acceptance as many important positions of
public trust as Judge John F. Jack. The county seat of justice of
Campbell county, Jacksboro, was named in his honor, and his
descendants should hold in cherished remembrance his purity of life
and unsullied integrity of character.

GENEALOGY OF SAMUEL WILSON, SEN.

Samuel Wilson, Sr., was one of the earliest settlers of Mecklenburg
county, and the patriarchal ancestor of numerous descendants, who
performed important civil and military services in the Revolutionary
war. He emigrated from Pennsylvania about 1745, and purchased a large
body of valuable lands in the bounds of Hopewell church, in
Mecklenburg county. He was of Scotch-Irish descent, and inherited the
peculiar traits of that liberty-loving, people. He was married three
times, and was the father of thirteen children. His first wife was
Mary Winslow, a sister of Moses Winslow, one of the early and leading
patriots of Rowan county, who died on the 1st of October, 1813, in the
eighty-third year of his age, and is buried in the graveyard of Center
Church.

Samuel Wilson, Sr., died on the 13th of March, 1778, in the
sixty-eighth year of his age. His children, by the first wife, were:
1. Mary; 2. Violet; 3. Samuel; 4. John. 5. Benjamin Wilson. Mary, the
eldest daughter, married Ezekiel Polk, the father of Samuel Polk, and
grandfather of James K. Polk, President of the United States in 1845.
Ezekiel Polk was a man of wealth and influence in Mecklenburg county
preceding the Revolution, and owned a large body of the valuable lands
in and around the present flourishing village of Pineville. Samuel
Polk inherited a portion of this land, lying in the "horse shoe bend"
of Little Sugar Creek, and immediately on the Camden road, over which
Cornwallis marched with his army on his celebrated visit (the first
and the last) to the "Hornet Nest" of America.

2. Violet Wilson married Major John Davidson, one of the signers of
the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence.

3. Samuel Wilson, a soldier of the Revolution, married Hannah Knox, a
daughter of Captain Patrick Knox, killed at the battle of Ramsour's
Mill. He raised a large family, all of whom have passed away, falling
mostly as victims of consumption. His daughter Mary (or "Polly")
married her cousin Benjamin Wilson, (son of David Wilson) who was
killed by Nixon Curry, because he was to appear in court as a witness
against him.

4. _Major David Wilson_, an ardent patriot, an