Biography: Elizabeth Ann Stoughton
Stoughton is an English name, and the ancestors of Elizabeth Stoughton were both English and Dutch. She was descended from other pioneer families of Butler County, including the Covert, Glenn, and VanZandt lines, among others.
Elizabeth Annabell Stoughton was born in 1862, the fifth of eight children, to John C. Stoughton and Mary Jane McCandless Stoughton. She was born during the Civil War and her father was a veteran of that war. He was elected to public office several times, serving as school director, collector and supervisor. Nine years before Elizabeth’s birth, at the time of their marriage, her parents acquired a one hundred sixteen acre wilderness farm which her father cleared. The Stoughton family attended Mr. Zion Baptist Church at Isle, Franklin Twp., as had Elizabeth's grandparents. Her grandfather Andrew Stoughton had been an active member of this congregation and served it in various official capacities over the years.
In 1880, at age eighteen, Elizabeth married James L. Wilson, and between 1880 and 1891 had four children, first a son, then a daughter, then two more sons. The first son they named John Luther, John being Elizabeth's father's name, and Luther being her husband's middle name. They owned a farm in Worth Township, in the area currently bounded by West Liberty road to the south, Swope Road to the East, and Barron Road to the north. (When the creek was later dammed to form Tamarack Lake, the property that had been the Wilson farm was flooded to a large extent). Here the sons worked with their father at farming, threshing, timbering and sawmilling. Elizabeth no doubt taught her daughter Pearl to cook and preserve food, sew and quilt, launder and iron the clothes, make the butter, bake the bread…all the things necessary in running a household.
In 1898 their only daughter Pearl died suddenly at age fifteen from an infection following a bee sting. In 1910 their oldest son John Luther died at age twenty-nine from typhoid fever. These two children were buried in the cemetery at Muddy Creek Seceder (now United Presbyterian) Church, located in the area known as Muddy Creek bottoms, where the creek flows from Clay Township into Brady Township.
In about 1908 or 1909, the third child, Jim Wilson, married Lorena Bernice Mayer. She was a third cousin descended from Elizabeth Stoughton's great uncle William Stoughton. Jim and Lorena had seven children between 1909 and 1918. When Lorena died in 1924 Jim married again, to Della Reddick-Wicks, and they had three children between 1925 an 1930.
In about 1911 the youngest son Bert married a young woman, Clara, from the neighboring Wimer farm, and the couple made their home with Bert's parents for several years. Their first four and possibly five children were born while living on the farm of Elizabeth and James L. Wilson. Then Bert and Clara purchased a farm directly across the road from the Wilsons and lived there until 1929.
Both the Wilson and the Stoughton families were inclined toward entrepreneurial efforts. Elizabeth's youngest brother Sol Stoughton developed a beach area on Slippery Rock Creek, with picnic tables, a skating rink, and food concessions. The park, known as Stoughton's Beach, was located where Rt. 173 crosses Slippery Rock Creek, south east of the town, and just south of Stoughton Road. The family gathered here for swimming and picnics in the summer, beginning on Decoration Day when the beach opened for the season. Elizabeth's husband, James L. Wilson, at some point ran a garage in Slippery Rock with Robert McDeavitt, the brother–in-law of Bert's wife Clara. The two Wilson sons, Jim and Bert, worked here also, repairing and selling cars. Over his lifetime Jim acquired various pieces of property, one parcel from his wife Lorena's grandfather Mayer, one from his mother's father John C. Stoughton, a third from his mother's brother, Sol Stoughton, and a fourth from his father.
Elizabeth must have enjoyed having her grandchildren nearby, the older ones walking up the hill from the farm to the McClymonds School, or following the creek down to visit their Wimer grandparents. However Elizabeth and James L. Wilson left the farm and moved into Slippery Rock, to a house on Franklin Road (Rt. 108). James and Elizabeth also owned a second house in town which they rented to a disabled veteran, Mr.Arblaster.
In 1929 what must have been a very stressful period began for Elizabeth. In March of that year, her youngest son Bert and wife Clara moved to Venango County, attracted by the oil drilling boom in that area. Three months later, her husband died of a heart attack in the town of Slippery Rock, but his body was not located for several days. Two years after that, on December 20, 1931, her son Jim Wilson died. Elizabeth lived for four more months, and died of heart trouble in April of 1932. She and her husband were buried with their son John and daughter Pearl in the Muddy Creek cemetery.
John T. Wilson, one of Bert Wilson's sons, wrote of his grandmother “She was average height and was fairly heavy. She was neat in her appearance and always wore a good grade of clothes. She was a good cook. They had a good well furnished home with all the conveniences of that time. I don’t think they ever had an automobile. She worried about the safety of her family working around that shacklebone equipment as she called it. I think they had a good life together. Both died with heart trouble.”
