Genealogy and Family History Publications
About Stephen Melvin Wilson
From Niagara County, pages 812-13:
Stephen Melvin Wilson first "lived in the town of Somerset, on the farm that is now owned by Delos Davis, then moved to the town of Wilson and from there, by team, came to the town of Newfane. He was a prominent buisness man of his day and at one time owned 11,000 acres of land, his original homestead now being owned by R.R. Singer, of Wilson, N.Y."
From Western New York, page 157:
Stephen Melvin Wilson "was educated in the public schools of Saratoga county, where he remained engaged as a farmer until 1825, when he removed to Niagara county, settling first in the town of Somerset, later in the town of Wilson, then making permanent settlement in Newfane, where he purchased the Albright farm. This he cultivated until his death in 1881. He was an active member of the Methodist Episcopal church of Wilson, and politically a Democrat. He was a man of energy, a good neighbor, and thoroughly reliable in all his ways."
Note from the Wilson Association historian: Western New York also says that Stephen Melvin and Eleanor Pease (Seeley) Wilson adopted two children. That source does not say if the adopted children were two of the children thought to be Stephen and Eleanor's natural children, or if they were additional children. No other source has been found which mentions any adopted children, and there is no preserved family knowledge of them. There is information that William Alexander Wilson, Stephen and Eleanor's youngest child, adopted two children. It is possible that the author of Western New York confused the two Wilson families.