Immigrant Farm Boy to Ag's Top Job

Tom Vilsack is in his third term as Secretary of Agriculture. At 10 years, his tenure is a record but still well short of the longest serving head of USDA. A farm boy from Iowa holds that distinction as being the longest serving cabinet member in U.S. history. 

Colleen Bradford Krantz looks at the story of Tama Jim Wilson. 

The easy-to-miss sign along a central Iowa gravel road just west of the town of Traer runs a bit light on details, declaring only: “‘Tama Jim’ Wilson Home Site and Farm.”

But most in this area of Tama County already know the details. It’s the rest of the nation that may have forgotten the immigrant farm boy whose arrival in the Midwest in the mid-1800s took him down a path of public service ending with the federal government’s top food production job: U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.

Leo Landis, State Historical Society: “I think most…today have no idea who Tama Jim Wilson is, and yet he was the longest serving Secretary of Agriculture in United States history. Our current secretary, Tom Vilsack, has a long way to go to catch Tama Jim.”

“Tama Jim” – whose real name was James Wilson – held that position for 16 years -- the longest of any  any cabinet position.

Leo Landis, State Historical Society: “Tama Jim Wilson was a transformative Secretary of Agriculture, a transformative Iowan.”

The nickname “Tama Jim” was a term of endearment associated with his home county earned after being elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

George Kadrmas, board member, Traer Historical Museum, Traer, Iowa: “When he was elected, there were two James Wilsons from Iowa that were elected to the U.S. House of Representatives. So they nicknamed him Tama Jim and other other Jim Wilson was Jefferson Jim from Jefferson County, Iowa.”

His family emigrated from Scotland in 1851, the year James, the oldest of 14 children, turned 16. The Wilsons lived in Connecticut for a few years before moving to Iowa in 1855 to buy farmland.

George Kadrmas, board member, Traer Historical Museum, Traer, Iowa: “It was before the town of Traer was formed…They came to an area which is west of Traer and was settled by a group of Scottish families…He did attend school but had limited opportunity for education…He did go to Grinnell College for a short period of time. And he was, as I understand it, he did a lot of reading and self study.”

In the early 1860s, Wilson acquired his own farm, became editor of the local newspaper in Traer, and married Esther Wilbur. He held several local government offices, joining the group that established the Republican party in Iowa. By 1867, he had been elected to the Iowa General Assembly, eventually serving as Speaker of the House.

Leo Landis, State Historical Society: “So when he’s in the Iowa House in the 1860s, he’s a founder and leader of that party. And the thing to understand, it’s part of those reform movements….the suffrage issues, anti-slavery issues, which is what the Republic Party is: to…not allow slavery in the territories.”

In 1873, Tama Jim was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served two successive terms before returning to his Iowa farm. Wilson returned to Washington for a final term that ran from 1883 to 1885.

Leo Landis, State Historical Society: “He’s a critic of the state agricultural college in Ames and the way it’s teaching its student about agriculture.”

It was that criticism and his desire to improve farming that led to his appointment in 1891 as head of what was then the Iowa Agricultural College’s experiment station. He was also a professor of agriculture at the campus that became Iowa State University.

George Kadrmas, board member, Traer Historical Museum, Traer, Iowa: “There was a strong movement to educate farmers and help them improve their farming practices and productivity.”

Only a year after moving to Ames for the appointment, however, tragedy struck at home. His wife, Esther, then 56, was found dead in a nearby creek.

George Kadrmas, board member, Traer Historical Museum, Traer, Iowa: “It’s not real clear if it was all mental health, but there was a mental aspect to it, and her death was ruled a suicide. It was very tragic at the time.”

Tama Jim Wilson also taught George Washington Carver, whose later fame later as a botanist and horticulturalist would match Wilson’s own. The two kept in touch over the years. In one letter, preserved among Wilson’s personal papers at Iowa State University, Tama Jim wrote:

Letter from June 1897, Wilson to Carver: “You have a magnificent field opened up to you, and it will be your privilege to prepare others to go out and teach, not only among the colored, but you will find the whites ready listeners, and just as soon as the country becomes filled with colored teachers the color line will vanish away so thoroughly that people will wonder what was the matter with the folks of the 19th century, who established color lines rather than lines of merit, worth, and intelligence.”

In 1897, Tama Jim was appointed as the 4th Secretary of Agriculture at the request of President William McKinley. Wilson was with McKinley the day McKinley  was shot in 1901. The wound lead to McKinley’s death eight days later.

Wilson subsequently served under President Theodore Roosevelt and President William Howard Taft.

George Kadrmas, board member, Traer Historical Museum, Traer, Iowa: “He was instrumental in looking at the breadth of what agriculture did and contributed to the country. The fact that we were developing trade with foreign countries, the growth of experimentation, improving farm practices, the Food and Drug Administration, and things like quarantines on livestock diseases…He was looking at all things that agriculture was involved in other than just at the farm gate.”

Leo Landis, State Historical Society: “James Wilson… really does modernize and makes the USDA a relevant cabinet-level department.”

Tama Jim left Washington D.C in 1913 at age 78 and returned to Traer, where he died in 1920.

Through his final years, he continued working with farmers and ranchers, the people he described once in a speech as a class that “works in the sunlight through long days, keeps level heads when others are excited, and reinforces all other classes when they wear out."

By Colleen Bradford Krantz, colleen.krantz@iowapbs.org