Born in Tennessee to parents from Virginia, Wilson eventually settled in Alta California when it was part of the Republic of Mexico, and acquired Rancho Jurupa.

Having served on the Common Council of Los Angeles, he later was elected to a term as the second mayor of the city after California was admitted as a state.

In 1845 Wilson was asked to pursue a group of Native Americans led by a man who had escaped from the San Gabriel Mission.

He had acquired the property from the widow Victoria Reid, an indigenous woman of social standing in Mexican California who had received the rancho in a land grant in her name.

In 1863 Wilson and Dr. John Strother Griffin, who had also lent Garfias money, bought the entire rancho property outright.

Wilson and Griffin undertook many business deals together in early Los Angeles, including railways, oil exploration, real estate, farming and ranching.

The Wilson Trail became a popular one or two-day hike to the crest of the San Gabriel Mountains by local residents for years to come.

In 1876, after the Colony had sold most of its allotted land and established what became the City of Pasadena, Wilson began subdividing and developing his adjacent landholdings which became the eastern side of the new settlement.

He gave several acres of property to his son-in-law James de Barth Shorb which he named San Marino,[11] and developed other parts of the land as Alhambra, where he is enshrined as a statue in Renaissance Plaza.