Eugene McLanahan Wilson

1888 Wilson campaign ribbon

Eugene McLanahan Wilson (December 25, 1833 – April 10, 1890) (son of Edgar Campbell Wilson, grandson of Thomas Wilson of Virginia, and great-grandson of Isaac Griffin), was a Representative from Minnesota.

Biography

Wilson was born in Morgantown, Monongalia County, Virginia (now West Virginia), December 25, 1833. He attended the common schools and Morgantown Academy and graduated from Jefferson College, Canonsburg, PA, in 1852. He studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1855 and commenced practice in Winona, Minnesota. He served as United States Attorney for the District of Minnesota with residence in Minneapolis from 1857 to 1861, and thereafter continued the practice of law in Minneapolis.

Wilson served in the Union Army during the Civil War as captain of Company A, First Minnesota Mounted Rangers; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-first Congress (March 4, 1869 – March 3, 1871). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1870. He resumed the practice of law, and was elected mayor of Minneapolis in 1872 and 1874. He was an unsuccessful candidate for election in 1874 to the Forty-fourth Congress. He served as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1876, and was a member of the Minnesota Senate in 1878 and 1879. He was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Minnesota in 1888.

Wilson remained active in social as well as political affairs in Minnesota. He was twice president of the Minneapolis Club, in 1886 and 1890.^[1]

Wilson died while on a visit to regain his health in Nassau, New Providence Island, British West Indies, April 10, 1890. He was interred in Lakewood Cemetery, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

References

• Minnesota Legislators Past and Present

• Eugene McLanahan Wilson at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress Retrieved on 2009-04-13

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.