James Wilson (journalist)
James Wilson | |
---|---|
Born | February 20, 1787 |
Died | October 17, 1850 |
Spouse | Ann Adams |
Children | 10, including Joseph Ruggles Wilson |
Relatives | Grandson, Woodrow Wilson |
James Wilson (20 February 1787 – 17 October 1850) was an Irish-American journalist and politician who was the paternal grandfather of US President Woodrow Wilson.
Life and career[edit]
Born in Ulster, Ireland, in 1787, Wilson emigrated in his youth to the United States. He settled in Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer in the office of the Aurora, a Jeffersonian newspaper edited by William Duane. He rose to the position of foreman, publisher, and then editor.[1] Continuing his journalistic career in Steubenville, Ohio, he purchased the Western Herald, which name he changed to Western Herald & Steubenville Gazette.[2] He became involved in state politics, representing Jefferson County in the Ohio House of Representatives in 1816–1817 and 1820–1822.[3] In 1832, he founded the Pennsylvania Advocate, a Pittsburgh newspaper which he owned and edited for a year before turning it over to his oldest son William Duane Wilson.[4] Though not a lawyer, James Wilson served for several years as an associate judge for the Jefferson County common pleas court.[5] Wilson died in Steubenville on 17 October 1850 from an attack of cholera.[6] He was elected to the Ohio Journalism Hall of Fame in 1933.[7]
Family[edit]
Wilson married Ann Adams in Philadelphia in 1808. Both were of Scotch-Irish origin.[1] They had seven sons and three daughters. The youngest son, Joseph Ruggles Wilson, born in Steubenville in 1822, was the father of Woodrow Wilson.[8]
References[edit]
Bibliography[edit]
- Guffey, Alexander S. (1941). "James Wilson". Colonel Edward Cook and Other Historical Papers. Pittsburgh: Privately printed. pp. 53–57.
- Ohio Journalism Hall of Fame: Proceedings of the Sixth and Seventh Annual Dinner Meetings of Judges, Newspapermen, and Others to Honor the Journalists Elected (PDF). Journalism Series. Vol. 12. Ohio State University Press. 1935.
- Walworth, Arthur (1965). Woodrow Wilson (Second Revised ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
- Weisenburger, Francis P. (December 1936). "The Middle Western Antecedents of Woodrow Wilson". The Mississippi Valley Historical Review. 23 (3): 375–390. doi:10.2307/1886371. JSTOR 1886371.
- 1787 births
- 1850 deaths
- Journalists from Ohio
- Journalists from Pennsylvania
- Members of the Ohio House of Representatives
- American people of Scotch-Irish descent
- Woodrow Wilson family
- 19th-century American legislators
- 19th-century American journalists
- Deaths from cholera in the United States
- Infectious disease deaths in Ohio
- Irish emigrants to the United States
- People from Ulster
- Ohio State House of Representatives stubs
- American journalist stubs