In 1810, when Reuben Wilson settled in what is now the Town of Wilson, all Niagara County, (as we know it today) was then the Town of Cambria. The Town of Porter was formed from Cambria in 1812, and included all the present Town of Wilson which was carved out of Porter on April 10, 1818.
The Village of Wilson was incorporated by an act of the State Legislature on May 11, 1858. Named for its founder, the little settlement was ideally located where the Tuscarora River, (Twelve Mile Creek) joins Lake Ontario, twelve miles east of Old Fort Niagara.