Biographical Sketches.
CHAPTER XII.
JOHN L. WILSON.
John Lindley Wilson was born in Milan, Sullivan County, Missouri, May 25, 1853. Most of his boyhood days were spent in the town of his birth, and at an early age he entered the State Normal School at Kirksville, Missouri, where he received the education that so well fitted him as an instructor and trainer of the young. He held the position of principal of the public schools both at Plato and Linneus, in his native State. He came to Colusa County in 1877, and was a most successful instructor in its public schools, teaching at Jacinto, Germantown, Orland and Willows. In 1884 he was elected Superintendent of Public Schools in the county, and succeeded himself to a second term in 1885, which would have expired in the January following his death. During his incumbency of this office he placed the schools of this county on a higher plane than those of any other county. By the noble qualities of his nature he endeared himself to the whole people.
During all the years of hard school work, backed by an untiring energy, he devoted himself to the study of law, and in December, 1888, entered into a law partnership at Colusa with M. De Hurst. He was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court of the State on May 14, 1889. On May 25, 1881, he was united in marriage to Miss Harriet Louisa Pool, by whom he had one child.
Mr. Wilson's death occurred on March 16, 1890, and was caused by consumption. The teachers of the county came to his funeral to pay their last tribute of respect and esteem to one so worthy, zealous and devoted to the cause of education, while the members of the bar gathered at the interment of one of their profession who gave such exceptional promise of reflecting honor upon it. A few days after the funeral, the Bar Association convened, at which the highest eulogies were passed upon his character. The State Association of Teachers did likewise. Few men in the county have been so sincerely and so universally mourned as John L. Wilson.
COLUSA COUNTY
ITS
HISTORY TRACED FROM A STATE OF NATURE
THROUGH THE EARLY PERIOD OF SET-
TLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT,
TO THE PRESENT DAY
WITH A
DESCRIPTION OF ITS RESOURCES, STATISTICAL
TABLES, ETC.
ALSO
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND
PROMINENT RESIDENTS
by Justus H. Rogers
Orland, California
1891
Page 343-465
Transcribed by: Linda Diane Jackson 6/24/2009
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