Woodrow Wilson, son of Joseph Ruggles Wilson and Janet "Jessie" Woodrow Wilson, was born in Staunton, Virginia, United States. Wilson's father was a Presbyterian minister. Wilson had one brother and two sisters. He studied from 1875 to 1879 at the University of Princeton in New Jersey. Between 1879 and 1883, Wilson studied law at the University of Virginia. In 1885, he did a doctorate at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. His dissertation was about the "Congressional Government". In the same year, Wilson was married to Ellen Louise Axson.