Levi B. Willson -- discovered at Willson School!

Although the list of talented educators in Montgomery County is certainly long, one of the most noted was Miss Anna Willson. According to school records,Miss Willson began to teach in 1887, and became principal of the Central School in 1896. Her photograph still hangs today at Willson School as well as CHS. Just last week, the staff of Willson School found several framed photographs in remote storage. One photograph was an antique photograph of an unidentified man. The frames were not easily removed, so the items were brought to the library for examination in hopes of learning the man’s identity. Upon carefully removing the frames, our staff discovered the name of the man in the photograph: Levi B. Willson, father of Crawfordsville educator Anna Willson. A note written on the back of the photograph says that Mr. Willson was the donor of the land the Willson school stands upon. The library’s collection has many items once belonging to Miss Anna, including her scrapbook, writings, and various other items, including a photograph of her mother, Sarah G. (Webster) Willson, also a teacher at Crawfordsville’s Central School. But no photograph was known of Levi B. Willson, Crawfordsville attorney, who died in 1881 at the age of 35, until the repairs at Willson school brought it to light.