Janet Russell Wilson (1779-1845)

Early Life

Janet Russell was born on 1 June 1779 in Duniplace, Stirlingshire, Scotland, one of six children, three of whom survived to adulthood.

Janet married Walter Wilson in 1806 and moved to Glasgow, where Walter operated a commercial bakery. Together they had eight children, five of whom survived to adulthood. For many years, Janet’s life centered on her family in one of Scotland’s largest and most active cities—a world very different from the one she would eventually encounter in Illinois.

Why She Left

In 1833, two of Janet’s children migrated to Illinois. Letters sent home described the opportunities available on the new frontier and encouraged the family to follow. Glasgow was also recovering from a cholera epidemic, and the family’s bakery business may have been affected.

In 1834, Janet’s daughter Margaret sent money to help the family make the journey. Walter, Janet, and two of their children decided to leave Scotland and join the family members already in Illinois. We do not know how Janet felt about the decision. What we do know is that at fifty-five years old, she left the city where she had spent much of her adult life and crossed the Atlantic to begin again on the Illinois frontier.

Journey to Illinois

In 1834, Janet and Walter left Liverpool aboard the Louise with their children Helen and John C. The transatlantic voyage by sailing vessel would have taken weeks and was only the beginning of their journey.

After arriving in New York, the family continued west toward Illinois. John remained in Chicago, where he worked as a baker and earned money, while Janet, Walter, and Helen traveled to Jacksonville to spend the winter with their daughter Margaret and her family.

Building a Life in Illinois

Walter and his son John eventually traveled north in search of federal land in Kane County. After finding 160 acres, they began establishing a farm and building a cabin. Janet and Helen soon joined them.

The family’s first home was a small cabin with a dirt floor, a dramatic change from Janet’s previous life in Glasgow. Family letters indicate that she was frequently in poor health, and the primitive living conditions appear to have been particularly difficult for her. In 1843, Walter began building a substantial new house for the family.

Janet did not live to enjoy it. She died on 28 October 1845, before the new house was completed, only eleven years after leaving Scotland.

Why This Story Matters

Janet’s story reminds us that not every migration story had a happy ending—and that even within a family remembered as successful, the experience of migration could be very different for individual family members.

At fifty-five, Janet endured the journey to Illinois and arrived on the unbroken prairie, where the family faced the hardships of establishing a new home. Life in a small cabin with a dirt floor and few comforts was far removed from the urban life she had known in Glasgow. Family letters tell us that Janet was frequently in poor health, and the difficult living conditions appear to have added to her struggles.

The Wilson family would ultimately prosper in Illinois, making it easy to look back on their migration as a success. But Janet’s experience reminds us that success measured in acres owned, crops harvested, and farms established tells only part of the story. Migration imposed personal costs that rarely appear in land records or census schedules, and those burdens could fall differently on individual members of the same family.

Janet’s story preserves another side of the pioneer experience: sometimes the same migration that created opportunity for a family also brought hardship and suffering to someone within it.

Source Documents

The research documents for the Wilson 1834 migration story:

• Biographical Sketch (PDF)
• Migration to Illinois (PDF)
• Genealogical Summary and Children (PDF)
• Legacy (PDF)

Related Reading

• Walter Wilson
• Wilson Migration Story
• Paths to Illinois, Volume II The Davis Family Story
• Migration Timeline of all sixteen families
• Ancestors & Surnames index

My Blog and Newsletter have additional stories and research related to the Wilson family.