Benjamin Wilson (congressman)

Benjamin Wilson ( born April 30, 1825 Wilson Burg, Harrison County, Virginia; † April 26, 1901 in Clarksburg, West Virginia ) was an American politician. Between 1875 and 1883 he represented the first electoral district of the state of West Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Career

Benjamin Wilson was born in 1825 in Wilson Castle, which was still part of Virginia at that time. He attended the Northwestern Virginia Academy in Clarksburg and then studied law in Staunton. After his made ​​in 1848 admitted to the bar he began in Clarksburg to work in his new profession. Between 1852 and 1860 he was District Attorney in Harrison County. In 1861 he was part of a commission for the revision of the Constitution of Virginia.

Wilson was a member of the Democratic Party, the Democratic National Convention in 1872, he attended as a delegate. In 1871 he was a member of a meeting on the revision of the Constitution of West Virginia. In 1872 he ran unsuccessfully for Congress. Two years later he was elected in the first district of West Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, where he became the successor of John James Davis on March 4, 1875. After three re- elections he could remain until March 3, 1883 in Congress.

After the end of his time in the House of Representatives Wilson worked from 1885 to 1893 as head of the U.S. Department of Justice. He died on April 26, 1901 in Clarksburg, where he was also buried.