Woodrow Wilson biography

Synopsis

Early Life

Woodrow Wilson was born Thomas Woodrow Wilson on December 28, 1856, to Jessie Janet Woodrow and Joseph Ruggles Wilson, a Presbyterian minister. Tommy, as he was called in his youth, was the third of four children to grow up in the Wilsons' warm, studious and devout household. The family lived all over the South, moving from Staunton, Virginia to Augusta, Georgia in Tommy’s first year, to Columbia, South Carolina, in 1870, where Reverend Wilson taught at the Columbia Theological Seminary (he began teaching in Wilmington, North Carolina, in 1874).

Witnessing the ravages of the Civil War up close, Reverend Wilson, a Northern transplant, adopted the Confederate cause, and his mother nursed wounded soldiers. Tommy saw Confederate president Jefferson Davis marche through Augusta in chains, and always remembered looking up into the face of the defeated General Robert E. Lee.

Less than stellar in school—scholars now think that Wilson had a form of dyslexia—Reverend Wilson rigorously trained his first son in oratory and debate, which became a particular passion for the boy. He enrolled at nearby Davidson College, but he transferred when his father got a job at Princeton (known as the College of New Jersey until 1896). Wilson went on to study law at the University of Virginia, and earned his Ph.D. in political science and history at Johns Hopkins University. His thesis, Congressional Government, was published, launching a university career, with appointments at Bryn Mawr and Wesleyan.

Wilson's dream job was a professorship at Princeton, which he achieved in 1890, becoming the university's 13th president in 1902. It was largely due to Wilson's efforts that the College of New Jersey evolved into the prestigious Princeton University. In addition to a focus on innovative curriculum upgrades, he was always voted the most popular teacher on campus, renowned for his caring demeanor and high ideals. But it was his oratory skill that brought him renown beyond the university setting. Wilson's first stroke occurred while at Princeton in May 1906, seriously threatening his life.

Political ambitions and university politics had transformed Wilson into a social Democrat, and he was tapped for the governorship of New Jersey in 1910. A determined reformer, his successes made him the darling of Progressives, and he was nominated as the Democratic presidential candidate on the New Freedom platform in 1912.