Salem (IN) Democrat, October 31, 1923, p. 2.
PIONEER WOMEN OF WASHINGTON COUNTY
Sketch of Margaret Wilson Huston by Margaret Allen Mitchell
Margaret Wilson Huston was the daughter of John and Sarah Mitchell Wilson
and was born in Green County near Dayton, Ohio, on July 23, 1812. She was
one of six children namely Rebecca, Mitchell, William, John, James and
Margaret. One sister and two brothers were older than she.
In 1822 when Margaret was ten years old, the family moved to Indiana near
New Philadelphia, and it was here she was reared to womanhood. On October
28th, 1830, at the age of 18, she was married to Benjamin F. Huston, a
carpenter. The Rev. B. S. Creasy officiated at the wedding.
They came to Salem and established their home. Eight children were born:
Jerome, Thomas, Sarah, Armsby (difficult to read), Mary Ann, Oscar Taylor,
Alexander and Franklin. Three of her children died in infancy, and in
February 1855, her companion and two little boys aged six and nine died
making her cup of sorrow overflowing.
Her home was situated on N. Main Street where W. H. Paynter now lives. The
house was a two story, frame building, one among the first erected in Salem.
The frame was of hewn timber with a huge double fireplace between the two
front rooms. The house stood directly on the pavement line as did all the
first houses to be built. The foundation was made of thin, flat rocks
without mortar. It was in this home that I have my first remembrance of my
beloved great grandmother. She was a very beautiful woman both in face and
character and was loved by all who knew her.
In my mind's eye I can see her not as one thinks of a woman 87 years old but
as a tall, stately woman with close-fitting black dress over a corseted
form, white kerchief around her neck and a beautiful black silk and lace cap
over her snow white hair. As a housekeeper, she was exceptionally clean and
neat. She kept a boarding house for years and her cooking was the very
best, and as a little girl I remember her cookie jar and the story of Morgan
as he rode with his men through Salem and stopped and demanded her to cook
his dinner for him. She proudly informed him, as she stood in the doorway,
that not one bite of food would she prepare for a coward who would ride
through the country stealing and destroying property.
Mr. Warder Stevens, who boarded with her from 1870 to 1879, has this to say
of her-"She was of strong physique and was seldom ill, she was above medium
height, straight as an arrow and had a fine suit of snow white hair. She
was one of the handsomest old ladies I ever knew. She was very positive in
her opinions and a strict Presbyterian attending church regularly. In
politics she was a strong Republican. She was a member of the W. C. T. U.
giving it her hearty support. She was very charitably inclinded and no
tramp ever went from her door without a good big piece of pie in the making
of which she was an expert and which was nearly always on her table. She
was a woman of ripe experience and close observation and capable of pointing
out the straight and narrow pathway through life.
She was a prominent and leading character in Salem for a great many years
and one of your ancestors of whom you may well be proud and whose virtues
you will do well to emulate. The community was better for her having lived
in it, and the pure life she lived was a prominent factor for good wholesome
living."
What more could be said?
Her youngest son, Oscar Taylor, was killed in the Federal army in July 1864,
leaving Armsby a captain in the army and my grandmother, Sarah Jane Allen,
the only surviving children.
In the year 1892 she sold her old home to Mr. Paynter and with her two
children to care for her she bought and moved across the street into the
house where Mrs. Sullivan and Ethel now live.
At noon on Thursday, May 3, 1900, "Aunt Peggy," as she was called,
peacefully passed away to her maker whom she had so faithfully served
through the years of a long and useful life.
Burial was in Franklin Cemetery beside her companion and little children.