Governor Heard informed Wilson that he considered the three square miles proposed for the new town too much land for a small village and suggested that the tract be reduced.

Originally named "Uncle Sam", Independence had begun in 1852 when the New Orleans, Jackson and Great Northern Railroad began operating through the area.

[3] When Ruffin Pleasant of Shreveport was elected governor in 1916, voters also chose Wilson as agriculture commissioner, a position to which he was reelected to seven times.

Under Wilson, the agriculture department established the Market Bulletin, a newspaper that allowed landowners and farmers a means by which to purchase and sell agriculture-related goods and services.

[6] On June 19, 1933, U.S. Representative Bolivar Edwards Kemp, Sr., of Louisiana's 6th congressional district, died unexpectedly of a heart attack at his home in Amite.

Governor Oscar K. Allen waited until December 1933 to declare that a special election would be held eight days from the date of his announcement.

He defeated Charles O'Brien, the candidate supported by Sam H. Jones, who unseated Long in the gubernatorial runoff contest that year.

[1] Wilson was succeeded in the office on an interim basis by his long-term assistant, Millard Perkins, who did not seek the position in the 1948 election instead won by W. E. Anderson, also of Tangipahoa Parish.

Andedrson was succeeded by Dave L. Pearce of Oak Grove in West Carroll Parish, originally appointed to the vacancy by Governor Earl Long.