Representative Joseph Gardner Wilson

Joseph Gardner Wilson (December 13, 1826 – July 2, 1873) was a U.S. Republican politician and jurist in the state of Oregon. A native of New Hampshire, he served as a state circuit court judge and as a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court, and was elected to the United States House of Representatives. Wilson died shortly after assuming office in the House, during a significant period in American history, having participated in the democratic process and represented the interests of his constituents as a member of the Republican Party from Oregon.

Wilson was born in Acworth, New Hampshire, on December 13, 1826. In 1828 his family left New Hampshire and settled in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, and soon afterward moved to a farm near Reading, Ohio. He attended local schools in that area before leaving the public school system in 1840 to enroll at Cary’s Academy, where he studied until 1842. Pursuing higher education, he entered Marietta College in Marietta, Ohio, and graduated in 1846, establishing an early connection with the institution that would remain significant throughout his life.

After college, Wilson embarked on a career in education and the law. In 1849 he was employed as a teacher at Farmer’s College near Cincinnati. He then undertook formal legal studies at the Cincinnati Law School, from which he graduated with a law degree in 1852. That same year he was admitted to the bar, preparing him for a professional life that would soon take him to the Pacific Northwest.

In 1852, Wilson traveled the Oregon Trail and immigrated to the Oregon Territory. Shortly after his arrival he was appointed clerk to the Oregon Supreme Court, a position he held from 1852 until 1855. In 1854 he married Elizabeth Millar Wilson, with whom he had four children. Also in 1854 he became the first secretary of the Willamette Woolen Company, reflecting his involvement in the early commercial development of the territory. His legal career advanced when, in 1860, he was selected as district attorney for Oregon’s third judicial district, based in Marion County, a post he held until 1862.

Wilson’s judicial service began in earnest during the Civil War era. On October 17, 1862, Oregon Governor A. C. Gibbs appointed him to the Oregon Supreme Court to fill a newly created fifth seat on the bench. At that time, justices of the court also served as circuit judges, and Wilson rode circuit, holding court in The Dalles. He secured election to a full six-year term on the court in 1864, underscoring public confidence in his judicial abilities. Wilson remained on the Oregon Supreme Court until May 1870, when he resigned, having served both as an appellate jurist and as a trial judge in the state’s developing legal system.

Following his judicial tenure, Wilson turned to electoral politics at the national level. He ran for Congress in 1870 but was not successful in that initial attempt. Persisting in his political ambitions, he stood again for election and in 1872 was elected as a Republican to the United States House of Representatives from Oregon. His term commenced on March 4, 1873, placing him in the Forty-third Congress and aligning his service with the broader post–Civil War and Reconstruction-era realignments in national politics. As a member of the Republican Party representing Oregon, Joseph Gardner Wilson contributed to the legislative process during his time in office, participating in the democratic process and representing the interests of his constituents.

Wilson’s congressional service was abruptly cut short. While traveling east to assume his duties in Washington, D.C., he stopped in Ohio and returned to Marietta, where he was scheduled to deliver a speech at his alma mater, Marietta College. He died in Marietta, Ohio, on July 2, 1873, at the age of 46, only a few months after his term in Congress had begun. His death placed him among the members of the United States Congress who died in office in the nineteenth century. Joseph Gardner Wilson was buried in Pioneer Cemetery in The Dalles, Oregon. The vacancy created by his death in the House of Representatives was subsequently filled by his cousin, James W. Nesmith.