Thomas E. Wilson
American businessman (1868-1958)
Thomas E. Wilson (July 11, 1868 – August 4, 1958) was a Canadian-born American businessman. In 1926, he created one of the most recognizable sports brand names in the world, known as Wilson Sporting Goods. He served as President and Chairman of the Board of Wilson & Co for 35 years.
Early life
Thomas Edward Wilson was born on a farm near London, Ontario, Canada, on July 22, 1868 to Scottish parents, Moses and Mary Ann Wilson (née Higgins). He was one of eight children. The family immigrated to the United States when Thomas was nine years old, settling in Chicago, Illinois. As a young man, he worked as a railroad car checker in the city’s bustling stockyards.
Career
Wilson spent 25 years working his way up the ranks of Morris & Co, becoming Vice-President of the packing house in 1906, and president in 1913 following the death of its founder, Edwin Morris. In 1916, bankers succeeded in luring Wilson away from Morris & Company, in order to run a failing New York-based meat packer Sulzberger & Sons. Originally founded by Ferdinand Sulzberger 1853 as Schwartzchild & Sulzberger, it was often called S&S for short.
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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas E. 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.