Wilson, Henry Thomas

Henry Thomas Wilson, born in Noble County, Ohio, on December 10, 1862, was a prosperous viticulturist who established himself in Fresno County, California. The son of John B. Wilson and Elizabeth Mendenhall, he moved with his family to Pike County, Missouri, in 1869, where he was raised on a farm and attended local public schools. He remained on the family farm to assist his mother until his marriage on February 28, 1886, near Bowling Green, Missouri, to Oda L. Van Noy, the daughter of Nathan D. Van Noy and Julia A. Henton. After farming in Missouri for two decades, Henry and his wife relocated to Fresno in 1906, joining his brother Reuben who was already successfully engaged in viticulture.

Upon settling in Fresno, Henry began managing his brother’s twenty-acre vineyard before expanding his operations to lease and manage as many as eighty acres of land. In July 1918, he purchased his own forty-acre ranch on Coalinga Road west of Fresno, where he cultivated alfalfa and Thompson seedless grapes supported by electric pumping plants. Together with his wife, he raised nine children: Mattie A., Bessie, John B., Cynthia, George, Nathan, Lowell, Reuben, and Harold. A member of the Modern Woodmen of America and the Christian Church, Henry built a successful agricultural enterprise while earning lasting respect as an industrious citizen in his community.