For eleven years the business of the Fort Worth & Denver Railway Company at Sunset was conducted by the subject of this review. He performed its multifarious duties with a care and patience and loyalty that would have been commended even in his private affairs, and when he resigned his position on October 14, 1904, it was to retire from eighteen years of strenuous life devoted to railroad work. Following a period of rest he was selected to manage the business of the Bank of Sunset and, as its cashier, is identified with the business of his town.
In the pursuit of his calling Mr. Wilson drifted into Texas from Glenwood Springs, Colorado, where he had been in the employ of the Denver & Rio Grande Railway as telegraph operator for a year. He took a position as operator for the Denver road in Fort Worth and after two years of service the company sent him to the station at Sunset. He learned telegraphy at Hancock, Missouri, and took service with the Frisco company for four years, leaving their employ at Dixon to engage with the D. & R. G. people at Glenwood Springs.
Mr. Wilson began his westward itinerary as a teacher, starting from his native state and teaching his first school at Newport, Tennessee, two years, and concluding his work as a pedagogue in Pulaski county, Missouri, with another two years’ work. He was born in Gilmer county, Georgia, June 10, 1862, a son of a farmer, Barnett Wilson, a native of Cocke county, Tennessee. For his wife Barnett Wilson married Miss Martha Quillian, a daughter of B. B. Quillian. He passed away in Gilmer county, Georgia, in 1889, while his widow still survives and resides in Collinsville, Texas. The issue of their marriage were: W. V. Q., who died in Fairmount, Georgia; Leola K., wife of John Hutchinson, died in Georgia; Theodore O. and Theodotus A., twins, the latter of Collinsville, Texas, and Lawrence, who died in Cooke county, Texas, in November, 1904. While W. B. Quillian was a farmer in early life he was later, for fourteen years, superintendent of the Georgia Deaf and Dumb Institute and subsequent to this he was agent of the Western Atlantic Railway at Cass, Georgia, and postmaster of that place. Theodore O. Wilson was provided with a liberal education and completed it in Ellijay Seminary, at Ellijay, Georgia. He began his career at the age of nineteen years, when he opened his first school at Newport, Tennessee. His eighteen years of office work was a training preparatory for the work of his present position and when he took charge of it he and his friends had no misgivings as to the result.
The Bank of Sunset is a private bank owned by T. C. Phillips and A. E. Thomas, and was opened for business first in 1904, with Sam Furman as owner and proprietor. It has a capital of $10,000 and deposits of $30,000, and is regarded as a safe and conservative institution.
Mr. Wilson was married at Sunset first October 30, 1895, his wife being Miss Birdie Humphrey, a daughter of W. H. Humphrey from Kentucky. Mrs. Wilson died March 9, 1899, leaving a son, Herschel. August 12, 1900, Mr. Wilson married his wife’s sister, Miss Eura Humphrey, and has an infant son.
While Mr. Wilson has had no connection with politics, he casts his ballot at elections and on all national issues is in line with the Republican party.
Source: B. B. Paddock, History and Biographical Record of North and West Texas (Chicago: Lewis Publishing Co., 1906), Vol. II, pp. 73-74.