Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/455

 WILSON

WILSON

1SS3-85. He -was a member of the Iowa state railway commission, 1877-83; was a regent of the state university, 1870-74, and director of the Agricultural Experiment Station, and professor of agriculture in the Iowa agricultural college, Ames, Iowa, 1890-97. He was appointed secret- ary of agricultui'e by President McKinley, March 5, 1897, and retained by President Roosevelt.

WILSON, James F., senator, was born in New- ark, Ohio, Oct. 19, 1828; son of David and Kitty Ann Wilson. He attended the common schools; served an apprenticeship to the harness-mak- er's trade, 1841-50; was admitted to the bar, 1851; practised in Newark, Ohio, 1851-53, and subsequently in Fairfield, Iowa. He was married, Nov. 25, 1852, to Mary A. K., daughter of Al- pheus and Aletha Jewett of Newark, Ohio. He was a member of the state constitutional conven- tion, 1856; a representative in the state legisla- ture, 1857, and in the same year assistant com- missioner of the Des ^Moines river improvements; state senator, 1859-61, serving as president the latter year; was elected a Democratic represen- tative from Iowa to complete the unexpired term of Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, resigned; re-elected to the 39th and 40th congresses, to the latter as a Union Republican, and served, Dec. 2, 1861- March 3, 1869; officiating as chairman of the judiciary and unfinished business committees, and as one of the managers in the impeachment trial of Andrew Jolmson in February, 1868. He al- so originated the subsequently adopted resolution prohibiting the use of military forces to compel the return of fugitive slaves, and the initiative congressional bill for the enfranchisement of the slaves of the District of Columbia; was the first to propose an amendment to the constitution abolishing slavery; successfully carried his bill, giving freedom to the wives and children of colored soldiers, and the ci\ il rights bill. These acts won for him the name of '• Friend of the Slave." He declined the appointment of secretary of state from President Grant in 1869; served as a government director of the Union Pacific rail- road for seven years, and two terms as U.S. senator from Iowa, elected as a Republican, serv- ing from Dec. 4, 1883 to March 3, 1895. He died in Fairfield. Iowa. April 22, 1895.

WILSON, James Grant, soldier and author, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. April 28, 1832; son of William and Jane (Sibbald) Wilson. He was educated at College Hill, Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and subsequently by private tutors; be- came a partner in his father's publishing business in 1854, and after visiting Europe, founded in 1857 the Chicago Record, a journal of arts and literature, continuing as its editor and owner until 1862. He entered the Union army as major of the 15th Illinois cavalry, early in 1862, becom-

ing acting colonel of the regiment, in April, 1863, and participating in several engagements in- cluding the battles of the Vicksburg campaign, and was commissioned colonel of the 4th regi- ment, U.S., colored cavalry, August, 1863, sub- sequently serving as aide-de-camp to Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks of the Department of the Gulf, until April, 1865. He was brevetted brig- adier-general, March 13, 1865, commanding Port Hudson until his resignation in the following July. He also served as military agent for New York state in Louisiana, from September, 1868, to July, 1865, and after 1865 devoted himself to litei'ary pursuits in New York cit}-, and to public lecturing. He was married, Nov. 3. 1869, to Jane E. S., daugliter of the Rev. Dr. Jonathan and Jane Eudora (Kirkpatrick) Cogswell of New Brunswick, N.J. General Wilson served as a member of the board of visitors to the U.S. Naval academy, 1879, and to the Military academy, 1880; was president of the New York Genealogi- cal and Biograpliical society, 1885-1902, and tf the American Authors' Guild, 1897-1901: vice- president of the Association for the Reform and Codification of the Law of Nations for six years, and from 1900 vice-president of the American Ethnological society, and vice-president of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He became actively connected with several historical and other societies at home and abroad, and received the honorary degree, L.H.D., from Hobart. 1895, and those of D.C.L. and LL.D., elsewhere. He took a prominent part in the erection of a bronze statue to Fitz-Greene Halleck, in Guilford, Conn., and of one to Col- umbus in Central park. New York city, for the latter service being knighted by the Queen Re- gent of Spain in 1894. He is the editor of '• Fitz- Greene Halleck's Poems" (1868); "Memorial History of the City of New York (4 vols., 1892- 93); the "Great Commanders Series" (18 vols., 1892-1903); "General Grant's Letters to a Friend, 1861-1880" (1897), and co-editor with John Fiske of " Appleton's Cyclopeedia of Ameri- can Biography" (7 vols., 1887-1902). He is the author of: Sketches of Illinois Authors (1862); 3Ir. Secretary Pe^yys and His Diary (1867): Love in Letters (1868); Life of Fitz-Greene Halleck (1860); Poets and Poetry of Scotland (1876): Cen- tennial History of the Diocese of Keio York (18861; Bryant and His Friends (1886); The Woi-ld's La7'gest] Libraries (ISM): Life of General Grant (1897); The Presidents of the United States. 1789- 1901 (1902); Tliackeray in the United States (2 vols., 1903); and also numerous addresses, includ- ing his oration upon the 250th anniversary of the founding of New York city. May, 1903. soon after- ward issued by the corporation, which presented the general with a gold medal.