James Wilson

The plaque credits Wilson with the congregations; his earlier work shaped them. After Princeton he served as a missionary to enslaved people around Natchez from 1850 to 1856 before being sent to Texas. At Wheelock, in southern Robertson County, he organized a church in 1858 and also taught at a small private school there until 1864. He married the poet Laura Barnes in 1866. He was still preaching at Wheelock when he died on August 24, 1904, ten days after his last sermon there.

What the plaque says

James Wilson (1821-1904) Ireland native James Wilson immigrated to the United States in 1842. He graduated in 1847 from Lafayette College in Boston, and from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1850, the year he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Wilson was sent to Texas in 1856 as a missionary in Brazos County. During his 53 year ministry, he served as a circuit preacher and organizer of many Brazos Valley Presbyterian congregations, including those at Wheelock, Bryan and Centerville. He married Laura Barnes, a published poet, in 1866. They are buried near the site of a church he founded. (1997)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum — 22 mi
  The library of the forty-first president on the Texas A&M campus, opened in 1997, where George and Barbara Bush and their daughter Robin are buried in a family plot on the grounds.
• Calvert — 24 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Fort Boggy State Park — 26 mi
  A 1,847-acre park in Leon County named for a settlers' palisade of 1840, with a 15-acre lake, short trails and the story of Tennessee farmers, the Keechi and a Ranger captain.

More markers nearby

• Shiloh Baptist Church — 5.3 mi
• Wheelock — 6.5 mi
• Zion Church of Kurten — 8.4 mi
• Edward McMillan — 9.9 mi