MEMOIR OF HON. MARSHALL P. WILDER. 33 



ously known by correspondence ; also examining the most noted 

 gardens, and inquiring into the state of horticulture. From 

 Europe he hastened home to preside at the meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Pomological Society at St. Louis, Missouri. Earlj' in 1869, 

 with a few horticultural friends he made a tour in the South in the 

 hope of meeting the members of the Pomological Society in 

 some of the Southern States whom he had not seen since the be- 

 ginning of the civil war, but also with the view of ascertaining 

 the resources of that part of our country and the state of horti- 

 culture there. An account of this tour was published by him in 

 " Tilton's Journal of Horticulture." In 1870 with a lai'ger 

 party he made a journey to California, chiefly to examine the or- 

 chards, vineyards, and gardens, as well as the more important 

 native trees and plants of that State. The results of the observa- 

 tions of these tourists were published in the " Rural New Yorker " 

 and in "Tilton's Journal of Horticulture." They were also em- 

 bodied in a lecture b^' Mr. Wilder which he delivered before sev- 

 eral audiences. 



In politics Mr. Wilder took comparatively little interest. Mul- 

 titudes of other men stood ready to serve the State politically, 

 but few could serve it as he has done in his chosen walks of use- 

 fulness. In 1839 he was induced to serve as a representative in 

 the Legislature for the town of Dorchester during a single term. 

 Ten years afterward he was elected a member of Governor Briggs's 

 Council, and in the year following a member and also President of 

 the State Senate, where he was active in promoting the cause of 

 agricultural education. Once he stood on the brink of a public 

 career, that would have robbed us of man}' a gracious service and 

 would surely have invaded the order and peacefulness of his life. 

 Whatever ambition he may have had for political advancement, in 

 later years he felt that it was better that it had not been gratified, 

 for he had served his fellow men more effectuallv and enjoyed life 

 more than if it had been. 



The military title of Mr. Wilder was due to his natural procliv- 

 ity to military pursuits — probably a hereditary tendency. The 

 earliest ancestor to whom the famil}' has been traced was Nicholas 

 Wilder, a chieftain in the army of the Earl of Richmond who 

 fought and won the battle of Bos worth in 1485. Mr. Wilder's 

 ancestors rendered meritorious services to their country in the In- 

 dian wars, in the Revolution, and in Shays's insurrection. The warm 



