Ervin Wilson was born at Wellsville, Utah in 1865. He was the third child of a family of twelve children born to Sylvester & Mary Wood Wilson.
The Wilson family were stockmen and raised cattle & horses. They lived at Wilsonville for about 15 years, & then left Utah & went north to Idaho, then east to Wyoming.
Ervin and his young bride, Mary Jane Davis, joined the wagon train with the Wilson family & some of their in-laws to make the long journey to the Jackson Hole country in western Wyoming territory. Their first son, James Ervin, was born on this trip at Wilford, Idaho. The wagons arrived at Sugar City, Idaho on July 23rd, 1889 & left for Jackson Hole on Oct. 27th. It took them ten days to go from Victor, Idaho, to Jackson, a distance of 27 miles, the first wagons driven over the Teton pass with their livestock driven before them. The Wilson family all took up land claims there in 1890, the year Wyoming was admitted as a state of the Union.
Ervin Wilson, a leader in the frontier country, helped during the Indian trouble after 1895. Some of the settlers forted up at his homestead for two weeks during this trouble. In the seven years that he lived in Wyoming, he improved & turned 320 acres into a good cattle ranch. He & his wife were both industrious & were happy in their work.
Ervin died in 1897 after being sick for over a year with rheumatism. Mary Jane was left with a family of five children, ages from 15 months to 7 years. He had lived all his years on the frontier & never had any education, but lived a good useful life. He asked his wife to see that their children would have the best education possible. His passing was a terrible blow to his wife & family. Mary Jane had wonderful courage & was always cheerful & made the best of everything. He was buried in South Park Cemetery overlooking his ranch that he loved so much.
(Written by his son, Joy Sylvester Wilson Jan. 9th, 1965)