fever since he came into the service. He is now much emaciated and entirely unfit for duty.”

Soon after he applied for and received a pension (no. 33317).

After his discharge from the army Almon apparently returned to his home in Kent County where he died on March 17, 1864, presumably at his family home. He was buried (or perhaps memorialized) in Boynton cemetery, Kent County.

His parents were living in Byron in 1870. His mother received a “dependent mother’s” pension no. 327,270. She was possibly living in Byron in 1870.