San
Joaquin County
Biographies
EDWARD P. WILSON
A prosperous and energetic farmer
whose activities along agricultural and viticultural lines have brought his
success is Edward P. Wilson, on the Waterloo Road. His birth occurred in Madison, Wisconsin,
February 14, 1876, the third child in a family of thirteen children born to
Robert Jacob and Mary (Conlin) Wilson, the former a native of Wisconsin and the
latter of Massachusetts. Robert Wilson’s
parents settled in Wisconsin in early days and there Robert grew to manhood and
took part in the Black Hawk and Mexican wars.
He owned and conducted a wholesale grocery business in Madison for many
years and passed away there at the age of seventy-four. The mother of our subject is still
living. Edward P. Wilson received his
education in the schools of his native city, then
spent two years at the University of Wisconsin, where he pursued a mining
engineering course. At twenty-three
years of age he came west and engaged in mining engineering at Thunder
Mountain, Idaho, and at various points in the northwest.
In Stockton, July 13, 1905, Mr.
Wilson was married to Miss Bertha L. Jones, a native of San Joaquin County,
born five miles from Stockton on the Upper Sacramento Road, a daughter of Hiram
M. and Lovina S. (Morton) Jones. Hiram
M. Jones was born in White Hall, New York, and in the winter of 1849 crossed
the plains with an ox team to California; subsequently he made fourteen trips
to the east, bringing back stock each trip.
He was engaged in mining and farming and also kept a store in the early
days. For two years he lived in
Prescott, Arizona, and he is known as one of the men who laid out the site of that
mining town. Hiram M. Jones’ first
marriage occurred in Santa Clara County and four children were born of this
marriage: Fillmore and Fremont are twins
and both live in San Joaquin County; Mary and Semore
are deceased. Mr. Jones next moved to
San Francisco, where he conducted a dairy business for some time, then about
1873 came to San Joaquin County and settled five miles northwest of Stockton,
where he thereafter resided. The ranch
on the Upper Sacramento Road was the home place and he also owned 480 acres at
Escalon and a third ranch of 300 acres at Linden. After the death of his first wife, Mr. Jones
was married the second time, and Mrs. Wilson is the only child of this
marriage. Hiram M. Jones lived to be
seventy-nine years old, dying June 26, 1905, and his wife died when
seventy-six, February 14, 1917. Mrs.
Wilson was educated in the Stockton grammar and the San Francisco Poly high
school and at the death of her parents inherited the home place, where she now
makes her home.
During the Spanish-American War, Mr.
Wilson was a member of Company G, First Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in the
Fifth Army Corps under General Shafter; later he was placed in the Seventh Army
Corps under General FitzHugh Lee. During 1898-99 he was in the Cuban campaign,
entering as a private and was advanced to second lieutenant. After the war, Mr. Wilson removed to Tonopah,
Nevada, where he became mining engineer for the Tonopah Mining Company; at that
time this company owned the largest silver producing mine in the west. In 1913, Mr. and Mrs. Wilson removed to the
ranch where they now reside, consisting of 120 acres of rich land, a portion of
which is in vineyard and the balance is devoted to grain raising. A system of irrigation furnishes ample water
for the entire 120 acres. Mr. Wilson
served as assemblyman for two terms in Nye County, Nevada, and he is fraternally
connected with the B. P. O. Elks No. 1062 of Tonopah, Nevada, and politically
is a staunch Republican. Mr. and Mrs.
Wilson are the parents of one son, Pliny Edward Wilson.
Transcribed by Gerald Iaquinta.
Source: Tinkham, George
H., History of San Joaquin County, California , Page
638. Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic
Record Co., 1923.
© 2011 Gerald Iaquinta.
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