As a pioneer in the fruit shipping business in Placer Co., Mr. Wilson must be given credit for having the foresight and keen business acumen to start a new industry and prove it from the beginning to be a profitable one. . .With his little office in the Railroad Express shed, and a wheelbarrow for delivery, for he did not even have a horse and cart when he entered the fruit trade, he met the arrival of trains in the Newcastle yards, shipping out fruit until businesses grew and he finally sent from Newcastle, Placer County’s first solid carload of fruit, which was consigned to Denver, Colo. with freight charges of $900.
A native of Ireland, born August 15, 1828 at Lurgen, County Armagh, the son of Oliver Wilson and officer in the English Army. William, served an apprenticeship on board the British ship, Thetis for four years. . .he served on the Uncle Sam when cholera broke out on board and 900 people died. . .many and wide were his experiences as he sailed on different ships and touched at various ports, and learned much of different countries and their inhabitants, and this, no doubt, contributed to his originality of mind and led him to embark on an absolutely new business venture when he did settle down and become a “landlubber”.
He settled in Newcastle in 1865. He engaged in mining, but . . .became the owner of a home and one acre of ground in town. . .he planted fruit trees which were soon to bring him. . .$1000 per year. He bought more land and purchased fruit of his neighbors to satisfy his growing trade and thereby laid the foundation of the present-day fruit shipping house of W. H. Wilson & Son, Inc.
Mr. Wilson died October 26, 1911 on the Wilson ranch near Newcastle, leaving two children, Mary J. Madden and W. J. Wilson.