Sydney J. Wilson, (1866-1934)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 7 February 1866, Solon, Somerset County, Maine,

Death: 16 April 1934, Seabeck, Kitsap county, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Minnie E. Wilson, Nellie A. Wilson née Brown

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Oliver Wilson (Massachusetts) DAR# A127690;  Joseph Maynard (Massachusetts) DAR# A076203; Barnabas Baker (Massachusetts) DAR# A004864

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

 

Sydney J. Wilson was born on February 7, 1866, in Solon, Somerset County, Maine, to Jonathan Wilson and Harriet Maynard. His father, Jonathan, worked as both a farmer and a blacksmith, trades that shaped the industrious character of the household.

Around 1887, at about twenty-one years of age, Sydney left Maine and headed west to Oregon. There he caught “gold fever” and soon became one of the early miners in the Alaskan Klondike Gold Rush.

An article in The Somerset Reporter, dated September 30, 1897, described the three Wilson brothers—Sydney, Perley, and Floyd—and shared news drawn from letters they had written home to their parents:

“Solon Men in Klondike”

The Bangor Commercial contains the following interesting sketch of three Solon young men who got in early at the Alaskan gold fields:
While the whole country is wrought up to a greater or less extent over the rich gold diggings of the Klondike few people in the State (Maine) have been aware that three men from Maine, three brothers, are at work in these, the richest placer mines the world has ever seen.
In the village of Solon resides Mr. J. S. Wilson with his family, in a modest story and a half house, where he carries on the business of farming. Three of his sons, not satisfied with the outlook for remunerative employment in their native place, and having something of the spirit of adventure, boldly pushed out into the world, went to the Pacific coast and the Yukon gold mining regions.

Sidney J. Wilson, the oldest of the three, now being 31 years of age, left home ten years ago when he reached his majority, and went to Gardiner, Oregon where he was employed for two years. While there rumors and reports of the abundance of gold in the Yukon region were flying fast and eight years ago he with 15 others started from Oregon for the great river going by the Chilkoot pass route. They secured the services of a man named Doherty to pilot them, but he sprained his ankle on the pass and went back, the men making their way down the river the best they could in small parties. Sidney, then but 23 years of age, went to Forty Mile Creek, the center of mining operations on the Yukon. It is located 40 miles below the Klondike, a tributary of the main river, and although called a creek it is as long and as long as the Kennebec being 200 miles in length. Although not much more than a boy, he became one of the pioneers among the gold seekers of the Yukon there being but 70 men engaged in gold mining there at the time. Sidney remained at Forty Mile Creek for four years engaged in mining, when he changed his location to Circle City which is 200 miles below the Klondike, his diggings being at Birch Creek in the vicinity of Circle City.

Two hundred and fifty houses were erected at the city the year he went there. Last winter he was interested in six different claims in the Circle City region employing nine men to work them. Last July, having closed up his operations at that point, he moved up the river to the famed Klondike fields where he is now at work. Two winters of the eight, the young man spent in the States, one in San Francisco, and the other at Gardiner, Oregon.

The other two brothers, Perley R. and Floyd departed for the Yukon three years ago last February, going straight through to Forty Mile Creek. They expected to meet their brother Sidney at Seattle, but he was in Juneau where they found him. Purchasing a large stock of goods, consisting of guns, ammunition, bedding and provisions, they proceeded to transport it over the pass and down the Yukon, a portion being for sale to the miners and the remainder for their own use. The whole stock weighed 3,600 pounds which they packed over the pass by piecemeal, sledging over the lakes and down the river two hundred miles where Sidney had boats, the rest of the trip being made by water. They started from Juneau, March 10th, and arrived at Forty Mile Creek, June 24th, having been over three months in making the trip. Sidney’s load in climbing a mountain was 100 pounds and the other boys soon were able to carry an equal weight. When the two boys started from home, their grandmother who is now dead, put some Tallman sweeting apples in their trunk and few of them went clear through to the Yukon.

Perley [stayed] a year at Forty Mile Creek and then went to Circle City, which is very near the Arctic Circle where he remained until last February in which a month he sledged up the river to the Klondike and took up a claim which he was working at last accounts. For a time while at Circle City, he owned a dog team of six dogs for which he paid $500. After using them a while he sold the dogs out.

Floyd, the youngest of the three brothers, being 24 years of age, two years younger than Perley, has remained at Forty Mile Creek all the time until last July when he went to Klondike to work his claim which he had located previously.

Thus the brothers are all delving for gold being located on the Klondike river where the richest strikes have been made. They are hardy, rugged young men, [endured] to the hardships and the frigid temperatures of the Yukon. Sidney weighs 190 pounds, Perley 214, and Floyd 190. They know the region thoroughly, are skilled miners, and the Solon people sincerely hope they may return home wealthy men. Their father says they have not written much about what success they have met with and he has not asked them. Letters have come regularly. The last one was written at Klondike August 17th, reaching Solon on Monday of last week, just a month and three days from the time it started. All the other letters have been over two months in coming and some three. It was from Floyd. In it he wrote: ‘This is the richest placer camp ever struck on the continent. If I had come up here last fall I would be a rich man today. I think it is the best opening I ever expected to get.’ He advises those who contemplate going to Klondike next to start until March and take the Chilkoot pass route over which his brother has traveled three times. Sidney wrote that the dirt about $250 to the pan. Seven hundred and fifty dollars had been taken out at the pan.

The boys have sent home several samples of Yukon gold which they dug. One nugget which was exhibited to the Commercial correspondent in form resembled a smallish cud of gum, being three times as long as it is wide and flattened. It was just dug from the Alaskan soil and had the yellow lustre of pure gold. The boys also sent each of their two sisters a heavy band gold ring made at Juneau of gold which they had mined. They are as handsome articles of jewelry as can be purchased in any of the shops in Maine.

Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are very naturally watching the career of their sons in the Klondike with a great deal of solicitude. He says with no little pride that they never drank a glass of liquor or smoked a cigar and never were put on their backs and notes that he is the only man in the United States who has three boys in the Yukon mines.

At the beginning of his mining career, around 1890, Sydney had a daughter, Minnie E. Wilson, born in Deering, Alaska, to an unknown woman. Around 1904, he married Nellie Abigail Brown who was then a widow and had been married twice before. They had no children together.

In the 1910 census, Sydney and Nellie were living in Seabeck, Washington, along with Nellie’s grandson, Victor Zaldiney. Sydney owned his farm, and his occupation was listed as “gold miner.” In 1916, Nellie died of stomach cancer and was buried in Seabeck Cemetery.

By 1920, Sydney was still living in Seabeck on his farm, known as “Shadow Grove Farm.” He raised and butchered pigs and chickens. In the 1930 census, he was listed as a dairy farmer. He employed a live-in servant, Lily Olson, a widow originally from Arkansas.

Articles in the Kitsap County Herald in 1933 noted Sydney’s declining health, as he was in and out of the Bremerton hospital. His neighbors, stepchildren, and his servant Lily cared for him. Sadly, on April 16, 1934, Sydney was found dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at the age of sixty-eight. His shocking death was reported in the Kitsap County Herald on April 20, 1934:

Respected Citizen of Crosby Found a Suicide.

Friends of Mr. Sid Wilson received a terrible shock Monday, when they heard of his sudden death by suicide. He had been sick and suffering for over two years, and of late he suffered terribly. Despondency over his poor health and perhaps other worries caused him to shoot himself early Monday morning. His housekeeper, Mrs. Olsen, had gone up the road a short way from the home to wait for the mail and also to deliver a note to a neighbor, and when she returned, Mr. Wilson was not on the couch where she had left him. So she searched the house and called, but there was no answer. She went outside and called, but there was no answer. But she happened to notice Mr. Wilson’s old dog, Tip, lying by the milk house and opened the door, and there in a large rocker sat Mr. Wilson, his gun still gripped and a bullet through his forehead.

Mr. Wilson was a neighbor respected by all who knew him and was always ready to help and do all he could for any poor person. He was an old Alaska pioneer and suffered hardships in the past, like all the early Yukon gold seekers. His life was a busy one to the end. He milked a cow the morning of the same day he passed on. Funeral arrangements have not been made as yet. He has a daughter in California. He also has a brother living in Seattle, and other relatives in the east. Mrs. Olson has kept house for Mr. Wilson for a good many years and she will miss him. We extend our heartfelt sympathy to those left to mourn his loss and the tragic end.

His burial was reported in the Kitsap County Herald on April 27, 1934, in Crosby. He was laid to rest beside his wife, Nellie:

Mr. Sid Wilson, friend and neighbor, was laid to rest at the Seabeck Cemetery last Thursday at noon, Rev. Clifford of Bremerton officiating. The services were very touching, and the flowers were lovely. Those left to mourn have the sympathy of the community. Another beloved old pioneer has been taken from our midst.