Historic Hood River
Joe Wilson
Notes
Finally found an image of Joe Wilson, who built the Wilson Reservoir which played such an important role in developing the fruit industry in Hood River.
The caption on the reverse says
Joseph A. Wilson, born in Pennsylvania Oct. 17 1854 English parentage father came to this country in 1828. Joe came to Oregon age 30, graduated from Penn State Normal, taught school until he came to Oregon. Worked on gov’t survey– also helped W. J. Baker plant a commercial Newton orchard of 3 acres on Indian Creek 1888. He then bought property and planted an orchard.
In 1904 he built a million gallon reservoir on the hill above town. He followed surveying for some time lumbering and flour mill.
We know the reservoir he built powered many of the industrial sites in the city, including the refrigeration units in the Union Building. We’ve discussed the importance of this refrigeration in several posts, including this one, this one, this one, and this one.
You can read about how Joe Wilson’s pipeline powered the Hood River’s flour mill in this post from The Hood River Glacier. This post describes how it powered Upson and Snow’s blacksmith shop. And this post describes how Joe Wilson put the first boat on Lost Lake.
Jeffrey Bryant
My Dad, Bob Bryant, later owned the W. J. Baker orchard on Brookside Drive. The Newtown apple trees were still there in the 1970’s.
Natasha Markovich
Wilson Park?
L. E.
It appears that Joseph Wilson traveled to the Klondike in 1898. His wife returned to Pennsylvania where she died a few weeks after giving birth to a son.
Joe made yearly treks back to Pennsylvania and that is where he passed away in 1918.
He was an avid Beaver baseball fan and supplied the players with fresh strawberries and apples.
In 1891 he sold 50 acres at the mouth of Hood River to the Hood River Lumber Co.
He evidently was a champion cribbage player.
He was quite well to do financially but it sounds like he lived in a tent while living in HR.
ArthurB
Wilson Park is on the site of the Wilson Reservoir.