Hiram Wilson Papers

Hiram Wilson was born on September 25, 1803, in Ackworth, New Hampshire, the son of John Thomas Wilson (1767-1848) and Mary Polly McCoy (1768-1813). He had two brothers - Gilman (1798-1875) and Andrew (1799-1880). He attended the Oneida Institute, an institution that incorporated both education and manual labor and embraced the literal concepts of perfectionism and Bible communism; and subsequently, he studied theology at Lane Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. When a group of theological students, called the “Lane Rebels,” protested against efforts by the School’s trustees to put down their abolitionist activities, Wilson joined the other three rebels. Upon hearing that the theological students threatened to leave Lane en masse, the Oberlin Collegiate Institute invited the “Lane Rebels” north to the school’s recently created Theological Department to advance the “cause of Christ” and to fulfill the spirit of equality coming off of the American Revolution. Thirty-two students came to Oberlin, including Hiram Wilson. He was among those who received a theological degree from Oberlin in 1836. That same year, revivalist minister and theological professor Charles Grandison Finney (1792-1875) gave Wilson twenty-five dollars to travel to Canada West and do educational work and training among thousands of fugitive slaves or refugees there.

Wilson returned to Canada the following spring as a delegate of the American Anti-Slavery Society. He then began raising and borrowing money in order to establish an educational institute for free Black people to prepare them for full citizenship and an integrated society. In 1838, he married Hannah Maria Hubbard (1810-1847) and they had four children - John Joel (1840-1919), Lydia Maria (1842-1862), Mary Ellen (1844-1865), and George Sturges (1847-1868). By 1839, Wilson had established ten schools and recruited 14 teachers. Oberlin graduates filled a large percentage of those teaching posts. His work, which adapted social theory to native facts and conditions, gained the attention of abolitionist Gerrit Smith (1797-1874) of Rochester, New York, and Quaker philanthropist James Cannings Fuller (1793-1847) of Skaneateles, New York. In particular, Gerrit Smith's Rochester committee raised funds to supply Wilson’s schools with Bibles, clothing, and money. The bulk of the money raised by Fuller established the foundation of the British-American Institute, established by Wilson, Fuller, and formerly enslaved person Josiah Henson (1789-1877) at Dawn, near Chatham, Canada West. The intent of this Black settlement institute—situated on about 200 acres of land—was to integrate labor and education and support formerly enslaved individuals' transition to freedom. The institute opened on December 12th, 1841.

Until 1849 Wilson acted as one of the leaders of the institute, except for a visit to England during the World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1843. Although the Dawn settlement had a profitable and successful lumber industry and substantial farmland, the Institute itself suffered a series of setbacks owing to internal conflicts and financial instability. Prejudice in Canada had also become more evident following the increased visibility of Black people, along with the arrival of growing numbers of White refugees, seeking employment and other settlement opportunities in this supposed “Promised Land” to emancipate slaves. Wilson resigned from the institute in 1849 and established another fugitive sanctuary in St. Catharines. Under the auspices of the American Missionary Association, he opened a school there with his second wife. He housed approximately 125 refugees in his own home between 1850 and 1856. He also established a Sunday school in St. Catharines, but he abandoned his labors in 1861, possibly because of political or financial issues.

Hiram Wilson died in St. Catharines on April 16th, 1864.