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 the store. He there 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
be began business under the firm-name of Wilder and Payson, in Union
Street; then as Wilder and 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, and Wilder, Water Street; next
Parker, Wilder, and Parker, Pearl Street; and since Parker, Wilder, and
Company, Winthrop Square, having continued until this time in the same
house for forty-seven years. Mr. Wilder has lived to be 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 former trust he has held for fifty-two years, and
the latter for forty years. 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 his present estate in Dorchester, originally that of
Governor Increase Sumner, where, after devoting a proper time to
business, he has given his leisure to horticulture and agriculture He