Walter Everett Wilson, senator from the Twentieth district of Kansas, secretary of the Kansas State Bankers' Association, and cashier of the Farmers' State Bank of Washington, was born in the city of Manhattan, Kan., on August 21, 1871, a son of Charles L. and Garrie M. (Sanborn) Wilson. The elder Wilson was born near Charleston, W. Va., in 1841, and became a resident of Kansas in 1856, when he located on land about six miles east of Manhattan, where he engaged in farming and stock raising. On the breaking out of the Civil war, he enlisted, at Fort Riley, in Company L, Eleventh Kansas infantry, serving throughout the war, and was mustered out at Fort Leavenworth. On completion of his military service he returned to his farm and resumed farming, an occupation he followed until his death, which occurred in 1900. He married when a young man Garrie M. Sanborn, a native of New Hampshire, now a resident of Topeka.

Walter Everett Wilson was reared on the home farm and received his early education in the district schools of Riley county. Subsequently, he was a student in the Manhattan schools, and was graduated from the Concordia High School, entered Kansas University and was graduated in the class of 1893. On attaining his degree, he secured a position with a retail drug firm at Concordia, and remained there until 1895, when he established a drug store in Washington, an enterprise which proved successful and which he conducted until 1904, when he was elected cashier of the Farmers' State Bank, an institution which he had assisted in organizing. The history of this bank is the history of Mr. Wilson's identification with the financial life of Washington county. Established with a capital of $25,000, its business has been of sound and continuous growth; it has an earned surplus of $15,000, and deposits of $150,000, and it has always paid satisfactory dividends to its stockholders. In the organization, development and administration of the business of this institution Mr. Wilson has been the dominant executive, and to his progressiveness, energy and resourcefulness is due the strength and high reputation of the organization. He is known to the banking fraternity as a discriminating financier, and one who brought the administrative policy of his bank up to the point of highest efficiency. He was honored with election to the office of secretary of the Kansas State Bankers' Association in 1908, and in this capacity has proven a useful and conscientious officer. Since reaching his majority, he has been a consistent advocate of the principles and policies of the Republican party, and was honored by election to the State senate from the Twentieth district in 1912. While his party was in the minority during the session of 1913, he was concerned with important legislation and was recognized by his colleagues as one of the active and energetic members of his party therein. He has attained the Scottish Rite degree in Masonry, and is a member of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks, and the Knights of Pythias. He is also a member of Sigma Nu fraternity. He has served for several years as secretary of the board of trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church of his home city.

Mr. Wilson married, on June 2, 1897, Miss Margaret M. Jacobs, daughter of Dr. William and Gusta D. (Bates) Jacobs, of Hanover, Kan. Mrs. Wilson was born at Pawnee, Neb., September 18, 1875, and is a graduate of the Washington High School. Her father is a native of Missouri, and her mother of Maine. Her parents located in Hanover in 1876, where her father practiced his profession for many years. He was elected treasurer of Washington county in 1882, and reëlected in 1884. He retired from practice in 1904 and now resides in Washington, having as a member of his family, his wife's mother, now aged seventy-eight. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are the parents of one son, Walter William, born December 19, 1903. Mrs. Wilson is a woman of culture and refinement, popular in the social circles of her home county in which she is a leader, and the Wilson residence is known for its gracious hospitality.