John Alf Wilson, born July 25, 1832, near Worthington, Ohio, lived at this site. At age 29, he enlisted in C. Company, 21st Ohio Volunteer Infantry under General O.M. Mitchell. With Mitchell’s consent, he joined John Andrews’s dangerous mission to cripple Confederate supply lines. Wilson was one of 22 men who volunteered to steal a train, destroy track and railroad bridges, and cut telegraph wires on the route through Georgia to Chattanooga. The Andrews Raiders boarded a train in Marietta, Georgia, and seized the engine The General at Big Shanty. Its crew and Confederate soldiers pursued The General until it gave out before reaching Chattanooga. Eventually all the raiders were captured. Several, including Wilson, escaped from prison, while Andrews and seven men were tried as spies and hung. Wilson was captured again before returning to Wood County. He received the Medal of Honor in 1863.