California Biographies

Transcribed by Peggy Hooper

This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives 
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm

Source:
History of the state of California and biographical record of the San Joaquin 
Valley, California. An historical story of the state's marvelous growth from 
its earliest settlement to the present time.
Prof. James Miller Guinn , A. M.
The Chapman Publishing Co., Chicago 1905
Notes: Missing Page: 865-866,983-984,1175-1176


ALEXANDER LOGAN WILSON. M. D. Among the well known physicians and surgeons 
of Tulare is Alexander Logan Wilson, M. D., who by his devotion to his work and the careful 
study and diagnosis of the various diseases that have come under his observation, has been  
exceptionally successful in his professional career, and has gained a wide reputation for skill 
and ability. By means of thrift and good management he has accumulated some means. A son 
of A. M. Wilson, he was born January 31, 1860, in Randolph county, Ill., near New Palestine, 
of English ancestry. Grandfather Wilson, who was born and reared in London, England, later 
settled in New York City. His son, A. M., was born in the new world and spent the first ten 
years of his life here. Running away from home then, he sailed on a merchant vessel to 
London. There, joining a whaler, he followed the seas for a number of years, and in this way 
circumnavigated the globe several times. Retiring from that occupation, he settled in Illinois 
when about twenty-three years old, and became a citizen of prominence. He bought land 
near New Palestine and carried on general farming during the remainder of his life. In 1861 
he enlisted in the Thirtieth Illinois Volunteer Infantry, being first a member of Company C, 
but afterwards of Company I, and served until the close of the war. He was present at the 
siege of Vicksburg, marched with Sherman to the sea. and was mustered out at Washington 
after the grand review. Pie was promoted from time to time, receiving commissions from both 
Gov. Richard Yates and Gov. Richard Oglesby, becoming major of his regiment. He married 
Susan Young, who was born in Illinois, coming from an old and honored family, and they be- 
came the parents of eight sons and four daughters, and of these six boys and two girls are 
living, Alexander L. being the eighth child. The eldest son, Ulric, in 1861, when but seventeen 
years old, enlisted for three months, and at the expiration of that term joined the Thirtieth Illi- 
nois Volunteer Infantry and served under his father till the close of the conflict. Two of the 
sons, John and Edwin, are prosperously employed in farming in Tulare county. 

Brought up on the home farm, Alexander Logan Wilson attended first the district schools 
of New Palestine, and was afterwards graduated from the Sparta high school. Entering then 
the Missouri Medical College, he was graduated from there with the degree of M. D. in 1884, 
and at once began the practice of his profession in Appleton, Cape Girardeau county, Mo. Suc- 
ceeding well, he remained there eleven years. In 1895 Dr. Wilson located in Tulare, Cal, and in 
the years that have since elapsed has built up a substantial and remunerative general practice. 
He is also surgeon for the Santa Fe Railroad Company, having the medical and surgical 
charge of the Tulare district. The doctor is also identified with the agricultural prosperity of this 
section of the county. Six miles south of Tulare he owns a well improved ranch containing three 
hundred and eighty acres, through which the Tule river passes, and from which he secured 
water for irrigation, having his own ditch systern. He makes a specialty of dairying, has one 
half of his farm planted to alfalfa and has a good orchard of twenty acres. 

In Appleton, Mo., Dr. Wilson married Emma Lang, a native of that place, and they have four 
children : Maud, Delia, Edgar and Murray. The doctor is prominent in medical, fraternal 
and political circles. He is a member and expresident of the Tulare County Medical Society ; 
a member of the San Joaquin Medical Society; of the Pacific Coast Association of Railway Sur- 
geons ; is United States Pension Examiner; is a member of Olive Branch Lodge No. 269, F. & 
A. M.: of Tulare Chapter No. 71, R. A. M. ; and is a member and medical examiner of the 
Ancient Order of United Workmen, the Woodmen of the World and the Independent Order 
of Foresters. Politically he is a steadfast Republican. Mrs. Wilson is a member of the 
Methodist Episcopal Church.