Welcome to the biography of Wilson Naylor!

Wilson Naylor

This man's life was busy and interesting enough to make a book itself. Born in 1828 in Ohio, the son of James P. and Sarah Moore Naylor, he came to Eugene the year of his birth with his parents and brother William L.

While still in his teens he began making flat boat trips to  New Orleans and is supposed to have made 15 of these and several more later by steamboat.  He observed what sold well in New Orleans and he opened a general store in Eugene in 1852 on Lot 38, and at the same time shipped various cargoes by flat bottom boat and imported merchandise for his store.

In 1849 he was married to Florella Shaw a daughter of Benjamin Shaw who built Shaw's Mill west of Newport.  They had a son James B. born in 1850, but who later moved to Colorado for his health and died there in 1875.   Also a daughter, Elizabeth.

He also acted as sort of real estate broker and his names appears in several abstracts as buying property for resale.  With his brother William L. he bought the mill property at Eugene in July of 1865 and sold it in September of the same year to William D. Ladd of Terre Haute thereby bringing the Ladd family to Eugene.

In 1864, he disposed of all his property here and m oved to Terre haute which probably explains the sale of the mill to a Terre Haute buyer.  He opened a store in Terre Haute at 4th and Ohio Streets and lived at 5th and Poplar.  The store went well and he added considerable to the wealth he had acquired in Eugene.

In 1882, there came an opportunity which he welcomed.  The Grand Opera House which stood on the N. E. corner of 4th and Wabash was in financial trouble and Wilson ought it for $100,000, about half of which was cash and the rest in real estate.

The theatre was to be his chief interest for the rest of his life.  He sold his store and devoted his entire time to the management of the theatre.

He died in 1892 and his obituary in the Terra Haute Gazette said his living relatives were Mrs. Eliza Jane Towle of Evantson, Illinois, and Mrs. Sarah Schlossman of Chicago and his daughter Elizabeth married to Benjamin G. Cox of Terre Haute.  Elizabeth's grandson, Wilson Naylor Cox is an attorney in Terre Haute at the present time.

In searching through the old part of the Eugene Cemetery for something else, a stone was found reading as follows:

And along side the stone of Ann Marie was a smaller one reading:

With this information the marriage records at Newport were searched and they showed Wilson Naylor married Ann Marie Conn in 1844.