James Wilson (journalist)
James Wilson Jr. (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]