Dr. Millard Lewis Wilson, born November 26, 1866, near Nebraska City, Nebraska, is a prominent physician and surgeon in Falls City, Richardson County. After graduating from Cotner University’s medical department in 1896, he began practicing in Humboldt before moving to Falls City in 1907. Active in various medical societies and local politics, Dr. Wilson served as Richardson County coroner and president of the local board of pension examiners. He married Elfrida Eugenie Ruth Osterholm in 1897, and they have a notable family background, with ties to Napoleonic history through her Swedish lineage. Dr. Wilson remains a dedicated and respected figure in his community.
Dr. Millard Lewis Wilson, of Falls City, Richardson county, and one of the best-known physicians and surgeons of this part of the state, a resident of this county since he entered upon the practice of his profession in 1896, is a native son of Nebraska and has lived in this state all his life. He was born on a pioneer farm in the immediate vicinity of Nebraska City, November 26, 1866, son of Enoch and Eunice (Jarrett) Wilson, the former of whom was born in the neighboring state of Iowa and the latter in the old state of Virginia, and who were married in Missouri. Enoch Wilson, a life-long farmer, served as a member of the state militia, the Union Home Guards, during the Civil War. In 1864 he settled on a farm just north of Nebraska City and there made his home until a few years ago, when he retired from the farm and moved into Nebraska City, where he is now living in the seventy-seventh year of his age. He was the father of ten children, eight of whom are living. Three sons of Enoch Wilson are physicians, Dr. S. S. Wilson, of Nebraska City; Dr. J. S. Wilson, of Johnson; Nebraska: Dr. M. L.; and an attorney, Judge W. W. Wilson, Nebraska City; Andrew, Nebraska City; Mrs. Dora Delzell, Peru, wife of Prof. W. N. Delzell, of Peru Normal; Donna, wife of Prof. J. W. Crabtree, president Normal school, River Falls, Wisconsin, and Della, at Nebraska City.
Reared on a farm, Dr. M. L. Wilson received his early schooling in the public schools, supplementing the same by a course in the State Normal School at Peru and thus admirably equipped by preliminary study entered the medical department of Cotner University at Lincoln and was graduated from that institution in 1896, with the degree of Doctor of Medicine. In that same year the Doctor established an office for the practice of his profession at Humboldt, in this county, and after his marriage the next year established his home there, remaining there for eleven years, at the end of which time, in 1907, he moved to Falls City, where he ever since has been very successfully engaged in practice. The Doctor has well-appointed offices in the Wahl building and has ever kept abreast of the wonderful modern advances being made in his profession. In 1905 he took a post-graduate course at the Chicago Polyclinic. He is affiliated with the Richardson County Medical Society, the Nebraska State Medical Society, the American Medical Association, the Nebraska State Eclectic Medical Society and the National Eclectic Medical Association and to the affairs and deliberations of these various learned societies gives his thoughtful and earnest attention. Doctor Wilson is a Democrat and has ever given a good citizen’s attention to local political affairs. He served for one term as coroner of Richardson county and has in other ways done his part in the public service. Dr. Wilson is president of the local hoard of pension examiners. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, besides various fraternal insurance associations, and in the affairs of all of these organizations takes a warm interest. Doctor and Mrs. Wilson have a very pleasant home in Falls City and take a proper interest in the general social and cultural activities of their home town.
It was in 1897, at Essex, Iowa, that Dr. Millard L. Wilson was united in marriage to Elfrida Eugenie Ruth Osterholm, who was born in the kingdom of Sweden, February 15, 1875, daughter of Peter Emanuel and Anna (Schubert) Peterson (now Osterholm), who left their home at Branstorp, in their native Sweden, and came to this country with their family in the summer of 1882 and settled at Essex, in Page county. Iowa, where Mr. Osterholm engaged in the jewelry business and where he spent the remainder of his life, his death occurring there on April 20, 1906. His widow survived him for nearly five years, her death occurring on December 3, 1911. Her Grandfather Schubert was born in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, of German parentage. He was a sympathizer with the cause of the “Little Corporal” during the time of the Napoleonic Wars and became attached to the staff of Napoleon’s great field marshal, Gen. Johan Bernadotte, accompanying the latter to the Scandinavian peninsula when Napoleon created him king of Sweden and Norway, with the title of Carl XIV, and there Schubert fell in love with a lovely Swedish girl, married her and established his home in Sweden, Mrs. Wilson therefore being a great-grand-daughter of one of Napoleon’s favored soldiers of fortune. To Peter Emanuel 0sterholm (born Peterson) and wife eleven children were born, of whom six are still living, those besides Mrs. Wilson being as follow: August, who is engaged in the implement business at Essex, Iowa; Dr. Martin Osterholm, Ph. D., professor of modern languages in the University of Heidelburg at Tiffin, Ohio; William, who is in charge of the efficiency department of the great Deering works at Chicago, Elmer, who is employed in that same department, and Mrs. Philip Schorr, of Ottumwa, Iowa.
Source: Edwards, Lewis C., History of Richardson County, Nebraska : Its People, Industries and Institutions, Indianapolis : B.F. Bowen, 1917.