Robert Wilson

Robert Wilson was an attorney and first County Clerk of Randolph County. He held various offices, and eventually became a United States Senator. Wilson was born near Staunton, Virginia in November 1803. He moved to Howard County, Missouri in 1820 settling in Franklin, Missouri, and taught school. He then moved to Fayette, and served as Postmaster of Fayette. In 1825 Wilson was elected Judge of the Probate Court of Howard County. He then served as served as County Clerk of Randolph County in 1829. Following this he became Circuit Clerk for Howard County a position he held until 1840. In 1837 he was appointed Brigidar General of the State Milita and served during the Mormon War. During this time he studied law under his brother General John Wilson, and in 1840 he was admitted to the bar and took up the practice of law. He moved to Huntsville that year, and he was elected a State Representative in 1844. Wilson relocated to Andrew County in 1852, and became a State Senator in 1854. In 1861 he was a delegate to the State Convention on the topic of secession and was elected Vice President of the convention, and later served as President when General Sterling Price left to lead the Confederate forces of the state. Wilson had been very adament about preserving the Union having called a meeting at his home prior to the convention with the some of the leading men of the state such as Robert Stewart, William Augustus Hall, and Richard Woodson present. He was appointed a United States Senator after the expulsion of Senator Waldo P. Johnson, and served from January 17, 1862, to November 13, 1863. Wilson was nominated to replace Senator Trusten Polk who had passed away and whose term ended March 4, 1863, but John Henderson was elected by the legislature instead. He then took up farming, and died in Marshall, Missouri on May 10, 1870 at the home of his nephew Capt. Ben Wilson. He was buried in Mount Mora Cemetery in Saint Joseph.