John Wilson (June 10, 1826 – September 15, 1900)[1] was an Irish-born pioneer of the American West, a successful businessman in Portland, Oregon, United States, where he was a prominent civic leader, an avid collector of books, and a philanthropist.
A native of Ardee, Ireland, Wilson showed an early proclivity for learning in diverse fields and considered a career in the priesthood before deciding to emigrate to the United States.
Wilson decided to leave California and move to Oregon after a chance meeting in San Francisco with early Portland pioneer and promoter Benjamin Stark in 1850.
Wilson later recalled in an unpublished memoir "If I remained there all my life I would not be better off than the wealthiest of the neighbors...Poverty was their wealth...I concluded to go to Portland and cast my lot there.
Following employment as a clerk in Raleigh's dry-goods store and as a bookkeeper for T.J. Dryer's Weekly Oregonian, Wilson was hired by the successful merchant Cicero Hunt Lewis in 1854.
In 1857, he formed a three-way partnership with Leland Wakefield of San Francisco and John Connor who ran a second Wilson store in Albany, Oregon.
Wilson's business consisted of purchasing agricultural produce from the far-flung farms of the Willamette River Valley for re-sale in Portland or shipment to San Francisco.