SILAS and WILLIAM WILSON -- 91st INFANTRY INDEPENDENCE CEMETERY BURIALS -- 48 YEARS APART - In September 1864, two brothers enlisted in the 91st Infantry -- Silas and William Wilson. They were the sons of Zadock Wilson and Hepzibah Perkins who had come from New England by way of Quebec to farm in Saranac. Both men got town bounties of $300 for enlisting to serve for one year. They went first to Baltimore, with several dozen men who enlisted in Clinton County, to serve in its defenses after the 91st came back from serving in Louisiana. Two days after their arrival at Fort McHenry, Silas died of typhoid fever and his body was brought back to Saranac where he was buried in the Independence Cemetery at forty-four years of age. Silas' wife, Olive Spaulding, and their only surviving child,Judson, later moved to Seattle, WA, where she died in 1918 and he died, childless, in 1929. William, the younger brother continued with the regiment. By February 1865, he was in the field before Petersburg participating in the siege. After the city fell on April 2nd, they chased General Lee across Virginia where he surrendered at Appomattox Court House on April 9th, suffering 230 casualties along the way. They marched back to Washington and were mustered out on June 25, 1865. William returned to Saranac and, after his first wife died in 1891, he remarried and lived in Burlington, VT, until he died in 1912. His body was returned to Saranac and buried in the Independence Cemetery.
