Lawson Green Wilson was born September 12, 1847 in Cleveland County, North Carolina.  He was the son of George Wilson and Lucy Ann Clark.  It would be interesting to know that two days after his birth, history was being made in another part of the country as A.O. Smoot brought a train of immigrants to Utah, where Lawson was to live, later in his life. 

His ancestry has been established as far back as his great-grandfather, Richard Willson, who migrated from Virginia about 1781, purchasing a plantation on Jumping branch of King's Creek of the Broad River.  This land was kept in the family for three generations.  Lawson's grandfather, John Wilson, was buried in a family plot on this same plantation.

There was a tradition in the family that Lawson's family of Wilson and the family of Woodrow Wilson, the president of the United States, were closely related.  Research into this possibility has proven this to be more than unlikely because Woodrow Wilson's grandfather did not arrive in the United States until 1801.  Further research might show a likely connection of earlier generations of these two Wilson families, in Ireland or Scotland. 

Lawson's early life was spent in the cotton fields of his gather's plantation, being involved in farming all of his life, as he was a farmer until his retirement in Utah.  His schooling consisted in a free school or about a month to six weeks.

In 1861, he watched his oldest brother and his father march away to fight for the Confederate cause, his brother never to return.  Three years later, young Lawson, then but 16 years old, entered the army and served at the great Florence prison camp, as a guard over 20,000 Yankies in a 20 acre field near Charleston.  While there, he caught measles, which shortened his service time.  His service was under General Robert E. Lee.

In the year of 1871, 29 January, he married Elmina Green.  To this union, was born 13 children.  Lawson and Elmina worked hard to provide for their family, working in the fields side by side, on their little farm.  He and his family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when persecution of the Saints was at its height.  Elders were being mobbed, whipped, and even killed in that locality.  His door latch was always open to the Elders and the best bed and room available were at the disposal of God's servants at any time.  He was baptized by Oley P. Jensen 25 May 1888 and confirmed by George Burgress in North Carolina.

The Lawson family boarded the train and immigrated to Utah, in the spring of 1891, going first to North Ogden, where they stayed during the summer.  The next fall, they moved to Lehi where Lawson spent the remainder of his life, with the exception of a few years which he spent on Provo Bench.  In his farming in Lehi, he introduced the long-handled hoe method of thinning sugar beets, having become proficient in its use in the thinning of the cotton fields of the South.  It revolutionized the cultivation of the beet sugar fields of Utah.

In the year 1893, he was ordained an Elder by Bishop Bromley, of American Fork.  Later in his life he became a High Priest, 2 March 1913.  Lawson was very active in the church, helping to organize the Highland Branch.

He spent a very quiet life, speaking evil of no one and minding his own business at all times, though he had a host of friends and relatives who held him in great respect.  His wife, and mother of his children, died 28 March 1912, leaving him to carry on alone for about 25 years.  After a short illness of only three days, he was called to the Great Beyond, on Monday November 9 1936, at the age of 89.  He left behind him the following children: Monroe, Joseph, Sarah Krageland, William, Geneva Sullivan, Lucy Peterson, Mary Lee Myers, Elizabeth jane Peck, and Alma Wilson.  At his passing, he ws survived by 39 grand children and 45 great-grandchildren, two sisters, Elizabeth Bolin, Ida white, and on brother Stanhope Wilson, Ida and Stanhope living in South Carolina.