Portland Street Names – October 31, 1921 – Wilson

Among the best known of those early pioneers and citizens of Portland for whom streets are named is Dr. R. B. Wilson. W street, in the old alphabetical order running north from Ankeny street, was renamed for him when Portland East Portland were consolidated into one city.

Dr. Wilson was born in Portsmouth, Va., June 12, 1828, and studied medicine in the University of Virginia. The gold rush in 1849 took him to California, where he remained for six months as ship’s surgeon on the steamer Gold Hunter, plying between San Francisco and the Columbia river.

In December, 1850, he visited Portland and became impressed with the promising future of the young city. Almost from the start he was a leading figure in the life of the community. One biographer says of him “He was the first physician of distinguished ability and education in Portland,” and again it remakes that he was a “factor in the social and civic life of early Portland.”

In 1854 Dr. Wilson married Caroline E., eldest daughter of Captain John H. Couch. From this union seven children were born, and Dr. George F. Wilson, one of three sons, still resides in Portland, and like his father, is a physician.

Dr. R. B. Wilson died August 6, 1887.