Wilson was natural Jeremiah Jones Colbath around Farmington, New Hampshire. He was adopted by Henry Wilson & his married woman. Within 1833 he had his title legally changed per law-makers to Henry Wilson. He moved to Natick, Massachusetts in 1833 and became the cobbler. He attended many local academies, & as well taught school around Natick, in which he late engaged in the manufacture of shoes. He was the member of the state law-makers between 1841 and 1852, & was creator and editor of the Boston Republican from either 1848 to 1851.

Wilson was an abortive candidate for election inside 1852 to Congress. He was the delegate to the state constitutional convention around 1853 and was an unsuccessful candidate for Governor of Massachusetts in 1853. Inside 1855 he was elected to the United States Senate by a coalition of Free-Soilers, Americans, and Democrats to fill a vacancy from either the resignation of Edward Everett. He was reelected as a Republican in 1859, 1865 and 1871, and served from either January 31, 1855, to March 3, 1873, when he resigned to be Vice President. He was Chair of a Committee in Military Affairs & a Militia & the Committee in Military Affairs. Around 1861 he raised and commanded a Twenty-22nd Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Foot.

Wilson was elective Vice President of the United States on the Republican ticket by owning President Ulysses S. Grant and served from March 4, 1873, until his death in the United States Capitol Building at Washington, DC during which time he published History of the Rise and Fall of Slave Power. He was interred within Old Dell Park Cemetery, Natick.

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