John A. Wilson

Life and Orange County connections

Dated events connected with this person, in date order. See these 4 dated events in the chronology →

1. 1910 John Wilson begins designing UNC's Confederate monument After the monument committee weighed competing designs, it chose Canadian sculptor John Wilson's design for the Confederate soldier statue planned for the UNC campus. Wilson began the work in 1910, using sixteen-year-old Harold Langlois of Boston as his model. People: Francis Preston Venable Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Harold Langlois, John WilsonSearch the index · UNC Libraries: Timeline (A Guide to Resources About UNC's Confederate Monument)
2. March 14, 1911 Bettie Jackson London publishes the design for the campus monument and appeals for the $7,500 Writing from Pittsboro as chairman of the UDC monument committee, Mrs. Henry A. London described the monument designed by the sculptor John Wilson, a soldier above a bronze tablet of the State calling a student from his books, and warned that the chapters had not met their pledges and the unveiling at the semicentennial commencement was in doubt. People: John A. Wilson Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Bettie Jackson London, John WilsonDigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), March 14, 1911, page 1
3. April 1, 1911 The Tar Heel reports the monument's unveiling put off from the 1911 commencement for want of funds The paper reported that the UDC chapters had been unable to fulfill their pledges toward the $7,500, so the monument could not be unveiled at the June 1911 commencement, the fiftieth anniversary of the war's beginning, and would certainly be unveiled in 1912. It was in fact dedicated in June 1913. People: John A. Wilson Place: Chapel HillThe Tar Heel, April 1, 1911, p. 1
4. June 2, 1913 UNC's Confederate Monument is dedicated On the second day of commencement Major H. A. London introduced Governor Craig; Mrs. London presented the monument to the trustees for the UDC, President Francis P. Venable accepted it for the university, and Julian S. Carr spoke for the students of 1861. Carr's speech, which praised the Confederate army and recounted his horsewhipping of a Black woman in the village in 1865, is the part now most remembered. People: Julian S. Carr, John A. Wilson, Locke Craig Place: Chapel Hill · Also named: Bettie Jackson London, Francis P. VenableDigitalNC: The News and Observer (Raleigh), June 3, 1913, page 1