Don Benito Wilson (nee Benjamin Davis Wilson) is remembered as the namesake of Mount Wilson, but few know he was the second mayor of Los Angeles, that his landholdings become the sites of Pasadena, Beverly Hills, Culver City, Riverside and more. As Captain Wilson, he fought to defend Los Angeles in the Mexican War of 1846-1847, was taken prisoner and almost executed. Twenty-six State Senators divvy up the district that Benjamin Wilson once represented. As a Los Angeles County supervisor he oversaw a Los Angeles County that included what is today Orange, San Bernardino and Kern Counties. His Wilson College was the predecessor of the mighty University of Southern California. Many of the railroads he helped bring to Southern California still haul freight over the original rights of way that he helped determine. Southern California will perhaps never again see a person who made such a mark on so many different fields as Don Benito Wilson.