Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography/Wilson, John Laird

WILSON, John Laird, journalist, b. in Croft- head, Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, Scotland, 20 Sept., 1832. He is the eldest son of Alexander Wilson, an architect and surveyor. He was gradu- ated at the University of Glasgow in 1852, studied at the Theological hall of the United Presbyterian church in Edinburgh, and was licensed as a preacher of the gospel in 1857. In the same year he accepted a call to the west of Scotland. After several years' successful work he resigned this charge, on account of feeble health, and went to Egypt, where he re- gained his strength. In the summer of 1866 Mr. Wilson came to this country, and was on the edi- torial staff of the New York " Herald " before the close of the year. In 1874 he retired from the " Herald," and, at the head of a joint-stock com- pany, established the New York "Scotsman," but the following year he abandoned the enterprise. He has contributed largely to periodicals, and has published "The Battles of the Civil War" (2 vols., New York, 1878), and "John WyclifTe, Patriot and Reformer — a Biography" (1884). He is now pre- paring a history of the Huguenots.