Background
Wilson, Edmund was born on December 15, 1863 in Shrewsbury, Monmouth Company, New Jersey, United States. Son of Review thaddeus and Charlotte Ann W.
Wilson, Edmund was born on December 15, 1863 in Shrewsbury, Monmouth Company, New Jersey, United States. Son of Review thaddeus and Charlotte Ann W.
He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and entered Princeton University in 1881. He graduated in 1885 and studied law at Columbia Law School.
He was the father of literary critic Edmund Wilson. In his senior year, he led a rebellion against the faculty and was "rusticated" from the university, made to live in Kingston, New Jersey. He entered into partnership with Nevius in 1898.
In 1903 Wilson was retained by the United States Attorney General William Henry Moody as special assistant in Justice Department cases against New Jersey bank officials in violation of the National Banking Acting.
He served on the State Board of Education, and in June 1907 was appointed to the State Board of Railroad Commissioners. He resigned from the Railroad Commission when he was appointed Attorney General of New Jersey on November 17, 1908 by Republican Governor John Franklin Fort after the resignation of Robert H. McCarter.
He was appointed for a full term in 1909 and continued to serve under Fort"s Democratic successor, Woodrow Wilson (no relation to Edmund). The indictments were made using a little-known law providing for grand juries to be drawn by specially appointed "elisors" in order to avoid influence from the Atlantic County sheriff, who was suspected of hand-selecting the grand jury lists.
Wilson married Helen Mather Kimball (April 20, 1865 – February 1951) in 1892.
Their only child, Edmund Wilson, Junior. (born May 8, 1895 in Red Bank), was a noted writer and literary critic. According to biographer Lewis M. Dabney, Edmund Junior. was influenced by his father"s broad-minded social and political outlook.
He died upon his return to Red Bank.
He had a wide variety of friends unusual for an upper-middle-class WASP of his time, including blacks and Jews. On occasion he would even bring a Socialist friend home to dinner." Among Edward Senior"s close friends was Sigmund Eisner (great-grandfather of Walt Disney Chief Executive Officer Michael Eisner), with whom he worked to improve the Red Bank school system.
During Wilson"s term as Attorney General, dozens of influential members of the Atlantic County Republican machine were prosecuted for corruption, including longtime Atlantic City boss Louis Kuehnle.