George F. Wilson, Sr. was born on December 7, 1818, at Uxbridge, Massachusetts, the eldest son of Benjamin Wilson and Mercy Craggin. He was a lineal descendant of Roger Wilson of Scrooby, England, who in 1608 went to Leyden, Holland, with Governor Bradford and other Pilgrims, and whose son, John, emigrated to New England in 1651.
Wilson, Sr. remained at home throughout his early youth, helping his father and attending the district schools, but upon reaching his seventeenth birthday he was apprenticed to Welcome and Darius Farnum at Waterford, Massachusetts, to learn the wool-sorting business. He remained three years and not only mastered the trade but also became thoroughly versed in all the mechanical equipment used.
Feeling the need of greater business experience, he spent another year as a bookkeeper in Uxbridge, and in 1840, using his savings, entered the academy in Shelburne Falls, Massachusetts.
Wilson, Sr. was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by Brown University in 1872.
After his graduation, he spent several years teaching at the academy. In 1844 he went to Chicago, Illinois, where he organized the Chicago Academy in the Methodist Episcopal Church at the corner of Clark and Washington Streets. In four years the enrollment was increased from three to two hundred and twenty-five scholars.
For some reason Wilson gave up this work in 1848, returned east to Providence, Rhode Island, and for the next six years was variously employed in manufactures thereabout.
In 1855, however, he entered into a partnership for the manufacture of chemicals with Eben N. Horsford, at that time Rumford Professor of Chemistry at Harvard College, the firm name being George F. Wilson and Company. This undertaking was immediately successful, Horsford determining what products were to be made, and Wilson developing the manufacturing equipment (much of it possessing ingenious mechanical features) for their commercial production. Within two years it became necessary to build a new and larger plant, at East Providence, Rhode Island.
At the same time the firm name was changed to the Rumford Chemical Company. Thereafter until his death Wilson continued at its head, building up a prosperous and extensive business. Aside from the many and varied inventions which he devised for his own establishment, he found time to perfect other inventions, among which were a process of steel manufacture, a revolving paper-pulp boiler, and several improvements in illuminating apparatus for lighthouses. Because of his aptitude for mechanical science and its applications, he was much consulted by others for the solution of mechanical problems. As an avocation he experimented in agriculture and stock breeding, and was actively interested in scientific education.
From 1860 to 1862 he represented Providence in the state legislature, and served on the Providence school committee and town council for a number of years.
George Francis Wilson, Sr. died on January 19, 1883, in Providence County, Rhode Island.
In 1844, George Francis Wilson, Sr. married Clarissa Bartlett, by whom he had six children.
Eben Norton Horsford was an American scientist.
