Later Years
In 1853, Willson served as a member of the board of trustees at Willamette University, which was the new name of the Oregon Institute. The following year he served as a commissioner for the proposed and later built Oregon and California Railroad. William Holden Willson died in Salem on April 17, 1856, at the age of 51 and was interred in Salem Pioneer Cemetery. Willson owned a bookstore in Salem at one time, and when his daughter Frances married Joseph K. Gill in 1866, Gill took over the store. The land he donated for a park in Salem is located next to the Oregon State Capitol and was named Willson Park in his honor.
Read more about this topic: William H. Willson
Famous quotes containing the word years:
“Finishing schools in the fifties were a good place to store girls for a few years before marrying them off, a satisfactory rest stop between college weekends spent husband hunting. It was a haven for those of us adept at styling each other’s hair, playing canasta, and chain smoking Pall Mall extra-long cigarettes.”
—Barbara Howar (b. 1934)
“When Prince William [later King William IV] was at Cork in 1787, an old officer ... dined with him, and happened to say he had been forty years in the service. The Prince with a sneer asked what he had learnt in those forty years. The old gentleman justly offended, said, “Sir, I have learnt, when I am no longer fit to fight, to make as good a retreat as I can” —and walked out of the room.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)