J. B. WILSON was born in Greenfield, Erie County, Pa., October 21, 1822, and came with his parents to Detroit in 1824. On the death of his father in 1831 he returned with his mother to her former home in Vermont. In 1847 he came to Lapeer and in 1848 removed to the township of Arcadia and located on section 31, where he has since resided. Since coming to the county he has been engaged in lumbering and farming and built the first saw-mill erected in the township. He has done an extensive business, owning at one time fourteen hundred acres of land in the county, besides large tracts in other sections of the State. Has been supervisor of Arcadia eleven years, justice of the peace sixteen years, and from 1860 to 1864 was a member of the State legislature. In 1859 was one of the commissioners appointed by Governor Wimer to locate the State road from Lexington to Lapeer and in the discharge of his duties was obliged to camp out and lie on the ground thirty nights during the month of March. His farm buildings are commodious and his grain barn, which is 50x100 feet on the ground, standing on a wall ten feet in height, ranks as one of the best in the county. He was married in 1845 to Miss Clara Rich, a native of Shoreham, Vt., who was born Nov. 5, 1824. Their children were John D., born July 18, 1846, died October 26, 1867; Affia J., born Dec. 8, 1852; Charles H., born April 30, 1857; Clara, born April 4, 1860; Mary E., born January 19, 1862; Julia B., born Aug. 5, 1864, and was killed by the kick of a horse Dec. 9, 1869. [HRP, p. 204]