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Biographical History of Cherokee County, Iowa
W. S. Dunbar & Co., Chigago - 1889

[page 463-464]

    JOHN C. WILSON, the leading photographer of Cherokee County,
    Iowa, established himself in business there in the spring of
    1872, and may therefore justly claim to be one of the pioneer
    business men of the county as well as of the town of Cherokee.
    His work speaks more forcibly than the pen, for specimens of
    his artistic skill may be found in nearly every home in Chero-
    kee and adjoining counties.  Concerning his earlier career, it
    may be said that he is a native of Canada, born in the quaint
    city of Osgood, July 18, 1848.  His father, ANDREW WILSON, a
    native of Scotland, was a farmer by occupation.  His mother,
    ELIZA (FOSTER) WILSON, was born in County Cavan, Ireland, and
    died in 1862.  JOHN C. is the fourth of a family of nine chil-
    dren, four of whom survive.  His school days were spent in
    Ottawa, Canada, where he remained until 1862.  At the age of
    fourteen years he went to Ogdensburg, New York, where he re-
    mained until 1870, and in that year he came to Cherokee, Iowa.
    While a resident of Ogdensburg he began the study of his art
    under the tutorship of JAMES M. DOW; he there acquired a fair
    knowledge of the business in its various departments, and at
    the end of five years he formed a partnership with his employer,
    the firm name being DOW & WILSON, which existed until the fall
    of 1869.  Upon coming to Cherokee, Iowa, Mr. WILSON became a
    member of the grocery dealers in the place; when the firm sold
    out, and Mr. WILSON entered the employ of F. W. HUXFORD as clerk
    in a general store, where he remained one year.  In May, 1872,
    he opened the doors of his art gallery, and ten years later we
    find him erecting one of the best brick business blocks in the
    place; it is a two-story structure, 24x80 feet; the first floor
    is occupied by a grocery owned by HARPER Brothers, and a portion
    of the second floor is rented for an office, Mr. WILSON using
    the rest of the floor as a photograph gallery.  He does excel-
    lent work in plain photographs and life-size portraits in India
    ink, oil or water colors.  Mr. WILSON was united in marriage in
    1875 to Miss CARRIE L. BATES, a native of Winnebago County,
    Illinois, and a daughter of A. B. and SOPHIA BATES, natives of
    New England.  Mr. and Mrs. WILSON have been blessed by the birth
    of four children, three of whom are living: BESSIE MAY, SOPHIA C.
    (deceased), CLINTON B., and YOLANDE OLIVETTE.  Politically every
    intelligent man in the free country has some choice of party, and
    Mr. WILSON'S is with the Republicans, with whom he is an active
    worker.  He has been a member of the Cherokee Town Council for
    two terms, and is ever alive to the business interests of the
    place.  He belongs to Speculative Lodge, No. 307, A.F. & A.M.;
    to Burning Bush Chapter, No. 90, R.A.M., and to Crusade Comman-
    dery, No. 39, K.T.  He is a member of the First Presbyterian
    Church of Cherokee, Iowa.  Mr. WILSON has succeeded well in the
    different enterprises he has undertaken, and much credit is due
    him, for he began with nothing but a will and a determination
    to win.  He now owns considerable town property and a good farm
    in Silver Township, consisting of eighty acres.

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