Lily Tyler Wilson studio portrait

Title

Subject

Local/Regional History and Appalachian South

Description

Studio portrait of Eliza (Lily) Tyler Wilson, n.d.

Known to her family and friends as "Lily," Eliza Lillian Tyler was born on September 7, 1882; she married Henry Harrison Wilson (born January 15, 1885) on June 16, 1915. The couple eventually made their home in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania and had three children: James Hoge Tyler, Lily Norwood and Henry Harrison II. Born in Cumberland County, Virginia on January 15, 1882, Wilson graduated from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1906 with a BS in engineering. He served as an instructor in civil engineering at the university while earning a civil engineering degree the following year. Wilson worked on various projects before being employed from 1908 to 1911 by Winston & Company, contractors for the Ashokan dams in New York. In 1914, he became a special partner in the company's highway and railway construction and in operation of its crushed stone business. Specializing in bridge and other construction work, Wilson became managing partner in 1925 of Winston Brothers Company & H. H. Wilson. He was also president and treasurer of the Lime Bluff Company, director of All States Life Insurance and the Peoples Bank of Radford, Virginia. He was elected president of the Associated Pennsylvania Constructors in 1924 and vice-president of the Association of General Contractors of America in 1922. A member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Wilson published several articles on highway construction and edited Highway Builder. A descendant of Declaration of Independence signer Benjamin Harrison, Wilson maintained an interest in genealogy. He died in Baltimore, Maryland on May 31, 1933. Following his death, Lily Wilson returned to Virginia and by 1948 was living at the Tyler family home.