If you don't have the time (or the interest ) to delve into this site, here are some brief family facts that you might enjoy reading about. They include links to more extensive research on these people and places. These files will be updated as time permits. If interested, check back occasionally.
Did Our Family Own Slaves? Our family is proud of its progressive tradition dating back to the pre Civil War days of being associated with abolition. Here is another, less well known story of slavery in our past.
(Updated, January 31, 2013)
Nathaniel Wilder was the first Wilder of our family to be born in America. The son of Thomas Wilder and Anna (or Hanna) Eames, he grew up on the Massachusetts frontier in the village of Lancaster. In 1676 a murderous raid by over 1,500 Indians under the command of Metacomet swept down on Lancaster, killing many of Wilder’s family. With the survivors of the village, he fled east to safer towns. Within a year, Wilder was involved with the slaughter of a number of Indian women and children, was convicted and sentenced to hang, but was spared—his part in the murder seen as an act of revenge. While he lived, from that point, he seems to have been a target of desire for revenge on the part of Indians. He was murdered in his front yard during an Indian and French raid in 1704.
Read more about Nathaniel Wilder (Updated January 27, 2013)
Colonel Oliver Wilder (1694-1765) , the son of Nathaniel Wilder, was born in 1694 on his parents’ farm on George Hill south of Lancaster, Massachusetts. As a boy, it seems probable that he witnessed his father’s murder in their front yard by Indians in 1704. During his childhood and youth, Oliver Wilder had an older brother murdered and another terribly wounded by Indians during raids on their farm and their village. Oliver Wilder received a commission in the Massachusetts Colonial Militia, and spent much of his adult life as an officer in the service of the province. He commanded one of the largest regiments of “foot”, or infantry, in colonial Massachusetts, earning the rank of colonel.
Read more about Oliver Wilder (Updated January 27, 2013)
Conrad Wile (1769-1839) was the son of German immigrants. Born in 1769, Conrad Wile lived his life in Philadelphia at a time of transition from colonial city to capitol of the new United States. Wile, a cordwainer (shoemaker) by trade, rose to prominence in Philadelphia, holding a variety of elected and appointed positions in his life, including city councilman and county supervisor.
Read more about Conrad Wile. (Updated January 27, 2013)
Benjamin Franklin Wile (1806-1877) was a twin son of Conrad Wile, born in 1806 in Philadelphia. Benjamin Wile lived his childhood and youth in the household of a well known father. As a boy, he suffered the loss of his twin brother Sam, had to witness the scandal of an out of wedlock pregnancy of a sister, and the deaths of other siblings. He became a minister and moved to Pleasant Valley, New York, where he served for over thirty years. During the Civil War, Wile’s strong pro Union stance resulted in harassment by pro Confederacy elements in the village.
Read more about Benjamin F. Wile (Updated January 27, 2013)
William Conrad Wile (1847-1913) was the son of Benjamin F. Wile. A sickly boy by his own account, he joined the Union Army at age 16, becoming one of the youngest Union soldiers to fight at Gettysburg. After the Civil War, he studied medicine and eventually became a prominent doctor in Connecticut, where he built a beautiful estate that survives today as a well known park. He founded a large medical publications printing company, and was an early advocate for the leper colony at Molokai, Hawaii.
Read more about William C. Wile (Updated January 27, 2013)
Daniel Hosmer Jr. (1747-after 1834) was the great grandfather of James Lewellyn “Lew” Wilder. Born in Concord, Massachusetts to a founding family, he married Hannah Baker, whose father founded and owned the Baker Farm, which was written about much later by Henry David Thoreau in his book, “Walden”. Daniel Hosmer and his brothers in law were present at the Battle of Concord in April of 1775. He was a participant in some of the most important battles of the American Revolution. After the war, he eventually moved to a small town in Maine, where he presumably died.
Read more about Daniel Hosmer, Jr. (Updated January 27, 2013)
The Fairbanks House. Mary Fairbanks (1692-1745) was the wife of Colonel Oliver Wilder. Mary was the great granddaughter of Jonathan and Grace Fairbanks, who immigrated from England to Dedham, Massachusetts in the 1630’s, and built their home, which survives today. The Fairbanks House is the oldest wooden frame construction home in the United States, and is considered a national architectural treasure.
Read more about the Fairbanks House (Updated January 27, 2013)
Pilgrim Ancestors. Our family are descended from six known Mayflower passengers, and several other people of the Pilgrim / Leyden, Holland community who came to Plymouth, Massachusetts between 1620 and the early 1630’s. The Hadassah Thompson family line of our family remained in this area until the early 1800’s, living basically on the original family farms, before moving north to Norridgewock, Maine.
Read more about who our Pilgrim ancestors were (Updated, January 27, 2013)
Our family’s role in the American Revolution. We are descended from several people who played notable roles in the beginning of the American Revolution. Several interrelated family lines were old families at Concord, Massachusetts from the 1630’s and ‘40’s, until after the American Revolution. Many of our ancestors were present at the Battle of Concord, as well as Bunker Hill, Saratoga, Brandywine, and Valley Forge. These peoples’ experiences in the Battle of Concord have, in some cases, been well reported over the generations.
Read more about the family in the American Revolution (Updated, January 27, 2013)
Our family’s role in the Civil War. Family spoken tradition always included brief anecdotes about our great grandfather, Wilson M. Gamble’s service in the Civil War. What was forgotten or lost over time—or never recounted, was the tragedy of Wilson’s family during the Civil War, as well as that of his wife, Sarah Jane Hathaway.
Read more about the role of the Gambles, Hathaways and Wiles in the Civil War (Updated, January 27, 2013)