66 Marshall Pinckney Wilder. 



religion. His ardent temperament, and precocity of mind, led his parents 

 to desire their eldest-born to have a liberal education; and, having pursued 

 most of the studies usually taught in common schools, he was sent to 

 New-Ipswich Academy at the age of about twelve years, with a view of 

 preparing him for college. But he found the inside of an academy, and 

 the dead languages, rather too tame to satisfy his genius. He preferred the 

 wild sports of country life, the healthful exercise of the farm, rather than 

 scaling the heights of mathematics. 



His good parents now gave him his choice, — to go to college and 

 prepare for one of the learned professions, to enter the store of his father 

 and become a merchant, or to learn the art of farming upon the old 

 homestead. He preferred the latter; and was, ere long, a youthful farmer, 

 familiar with the various processes of tillage, and with the use of agricul- 

 tural tools. 



But, the trade of his father increasing, the young farmer was needed in 

 the store, which he was induced to enter; but how was his pride mortified 

 that he was to be a mere apprentice ! — that he must begin at the lowest 

 round, and ascend the mercantile ladder! He soon found, however, that it 

 was not good to rely upon his ancestry or parents for a name and success, 

 but upon himself. He met and conquered the difficulties of his chosen 

 profession, and finally became a partner with his father. 



In the year 1825, Mr. Wilder sought and entered upon a wider field of 

 mercantile enterprise in the city of Boston. He was then a husband and 

 a father, and, until the decease of his first wife, resided in the cit}-, near to 

 his several places of business, but in 1832 purchased and removed to his 

 present residence in Dorchester. For nearly the whole of his mercantile 

 life in this city, he has been a member of the firm of Parker, Wilder, & 

 Co. ; a firm to which he is at present attached. It is a well-known com- 

 mission-house for the sale of various woollen and other goods manufactured 

 by several of the leading mills of this section of the countr}\ The pres- 

 ent warehouse is on Winthrop Square, and is one of the most imposing 

 and best situated in the city. There is also a branch house in New York. 



Mr. Wilder has been an honorable and successful merchant. He has 

 been too generous and public-spirited to become immensely wealthy; but he 

 has secured a comfortable fortune without resorting to wild speculation, 



