1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Wilson, James (administrator)

WILSON, JAMES (1835–  ), American administrator, was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on the 16th of August 1835. In 1851 he was taken by his parents to America, where they originally settled in Connecticut, but in 1855 removed to Tama county Iowa. He studied at Iowa College, and in 1861 became a farmer. He was a Republican member of the state House of Representatives in 1868–1873, and was its speaker in 1872–1873, and he was a member of the National House of Representatives from 1873 to 1877 and again in 1883–1885. From 1870 to 1874 he was a regent of the State University of Iowa; in 1877–1883 was a member of the Iowa State Railway Commission, and from 1890 to 1897 was professor of agriculture at the Iowa Agricultural College, at Ames, and director of the State Agricultural Experiment Station. In March 1897 he became Secretary of Agriculture in President McKinley’s Cabinet and served into President Taft’s administration, holding office longer than any other cabinet officer since the organization of the government.