Sketches of Successful New Hampshire Men
at their reunion, and in 1876, by request, delivered an address at
commencement which for its eloquence and patriotic sentiments secured
hearty and general commendation. He was, last year, one of the
corporators of the Yorktown Centennial Association, named by the
legislature of Virginia. He has long been prominent in the Masonic
order, having passed the chair in North Star Lodge at Lancaster, and
frequently been district deputy grand master. In 1868 and 1869 he was
grand commander of the order of Knights Templars and appendant orders
for the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. In 1880 he was made the recipient
of a past masters badge of solid gold, from the Masons of his section.
Col. Kent was married, in Boston, January 11, 1859, to Berenice A.
Rowell. They have two children, a daughter,--Berenice Emily,--born
October 31, 1866, and a son,--Henry Percy,--born March 8, 1870. His
religious associations are with the Episcopal church, and he is, with
his family, a regular attendant upon the service of St. Paul's at
Lancaster.
Of fine presence, genial and courteous manners, and strong personal
magnetism, public spirited, generous, and obliging, his popularity in
his section is great, as is evidenced by the large vote which he always
receives when his name is upon the ticket, in his own town. Still young,
endowed with strong mental powers, well known as a writer and public
speaker, ambitious and courageous, it is fair to presume that he will
yet attain still greater prominence and usefulness in public and private
life.
MARSHALL P. WILDER, PH. D.
BY JOHN WARD DEAN, A. M.,
Librarian of the New England Historic-Genealogical Society.
There are few men in our community whose lives afford as striking an
example of what can be achieved by concentration of power and
unconquerable perseverance as does that of Col. WILDER. The bare
enumeration of the important positions he has held, and still holds, and
the self-sacrificing labors he has performed is abundant evidence of the
extraordinary talent and ability, and the personal power and influence,
which have enabled him to take a front rank as a benefactor to mankind.
MARSHALL PINCKNEY WILDER, whose christian names were given in honor of
Chief-Justice Marshall and General Pinckney, eminent statesmen at the
time he was born, was the oldest son of Samuel Locke Wilder, Esq., of
Rindge, N. H., and was born in that town, September 22, 1798. His
father, a nephew of the Rev. Samuel Locke, D.D., president of Harvard
College, for whom he was named, was thirteen years a representative in
the New Hampshire legislature, a member of the Congregational church in
Rindge and held important town offices there. His mother, Anna, daughter
of Jonathan and Mary (Crombie) Sherwin, (married May 2, 1797,) a lady of
great moral worth, was, as her son is, a warm admirer of the beauties of
nature.
The Wilders are an ancient English family, which the "Book of the
Wilders," published a few years ago, traces to Nicholas Wilder, a
military chieftain in the army of the Earl of Richmond at the battle of
Bosworth, 1485. There is strong presumptive evidence that the American
family is an offshoot from this. President Chadbourne in his life of
Col. Wilder, and the author of the "Book of the Wilders," give reasons
for this opinion. The paternal ancestors of Col. Wilder in this country
performed meritorious services in the Indian wars, in the American
revolution, and in Shays' rebellion. His grandfather was one of the
seven delegates from the county of Worcester, in the Massachusetts
convention of 1788, for ratifying the constitution of the United States,
who voted in favor of it. Isaac Goodwin, Esq., in the Worcester
Magazine, Vol. II. page 45, bears this testimony: "Of all the ancient
Lancaster families, there is no one that has sustained so many important
offices as that of Wilder."
At the age of four Marshall was sent to school, and at twelve he entered
New Ipswich Academy, his father desiring to give him a collegiate
education, with reference to a profession. When he reached the age of
sixteen, his father gave him the choice, either to qualify himself for a
farmer, or for a merchant, or to fit for college. He chose to be a
farmer; and to this choice may we attribute in no small degree the
mental and physical energy which has distinguished so many years of his
life. But the business of his father increased so much that he was
taken into the store. He here acquired such habits of industry that at
the age of twenty-one he became a partner, and was appointed postmaster
of Rindge.
In 1825, he sought a wider field of action and removed to Boston. Here
he began business under the firm name of Wilder & Payson, in Union
street, then as Wilder & Smith, in North Market street, and next in his
own name, at No. 3, Central wharf. In 1837 he became a partner in the
commission house of Parker, Blanchard, & Wilder, Water street, next
Parker, Wilder, & Parker, Pearl street, and now Parker, Wilder, & Co.,
Winthrop square. Mr. Wilder is the oldest commission merchant in
domestic fabrics in active business in Boston. He has passed through
various crises of commercial embarrassments, and yet he has never failed
to meet his obligations. He was an original director in the Hamilton,
now Hamilton National, Bank, and in the National Insurance Company. The
latter trust he has held over forty years, and he is now in his fiftieth
year in the former. He has been a director in the New England Mutual
Life Insurance Company for nearly forty years, and also a director in
other similar institutions.
But trade and the acquisition of wealth have not been the all-engrossing
pursuits of his life. His inherent love of rural pursuits led him, in
1832, to purchase a house in Dorchester originally built by Gov.
Increase Sumner, where, after devoting a proper time to business, he
gave his leisure to horticulture and agriculture. He spared no expense,
he rested from no efforts, to instill into the public mind a love of an
employment so honorable and useful. He cultivated his own grounds,
imported seeds, plants, and trees, and endeavored by his example to
encourage labor and elevate the rank of the husbandman. His garden,
green-houses, and a forest of fruit-trees occupied the time he could
spare from business, and here he has prosecuted his favorite
investigations, year after year, for half a century, to the present day.
Soon after the Massachusetts Horticultural Society was formed, Mr.
Wilder was associated with the late Gen. Henry A. S. Dearborn, its first
president, and from that time till now has been one of its most
efficient members, having two years since delivered the oration on the
occasion of its fiftieth anniversary. One of the most important acts of
this society was the purchase of Mount Auburn for a cemetery and an
ornamental garden. On the separation of the cemetery from the society,
in 1835, through Mr. Wilder's influence, committees were appointed by
the two corporations, Judge Story being chairman of the cemetery
committee, and Mr. Wilder of the society committee. The situation was
fraught with great difficulties; but Mr. Wilder's conservative course,
everywhere acknowledged, overcame them all, and enabled the society to
erect an elegant hall in School street, and afterwards the splendid
building it now occupies in Tremont street, the most magnificent
horticultural hall in the world. In 1840 he was chosen president, and
held the office for eight successive years. During his presidency the
hall in School street was erected, and two triennial festivals were held
in Faneuil Hall, which are particularly worthy of notice. The first was
opened September 11, 1845, and the second on the fiftieth anniversary of
his birth, September 22, 1848, when he retired from the office of
president, and the society voted him a silver pitcher valued at one
hundred and fifty dollars, and caused his portrait to be placed in its
hall. As president of this association he headed a circular for a
convention of fruit-growers, which was held in New York, October 10,
1848, when the American Pomological Society was formed. He was chosen
its first president, and he still holds that office, being in his
thirty-third year of service. Its biennial meetings have been held in
New York, Philadelphia, Cincinnati, Boston, Rochester, St. Louis,
Richmond, Chicago, and Baltimore. On these occasions President Wilder
has made appropriate addresses. The last meeting was held September,
1881, at Boston, where he presided with his usual vigor and propriety,
at the advanced age of eighty-three.
In February, 1849, the Norfolk Agricultural Society was formed. Mr.
Wilder was chosen president, and the Hon. Charles Francis Adams,
vice-president. Before this society, his first address on agricultural
education was delivered. This was the first general effort in that cause
in this country. He was president twenty years, and on his retirement he
was constituted honorary president, and a resolution was passed
recognizing his eminent ability and usefulness in promoting the arts of
horticulture and agriculture, and his personal excellence in every
department of life. He next directed his efforts to establishing the
Massachusetts board of agriculture, organized, as the Massachusetts
Central Board of Agriculture, at a meeting of delegates of agricultural
societies in the state, September, 1851, in response to a circular
issued by him as president, of the Norfolk Agricultural Society. He was
elected president, and held the office till 1852, when it became a
department of the state, and he is now the senior member of that board.
In 1858 the Massachusetts School of Agriculture was incorporated, and he
was chosen president; but before the school was opened congress granted
land to the several states for agricultural colleges, and in 1865 the
legislature incorporated the Massachusetts Agricultural College. He was
named the first trustee. In 1871 the first class was graduated, and in
1878 he had the honor of conferring the degree of Bachelor of Science on
twenty young gentlemen graduates. He delivered addresses on both
occasions. In 1852, through his instrumentality, the United States
Agricultural Society was organized at Washington. This society, of which
he was president for the first six years, exercised a beneficial
influence till the breaking out of the late civil war. He is a member of
many horticultural and agricultural societies in this and foreign lands.
Col. Wilder, at an early age, took an interest in military affairs. At
sixteen he was enrolled in the New Hampshire militia, and at twenty-one
he was commissioned adjutant. He organized and equipped the Rindge Light
Infantry, and was chosen its captain. At twenty-five he was elected
lieutenant-colonel, and at twenty-six was commissioned as colonel of the
Twelfth Regiment.
Soon after his removal to Boston he joined the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company. In 1856 he was chosen commander of the corps, having
four times previously declined nominations. He entered into
correspondence with Prince Albert, commander of the Royal Artillery
Company of London, founded in 1537, of which this corps, chartered in
1638, is the only offspring. This correspondence established a friendly
intercourse between the two companies. In June, 1857, Prince Albert was
chosen a special honorary member of our company, and twenty-one years
later, in 1878, Col. Wilder, who then celebrated the fiftieth or golden
anniversary of his own membership, nominated the Prince of Wales, the