Charles Francis Wilson, son of Charles H. Wilson and Normenia Nancy Tussey, was born December 21, 1886 in Tyrone, Blair County, Pennsylvania, the youngest of seven children. About 1890 the family removed from Pennsylvania to Page County, Iowa settling in the Shenandoah area. The father, Charles H. Wilson, died in 1895 when young Charles was 8 1/2 years of age, and for a time, Charles and his mother lived with his brother, David Wilson and family, in Page County.
Charles attended the Shenandoah, Iowa schools and, upon graduation, was forced to make his own way while helping support his widowed mother. He pursued higher education, working his way through Coe College graduating from that institution in 1910 while lettering in three sports.
He became Superintendent of Colo Schools in Story County for two years and then was as a special agent for St. Paul Fire and Marine Insurance Company. On June 14, 1916 he married Flora Gray Wilson, daughter of Hans F. Wilson and Margaret Jane Whitworth, in Mills County, Iowa. The couple made their home in Nevada and had two children here. Charles remained employed a special agent until about 1923 when he launched his own insurance and real estate business at 604 Lincoln Way in Nevada.
On May 8, 1924, Flora Gray (Wilson) Wilson died in Henderson, Mills County, Iowa. Charles was a widower with two children under age 6. Mr. Wilson remarried on February 10, 1931 to Story County native Myrtle Blanche “Blanche” Hilburn, daughter of Jabez Carr Hilburn and Rosa Hyden, in Cedar Rapids, Linn County, Iowa.
C. F. Wilson served two terms as mayor of Nevada from 1929 to 1932. He served as secretary of the Nevada School Board for 20 years and was a member of a number of community and fraternal organizations. He ran his real estate and insurance business in Nevada for 37 years retiring in 1961 doing only income tax work after that.
Charles Francis “Woody” Wilson died on July 3, 1964 in Nevada, Story County, Iowa. He was survived by his second wife and two children, Sarah Margaret Wilson and James Francis Wilson.