John Wilson

John Wilson (June 10, 1826 – September 15, 1900) was a successful businessman in Portland, Oregon, United States, where he was a prominent civic leader, an avid collector of books, and a philanthropist. Today Wilson is principally remembered as a great supporter of the Library Association of Portland, precursor of the Multnomah County Library, to which he donated his entire collection of over 8,000 volumes at his death in September 1900. Many of his more important volumes continue to form the core of the collection of the John Wilson Special Collection, named in his honor.

His half brother was the Australian naturalist Alexander Greenlaw Hamilton. Wilson showed an interest in a career in the ministry before deciding to emigrate to the United States. Wilson arrived in California in 1848. He did a brief stint with the U.S. Army and unsuccessfully tried his hand at prospecting during the height of the gold rush. Wilson decided to leave California and move to Oregon after a chance meeting in San Francisco with early Portland pioneer and promoter Benjamin Stark in 1850. Stark convinced Wilson, as well as many others, that Oregon offered significant advantages for young men of Wilson's circumstances. Following their meeting, Wilson booked passage to Astoria on Capt. George H. Flanders' ship. Wilson settled in the St. Helens, Oregon, area where he soon found employment but found things "very dull". Wilson later recalled in an unpublished memoir "If I remained there all my life I would not be better off than the wealthiest of the neighbors...Poverty was their wealth...I concluded to go to Portland and cast my lot there." The gift provided the impetus for the construction of a new library building even though the Library Association had just completed construction of a large Italianate-style building after years of fund-raising in 1891.