WILSON, Woodrow (christened Thomas), 28th President of the United States: b. Staunton, Va., 28 Dec. 1856. He is the son of Scotch-Irish parents, who had lived in Pennsylvania, Canada and Ohio. James Wilson, his paternal grandfather, emigrated from Ireland in 1807. When young Wilson was about a year old the father, Rev. Joseph Ruggles Wilson, became the pastor of the Presbyterian church in Augusta, Ga., where the family remained till 1870 when Dr. Wilson removed to Columbia, S. C.,
where he was a professor in the Presbyterian
Theological Seminary. Woodrow experienced
some of the terrors of the Civil War when the
people of the town of Augusta daily expected a
visit from Sherman's army, and again in Columbia
where a large part of the city remained a
burnt-over area till the Wilson's moved away to
Wilmington, N. C, in 1875. Woodrow's early
training was received in private schools in
Augusta and Columbia, and from his father and
grandfather, Dr. Thomas Woodrow, of Columbus, Ohio, the latter being a devotee of the ancient classics and frequently in the Wilson home. From this Presbyterian home, Woodrow went to Davidson College, North Carolina, a staunch Presbyterian college, in the autumn of 1874, where he remained a year. But in the autumn of 1875 he went to Princeton where the father had studied theology and where the great Presbyterian leaders of the country were wont to live and teach.
At Princeton, Wilson took rank as a leader
among his fellows, attained a fair standing in
his class, but made it plain to all that wide reading
and close study of public affairs were his
chief interests. He and his family were already
close observers of British politics, Gladstone
being a hero in their circle. Wilson showed this
interest in a remarkable article published, while
he was still an undergraduate, in the
International Review, in which the germ of his first
book was uncovered. He was graduated in 1879
and the next year went to the University of
Virginia to study law. There he took a law
degree in 1881 and early in 1882 settled in
Atlanta to practise his profession. There he probably
did not make his mark as a lawyer; but
he continued his study of government and politics, as illustrated in the workings of Congress. True to his bent, he abandoned the law and entered Johns Hopkins University in 1883 where he wrote his first book, ‘Congressional Government,’ published in 1885. The same autumn he began teaching history and political economy in Bryn Mawr College and the next year, somewhat against his wishes, he took his examinations at Johns Hopkins and was awarded the degree of doctor of philosophy, then so highly prized among college teachers everywhere. In 1888 he went to Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., as professor of history and political economy. There he gained a grip upon student life and opinion that marked all his later educational career. But the popularity of ‘Congressional Government’ and the importance of its criticism of American governmental practices were making him a national and even international reputation. At Wesleyan he wrote a review of Bryce's ‘American Commonwealth,’ which brought him into close friendly relations with that eminent Englishman. In this review one sees the reflection of a keen historical mind and independent thinker.