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John Frederick
Wilson, their fourth child, was born in 1872 in Santa Rosa, Ca. He went East in
1881 to live with his father for a while in New England. He learned the shoe
making trade there, but returned to California, and in Napa formed a
partnership, known as Firestone and Wilson, which was a shoemaking business
where they made shoes by hand. While there he started to Napa College, which
later, while he was there, became College of the Pacific after merging with the
Pacific Conservatory of Music in San Jose, and later still became University of
Pacific in Stockton, California. During his time in college he decided to enter
the ministry, was trained to be a medical missionary. In 1899 he went out to
China as a Methodist missionary. He told me that he thought that he saved more
bodies than souls, and at one station, he helped the people to become
financially independent by raising saleable crops. His first wife, Amanda
(Goodrich) Wilson developed an Asian fever and they returned to California.
When she died he married Mrs. Frances Hodges, a widow with two children who he
adopted. After her death, John married Miss Abbie Gilbert who has survived him.
J. F. Wilson loved the Orient, and he loved his ministry. He was a genial host
and he delighted in beauty. He continued his pastoral work almost until his
death in 1951.
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Biographical material on J. F. Wilson from his son, T.
Carroll Wilson.
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