Ben, the youngest son of Thomas J., Sr. and Sarah A. "Sally" (nee Palmer) Wilson, grew up in and near his birthplace of Lewes, DE.

He was the husband of Ella "Ellie" E. Knowles Hagerty Wilson (1896-1957), who he wed in Milton, Sussex County on 17 January 1914. The couple resided, during all of their married years together, in Lewes, where they raised their large family.

Children: Freda M. (McCoog, nee Hagerty [Ellie's child from her short-lived first marriage]), Sarah A. (Schmidt, then Moorhead), Benjamin T. "Tom", Lester C., Elizabeth A. (1922-1922), Anna E. (Long), Harry P., Ethel M. (Jones, then Martz), and Burton C.

During his final months, following wife Ellie's late-1957 death, Ben went to live with daughter Freda in NJ, where he passed away not long after.

Although Ben and Ellie's shared tombstone presents his birth year as having been 1874, it is certain that he was not born during the 1870s, and an official Sussex Co. birth registry listing for him dating to 1882, and contemporary to the period of his birth, firmly and reliably establishes that he was definitely born in that year.

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Published obituary text, which includes multiple errors (corrected, below, within brackets), follows:

Benjamin Wilson

LEWES - Benjamin O. Wilson, 72 [sic - correct age was 75], a native of Lewes, died Sunday night in Burlington County Hospital in Mt. Holly, N.J. Since the death of his wife, Mrs. Ella Wilson, last November, he had been living with his daughter, Mrs. Freda McCogg [sic - correctly McCoog], in Mapleshade [sic - correctly Maple Shade], N.J.

He was a retired employe of the Lewes Street Department. In addition to Mrs. McCogg [sic], he leaves three other daughters, Mrs. Sara [sic - correctly Sarah] Wyatt [sic - no Wyatt marriage ever officially existed], Lewes; Mrs. Anna Long, Millsboro [DE], Mrs. Ethel Jones, Milford [DE], and four sons, Thomas [officially Benjamin T.] of Seaford [DE], Lester of Mt. Holly, Harry of Mapleshade [sic], and Burton of Milton [DE].

The funeral will be tomorrow at 2 p.m. in Melson Funeral Home here [Lewes], conducted by the Rev. A. Edward Dougherty, former pastor of Bethel Methodist Church [in Lewes]. Burial will be in Lewes Methodist Cemetery [today known as Bethel Methodist Cemetery].

Friends may call at the funeral home this evening.

[Published in The Salisbury Times, Salisbury, Wicomico Co., MD, on Tuesday, 27 May 1958, page 17]