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George P. Wilson

American politician (1840-1920)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 23, 2026
Entity authorityQ5543150
Source-derived summary

George Potter Wilson (January 19, 1840 – January 20, 1920) was an American lawyer and politician.

Early life

Wilson was born in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania on January 14, 1840. He studied at Bucknell University and Ohio Wesleyan University before moving to Winona, Minnesota in 1860. He read law in the offices of Lewis & Simpson and William B. Mitchell, a former justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, before being admitted to the bar at Rochester in October 1862.

Political career

Wilson served as assistant secretary of the Minnesota Senate from 1854 to 1855 and as secretary from 1856 to 1857. He served as county attorney for Winona 1865 to 1871. In 1871 Wilson was appointed a United States commissioner on the Southern Pacific Railroad. Wilson served as the member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from the 8th District in 1873.

Wilson served three two-year terms as Minnesota Attorney General, serving from January 9, 1874, to January 10, 1880. In 1898 Wilson was elected to the Minnesota Senate from the 41st district.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “George P. Wilson” as american politician (1840-1920). This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around George, Wilson and American.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1840, 1920, 1860, 1862—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1840-01-19. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with George, Wilson and American providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “George P. Wilson”, the useful work is to connect “american politician (1840-1920)” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q5543150. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1840, 1920, 1860 and 1862.

Critical limits

A concise life account rarely captures disputed attribution, private networks or the changing language used to describe a career. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  • Building a first chronology
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Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

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  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “George P. Wilson”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow George P. Wilson primary sources, George P. Wilson archive and George research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from George P. Wilson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.