Born in Youngstown, Ohio, Wilson attended Youngstown Public Schools for his early childhood education, prior to attending Western Reserve Academy prep school in Hudson, Ohio, graduating in 1890.

[4][5] During World War I, Wilson served in the United States Army in the judge advocate general's department with the rank of major, including at Camp Sherman.

[6][7] Wilson was a Democrat, and successfully ran under his party's nomination in the July 1, 1935 special election to fill the seventh district seat on the Supreme Court of Illinois left vacant after the death in office of Frederic R. DeYoung.

[8] Days later, his Republican opponent William V. Brothers withdrew from the race weeks later and De Young was left unopposed in the election.

[8] Ultimately, the Democratic and Republican Party's agreed on a bipartisan unity slate of candidates in the July 1, 1935 Cook County judicial elections making all of the races effectively uncontested, and forgoing the nomination of a replacement Republican candidate in the Supreme Court special election.