John Wilson was a farmer and he also built the first cotton gin in Delta County. It was powered by oxen. The gin later burned and he built a second gin. John was also a preacher and pastored the Methodist Protestant Church of, what at that time was Lamar County and later became Delta County. He was known as the, "Marrying Parson." The marriage license records at the Delta County courthouse in Cooper show that he married more than three hundred couples. He was also a circuit preacher for that church for the rest of his life. In those days preachers did not always get paid for doing the Lord's work, so he was still a farmer and a landowner. However, he sometimes received donations of eggs, chickens, pigs and other things raised on the farm. Once he was given a gallon of syrup. 

John W. Wilson was born October 10, 1847 and died September 9, 1920. Sarah Ann (George) Wilson was born June 8, 1847 and died December 13, 1939.   John and Sarah Wilson had twelve children. At various times others also lived in the Wilson home. When their daughter Winnie, married Paris 'Pat' Ayles, they also lived there. They had three children, but two died as babies, and only Virginia lived. Winnie and Pat lived there until just before they died. John and Sarah's daughter Cumi married Charles Skeen. They had two children: Johnny and Calvin. Cumi was left a widow when the children were small so they lived in the Wilson home. Another daughter, Ida Bell (Wilson) Stegal was also left a widow with six children and they lived in the Wilson home until all the children were grown. Then Ida bought a house in Lake Creek where she lived until she died. So you can just imagine what a housefull it must have been.   In regard to the old house, as it stood vacant and in much disarray shortly before it was torn down, Angeline Sharp wrote, "To the unknowning, it may seem the only sounds there now, are the moaning and the whistling of the wind through the broken windows and sagging timbers, but the old house is telling tales of a hunderd-ninteen years of joy and sorrow, youth and age, birth and death, failure and success, fear and courage, pain and pleasure, struggle and triumph, and most of all, goodness and love."