The family settled in Mahaska County, Iowa, in 1853, where Wilson attended primary school.
His family moved near New Virginia in 1860, and Wilson joined them there the next year, as the American Civil War began.
He subsequently passed the Indianola bar in 1869 and began his legal career in Osceola.
In 1882, Wilson was named to a commission convened by the United States Department of the Interior to decide on a location for a post office in Council Bluffs.
He later moved to Washington, D.C. to work in the federal government, which included a presidential appointment by Benjamin Harrison to serve within the Department of the Interior.