The Life of PETER MITCHEL WILSON
Genealogical and Biographical Memoranda
Compiled and Edited by Mrs. E. E. MOFFITT.
PETER MITCHEL WILSON.
Mr. Wilson’s article in this number of “THE NORTH CAROLINA BOOKLET,"
entitled “George Edmund Badger, Secretary of the United States Navy,” throws more light on a subject which will be read with interest by all our readers and to
render it more interesting is to know something more of our native North Carolinian who has, years ago, removed to Washington City. He is now in the service of the United
States Senate, where he has been since 1893, and is now its Chief Clerk.
Mr. Wilson was born at Warrenton, N. C., in 1848. He was the eldest son of Thomas Epps Wilson of Virginia, and Janet Mitchel, his wife, who was the great-granddaughter of
Colonel William Person of Bute County, and a great—great niece of General Thomas Person, who was appointed, for his patriotic services, one of the first brigadier generals by the State Congress, and was complimented afterwards by having a county named for him. His liberality towards the University, in bestowing a munificent donation, caused a hall to be erected at Chapel Hill, which still bears his name.
Mr. Wilson received his early education in the Warrenton Male Academy and the Bingham School until they were closed by the instructors becoming captains in the Confederate Army; he was two years at the University of North Carolina just before its suspension; he took the degree of M. A. at the University of Edinburgh. He was Reading Clerk of the State Senate in 1876-’77 ; was city editor of the Raleigh Observer under E. J. Hale, William L. Saunders and Capt. Sam’l A. Ashe, filling all these positions satisfactorily. For a time he was Secretary to the State Board of Agriculture, an under it represented the State at the Atlanta, Boston, New Orleans and Chicago Expositions. Through his efficiency, stalwart honor, exactness and affability, Mr. Wilson’s services
were continually in demand. After his appointment as Assistant Clerk of the Disbursing Ofiice of the United States Senate he found the work suited to his taste, therefore, he
settled at Washington.
Mr. Wilson married Miss Ellen Williams Hale, eldest daughter of the late Peter M. and Mary Badger Hale, and they have one daughter, Mary Badger Wilson.
Mr. Wilson’s advantages for education were unusually good; with parents ambitious for the best the State afforded, Warrenton Male Academy, Bingham’s, the University, and Edinburgh, he improved his opportunities and the positions he has held attest his success. The schools which he had the privilege of attending were among the oldest in the State. Warrenton Male Academy dates from 1786, when an Act was passed by the Legislature for erecting an Academy for the education of youth; Bingham’s School began as early as 1800, and continues to this day, and the University was provided for in the Constitution of 1776, and chartered in 1789. The growth of all these institutions has been steady and sure, excepting a shortage of students during the period of the War Between the States. Mr. Wilson is an ardent advocate of these North Carolina institutions, and uses his influence for their continued success.