In his final year in the state legislature, he was the chairman of the ways and means committee.

As Mayor, Wilson introduced President-elect Abraham Lincoln from the balcony of the Monongahela House on a rain-soaked day in February 1861.

The tenseness of the political campaign was eased for a moment when an 18-year-old Englishman traveling as "Baron Renfrew[1]" Prince of Wales, later Edward VII of England[2] arrived in Pittsburgh, en route to the White House.

Was appointed to the Committee of Public Safety during the Pittsburgh Rail Road Riots in 1877.

[4] Married his first wife Miss Mary Frances Howe and there were six children in this union.

Mary Frances Howe died in 1839 after her death in 1854 he married his second wife Miss Emily Wilson in 1855–1879.

He died in his home at 835 S. Negley Avenue, on February 5, 1902, of pneumonia; and was buried at the Homewood Cemetery.