Does anyone know anything about WILLIAM R. WILSON? He established business as a silversmith in Salisbury, Rowan Co., NC in the 1850s or earlier. He built a formidable house in Salisbury in 1853. A book on NC silversmiths identifies his father as JOHN WILSON of Allentown, PA. I am looking for a connection to my own WILLIAM M. WILSON (b.1823), also a silversmith in Salisbury, Rowan Co., NC. This William first appeared in Rowan Co., in the 1850 census, where he was residing in a hotel. Also intown in a teenaged HENRY WILSON, a silversmith, in 1850 also residing in a hotel in Salisbury (not the same hotel, however). I don't know of a family connection here. Betty Pace