soldier, lawyer, judge, tax commissioner, b. Middlefield, Ohio. He moved to Wisconsin in 1860, settling in West Bend where he taught in a local school and read law. During the Civil War he served in the 12th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry (1861-1863), and as an officer of the 58th U.S. Colored Infantry (1862-1865), rising to the rank of lieutenant colonel. He was judge advocate of the Natchez district, and later judge advocate of the Department of Mississippi (1865-1866), leaving the army with the brevet rank of colonel of volunteers (1866). After the war he attended law school in Albany, N.Y., graduated in 1867, and was admitted to the bar. Returning to Wisconsin, Gilson set up a law practice in Fond du Lac (1868), and later served as city attorney and district attorney. A Democrat, he was elected judge of the 4th judicial circuit in 1880, was twice re-elected, and served from 1881 to 1899. In 1899 he was appointed to the Wisconsin Tax Commission, and served as chairman until his resignation in 1911. E. B. Usher, Wis. (8 vols., Chicago, 1914); A. M. Thomson, Political Hist. of Wis. (Milwaukee, 1900); Wis. Reports, 161 (1915), pp. xxxiii xxxix; Fond du Lac Reporter, Sept 21, 1914; N. S. Gilson Papers.

The Wisconsin Historical Society has manuscripts related to this topic. See the catalog description of the Norman S. Gilson Papers for details.

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[Source: Dictionary of Wisconsin biography]