Benjamin Wilson (politician)

Benjamin Wilson

Benjamin Wilson (born April 30, 1825 in Wilsonburg , Harrison County , Virginia , † April 26, 1901 in Clarksburg , West Virginia ) was an American politician . Between 1875 and 1883 he represented the first constituency of the state of West Virginia in the US House of Representatives .

Career

Benjamin Wilson was born in Wilsonburg in 1825, which was then still part of Virginia. He attended Northwestern Virginia Academy in Clarksburg and then studied law at Staunton . After his admission as a lawyer in 1848, he began to work in Clarksburg in his new profession. Between 1852 and 1860 he was a district attorney in Harrison County. In 1861 he was on a commission to revise the Virginia Constitution.

Wilson was a member of the Democratic Party , whose Democratic National Convention he attended in 1872 as a delegate. In 1871 he was a member of a convention revising the West Virginia constitution. In 1872 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress . Two years later he was elected to the US House of Representatives in Washington in the first district of West Virginia , where he succeeded John James Davis on March 4, 1875 . After three re-elections, he could remain in Congress until March 3, 1883.

After his tenure in the House of Representatives, Wilson worked from 1885 to 1893 as a division manager for the US Department of Justice . He died on April 26, 1901 in Clarksburg, where he was also buried.

Web links

• Benjamin Wilson in the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress (English)

• Benjamin Wilson in the database of Find a Grave (English)