JoinCalifornia: Election History for the State of California

Information Home Elected Offices Elections by Decade Longest Service Shortest Service Most & Fewest Votes Uncontested Races Closest Contests Redistricting Recalls
Elections 2026 PREVIEW 2024 General 2024 CD-20 Special 2023 US Senate Appt 2022 General Prior 2020s Elections Elections by Decade
Other Stuff Advanced Search CA Constitution CA in Congress Line of Succession Highest Ranking SCOTUS Cases

[search tips] [advanced search]

Searching tips

  • Enter a candidate's name to find a candidate
  • Enter the name of a political party to find the party and all candidates
  • Enter a date to find an election
  • Enter a year to find all elections within that year

B. D. Wilson

Independent

Picture of B. D. Wilson
Wikipedia
Date Party Office Votes Result
09-05-1855 Democratic SD-01 0 Win
11-03-1868 Independent SD-02 0 Win
Website: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Davis_Wilson
 

Candidate Biography:

Benjamin Davis "Don Benito" Wilson
Born: December 1, 1811 in Wilson County, Tennessee
Married: Ramona Yorba (m. 1844, d. 1849), Margaret Hereford
Child: Four daughters (including Ruth who married George S. Patton Sr.)
Died: March 11, 1878 at Lake Vinyard in Los Angeles, CA

1844-184?: Justice of the Peace, California's Inland Territory (Riverside County area)
1851-1852: Mayor, City of Los Angeles
Previous: Member, Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
1854: Founder, City of San Gabriel
1859: Founder, City of Riverside
1874: Founder, Indiana Colony (later renamed Pasadena, CA)

  • In 1861, Wilson and Phineas Banning donated the land used to build Drum Barracks (Union Army headquarters for California and Arizona during the Civil War).
  • Wilson was the grandfather of General George S. Patton Jr., World War II commander and name-sake for the Patton tank.
     
  • PLACENAME: Mount Wilson, the highest of the San Gabriel Mountains, is named for Mayor Wilson. Wilson led the first "white man's expedition" up the mountain.
  • PLACENAME: Don Benito Fundamental School in Pasadena is named for Wilson.

Source: History of Political Conventions in California, 1849-1892 by Winfield J. Davis (1893)
Source: Legislative Guide... of all the State Officers and Members of the Legislature... by Kean & Dudley (H.S. Crocker and Co.; 1871)