FORTY-SECOND ANNUAL REPORT. 171 



OBITUARY OF THOMAS WILDE. 



Thomas Wilde, a life member of the State Horticultural Society 

 died May 17, 1913. He Avas born on the Foxholds farm, Hyde, Ches- 

 hire. England, April 29, 1830. He came to the United States when 

 he was twelve years of age, and went to East Hamburg, N. Y., where 

 he learned the tanner's trade. In 1853 he married Cordelia Dietrich 

 of Rush township, Monroe county N. Y. Two years later the young 

 couple came to Michigan and settled in the then wilderness of the town- 

 ship of Wright, Ottawa county, where he had lived until his death. 

 His Avife died June 16, 1911. They raised a family of ten, of whom 

 four sons and four daughters survive them. Mr. Wilde engaged in 

 farming and made a specialty of small fruits, being a pioneer in that 

 line. He was one of the first to experiment in cross fertilization of 

 fruit plants, having obtained results before Burbank engaged in it. 

 He was the originator of many good varieties of strawberries. The 

 Flush strawberry, now quite extensively grown in California and other 

 western states, was one of his seedlings. He was also interested in 

 tree fruits and raised some of the finest in 011 awa county. He was 

 a charter member of the Grand River Valley Horticultural Society 

 and Ottawa Grange No. 30 and he has always been an active member 

 of the Ottawa and West Kent Fair Association. The deceased was a 

 progressive farmer and fruit grower and one of those sturdy pioneers, 

 fact passing away, who helped to build up the state as one of the 

 leading ones in agriculture and horticulture. 



