Born in
Dergalt,
County Tyrone,
Kingdom of Ireland (in modern
Northern Ireland) in 1787, Wilson emigrated in his youth to the United States. He settled in
Philadelphia, where he found work as a printer in the office of the
Aurora, a
Jeffersonian newspaper edited by
William Duane. He rose to the position of foreman, publisher, and then editor. Continuing his journalistic career in
Steubenville, Ohio, he purchased the
Western Herald, which name he changed to
Western Herald & Steubenville Gazette. He became involved in state politics, representing
Jefferson County in the
Ohio House of Representatives in 1816–1817, 1820–1821 and 1821–1822. In 1832, he founded the
Pennsylvania Advocate, a newspaper serving
Pittsburgh; he owned and edited it for a year before turning it over to his oldest son William Duane Wilson. Though not a lawyer, James Wilson served for several years as an associate judge for the Jefferson County common pleas court. Wilson died in Steubenville on 17 October 1850 from an attack of
cholera. He was elected to the Ohio Journalism Hall of Fame in 1933. ==Family==