JAMES W. WILSON
History of Arizona, 1896

He whose name heads this sketch was until recently engaged 
in the important business of merchandising, and seemed well 
fitted for the calling, for he is  enterprising, honest and 
industrious and held in high esteem by those who were his 
patrons and by the people generally.  However, for some 
time past he has devoted his attention to ranching and to 
his various mining interests and in these he has been 
successful.  He is a native of Charlestown, Mass. where 
he was born November 11, 1848, a son of William W. and 
Rebecca C. (Wadsworth) Wilson, who were also natives of 
the Old Bay State and are now sleeping their last long 
sleep in a cemetery near Boston.

In his natal city, the subject of this sketch was given a 
practical and useful education and there his home continued 
to be until he had reached the age of twenty two years, 
about eight years of which time were spent as a clerk in a 
wholesale clothing house.  From Charlestown he removed to 
Louisville, Ky., and was engaged in clerking in a wholesale 
clothing house there from 1872 to 1875.  He then went to 
New York City and was a clerk in the well known 
establishment of Bernheim, Bauer and Company; until 1879, 
when he was sent by the New York clothing store to 
Albuquerque, NM but the same year gave up this occupation 
and made his way to Cooney's Mining Camp.  After short 
stay at this place, he returned to New York in the fall 
of 1879, not having been away a year and re-entered the 
service of his old employers, with whom he remained until 
the spring of 1882. He had acquired a taste for the West 
during the short time that he had been here, and 
accordingly he came to Prescott in 1882 after leaving 
the service of the New York house.  Here he embarked in 
the clothing business in an adobe house on the south 
side of the Plaza, his stock at first being very small 
but at the end of about one year, he moved his business 
to the Sherman Hotel block and here for one year carried 
on a successful trade.  Unfortunately, about one year 
later he was burned out, after which he moved about for 
some time before he found a location that suited him, 
but has conducted business at his present stand since 
1887.   He owns a ranch of 200 acres in Skull Valley, 
four miles below the station, which place is well 
improved and stocked with a fine lot of graded cattle--
Holsteins and Jerseys--which are acknowledged to be the 
best milk stock in the Territory.  He is also interested 
in the Santa Maria group of mines and some mines called 
the Black Oak on Slate Creek, both of which have been 
developed to some extent and found to be paying. Mr. 
Wilson is of a social disposition and is a member of the 
Masonic fraternity and the Knights of Pythias.  Although 
he has never desired nor held public office, he is 
sufficiently interested in the political affairs of the 
county to use his influence for his friends.

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