Ephraim King Wilson II was born in Snow Hill, Maryland, and attended Union Academy at Snow Hill and Washington Academy in Princess Anne, Maryland.

He studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1848 and began a practice in Snow Hill.

[2] He was a member of the State House of Delegates in 1847 and presidential elector on the Democratic ticket in 1852.

He was a judge of the first judicial circuit of Maryland from 1878 to 1884 and elected as a Democrat in 1884 to the United States Senate, serving from March 4, 1885 until his death in Washington on February 24, 1891.

[4] He is buried in the churchyard of Makemie Memorial Presbyterian Church in Snow Hill.