James W. Wilson Biography


	This biography appears on pages 1627-1628 in "History of South 
	Dakota" by Doane Robinson, Vol. II (1904) and was scanned, 
	OCRed and edited by Maurice Krueger, mkrueger@iw.net.

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	JAMES W. WILSON.—The State Agricultural College of South Dakota, 
at Brookings, is signally fortunate in having secured the subject of 
this sketch as a member of its faculty, and his efforts in the 
connection have not failed of due appreciation on the part of those 
interested in this valued institution. Professor Wilson was born on a 
farm near Traer, Tama county, Iowa, on the 12th of February, 1871, and 
his is the distinction of being a son of the present able incumbent of 
the office of secretary of the United States department of agriculture, 
James Wilson, while the maiden name of his mother was Esther Wilbur, the 
ancestry in the agnatic line tracing back to Scotch origin, while on the 
maternal side the lineage is of German extraction, the Wilburs having 
early become identified with the history of the state of New York. James 
Wilson was numbered among the pioneers of Iowa, and so familiar to the 
public is the record of his life and services that a recapitulation is 
not demanded in this connection. 

	The subject of this review passed his boyhood days on the 
homestead farm, while his early educational discipline was secured in 
the district schools, which he continued to attend until he had attained 
the age of fifteen years, when he entered the high school at Traer, 
Iowa, where he continued his studies for two years, after which he 
returned to the home farm, where he was engaged in the caring for the 
live stock until he had attained his legal majority. He then, in 1893, 
was matriculated in the State Agricultural College of Iowa, at Ames, 
where he completed the prescribed four-years course in science and 
agriculture, being graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Science as a 
member of the class of 1896, while two years later his alma mater 
conferred upon him the degree of Master of Science. For one year he was 
assistant professor of animal husbandry in the same institution, and he 
then went to the national capital in the capacity of private secretary 
to his father, who had been chosen secretary of agriculture. This 
incumbency Professor Wilson retained for three years, during the last 
two of which he was a student in the law department of Georgetown 
University, where he attended the evening sessions. After leaving 
Washington he passed a year in the law office of the firm of Hubbard, 
Dawley & Wheeler, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and during the succeeding year 
he had charge of a farm of eight hundred acres in that state. On the 22d 
of May, 1902, he was chosen director of the state experiment station 
established at the State Agricultural College of South Dakota and was 
simultaneously made professor of agricultural and animal husbandry at 
the college and placed in charge of the farm and the college dairy. He 
has proved an able, discriminating and enthusiastic worker in these 
important capacities, and has done much to increase the prestige of the 
institution, while within the year 1903 will have been completed on the 
farm a fine barn for experimental work in his line, the building 
representing an expenditure of twelve thousand dollars. Professor Wilson 
will thus have excellent facilities for carrying on his work, including 
original research and experimentation, and he is certain to make his 
department one of great value to not only the students of the college, 
but to the farmers of the entire state. He is a close observer and 
indefatigable student, and has had the advantages of wide travel, having 
visited every state in the Union with the exception of two or three in 
New England, and having also made trips to Cuba and Jamaica. In politics 
he gives his allegiance to the Republican party; his religious faith is 
that of the Presbyterian church, and fraternally he is identified with 
the Masonic order, being affiliated with lodge and chapter in 
Washington, D. C., and the commandery in Brookings, South Dakota.