One of Niagara County’s oldest landmarks, the Reuben Wilson home, stands on the north side of Young St. near Twelve Mile Creek. The principle structure was a log house started in 1818, and the original logs are still intact under the clapboards. Additional construction was completed in 1825 when Luther Wilson and his wife Sara Stephens moved in with his father.

The First of Many Things

The old house boasts several firsts. Foremost is the fact that it was the first dwelling, other than log cabins, built within the Village. It was also the site of the first Post Office when Reuben was appointed Postmaster in 1824. About that same time a store was added and in 1829, a tavern. Reuben’s last three children were probably born in the house that was started the same year the Town of Wilson was set apart from Porter by the act of the State legislature. Many parties and several weddings were held there while the Wilson family owned the house, and it was the center of much of the business and social activity of early Wilson. Today there is no indication that a gristmill, sawmill and distillery were once located on Twelve Mile Creek near the house.

Purchased Property

The property was purchased from the Wilson estate by Benjamin Dearborn, and his daughter and her husband, A. H. Ackerman, lived there for many years. Mrs. Ackerman recalled as a child, she remembered seeing store shelving still in place around their front living room. She loved to tell stories she had learned about the place, and could point out a spot in the yard where a monument is buried beneath the sod from which all the first surveys in Wilson were taken.

History Marker

In 1938 it was suggested that a historic marker should be erected by the house to commemorate the initiative and industry shown by Wilson’s most prominent pioneers, Reuben and Luther Wilson. However, it wasn’t until April 1976, that the Wilson Bicentennial committee elected to place a marker by the house.