Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 10.djvu/429

 WILDE

WILDER

marines in China. He captured and occupied the city of Iloilo, Philippine Islands, Feb. 11, 1899, for which he received the tlianks of the secretary of the navy ; commanded the battleship Oregon, 1899-1900; capturing Vigan, Feb. 18, 1900; rescued 150 Spanish prisoners at Vigan, and re- ceived the thanks of the Spanish government for his kindl}' care and protection of the same ; was stationed at the Portsmouth (N.H.) navy yard, 1901-03, and on May 28th of the latter year was appointed head of the department of yards and docks and executive officer of the Charlestown (Mass.) navy yard. In addition to the latter duties, he was ordered to the War college at Newport. R.I., June 1, 1908.

WILDE, Richard Henry, representative and scholar, was born in Dublin, Ireland, Sept. 24, 1789 ; son of Richard and Mary (Newitt) Wilde. He came with his parents to Baltimore, Md., in 1797 ; was educated by his mother and a private tutor, and after his father's death, in 1802, ob- tained employment as a clerk. He removed in 1803 to Augusta, Ga., where he and his mother supported themselves by merchandizing, and ■where he commenced the practice of law in 1809, being admitted to the bar in his nonage. He was attorney-general of the state ; a Democratic representative from Georgia in the 14th congress, 1815-17 ; re-elected to the 18th congress to com- plete the unexpired term of Thomas W. Cobb, resigned, serving, Feb. 7, 1825-March 3, 1825, and to the 20th-23d congresses, 1827-35. being de- feated as a State-rights candidate for the 24th con- gress. He was married in 1818, and left a widower in 1827 ; traveled in Europe, 1835-37, and resided in Florence, Italy, 1837-40, where he made a special study of Italian literature, discovering some documents relating to Dante, and also, on July 21, 1840, a portrait of the poet by Giotto on tlie wall of the chapel of Baryello. He was a delegate to the Whig convention of 1842, and professor of constitutional law in the University of Louisiana (now Tulaue University of Louisi- ana) at New Orleans, 1843-47, devoting his leis- ure to literary pursuits. He is the author of: Conjectures and Researches concerning the Love, Madness, and Imprisonment of Torquato Tasso (2 vols., 1842); Hesperia, containing the celebrated lyric, "My Life is like the Summer Rose" (posthumously, 1867); an incomplete Life of Dante; various unpublished translations of Italian lyrics, and magazine contributions. See : •• Authentic Account of Wilde's Alleged Plagiar- ism" by Anthony Barclay (1871); " Our Familiar Songs" by Helen Kendrick Johnson (1881), and " Bench and Bar of Georgia " by Stephen F. Mil- ler. He died in New Orleans, La.. Sept. 10, 1847.

WILDER, Marshall Pinckney, pomologist, was born in Rindge, N.H., Sept. 22, 1798 ; son of

Samuel Locke and Anna (Sher%vin) Wilder; grandson of Ephraim and Lucretia (Locke) Wilder and of Samuel and Rebecca (Richardson) Locke, and a descendant of Thomas Wilder (1618-1667) of Shiplake, England, who was made freeman in Charlestown, Mass., 1641. He at- tended the common schools and the academy at Ipswich, N.H. ; subsequently worked on a farm, giving a course of vocal instruction in Rindge, 1819-20, and engaged in partnership with his father in the mercantile business, 1821-25, serv- ing as postmaster of the town, and as lieutenant- colonel, and colonel of the Rindge light infantry, which he was largely influential in organizing. He was established as a wholesale merchant of West India goods in Boston, Mass., 1825-37, and was subsequently a member of the commission house of Parker, Blanchard & Wilder, making his home in Dorchester, Mass., after 1832. He was a representative in the state legislature, 1839 ; a member of the governor's council, 1849, and president of the state senate, 1850. He was three times married : first, in 1819, to Tryphosa, daughter of Dr. Stephen and Nancy (Colburn) Jerrett of Rindge, N.H. ; secondly, in 1833, to Abigail, daughter of Capt. David and Jemima (Richardson)Baker of Franklin, Mass., and thirdly, in 1854, to his second wife's sister, Julia Baker. In 1860 he served as chairman of the Massa- chusetts delegation to the Constitutional Union convention, of which party he was a founder ; was U.S. commissioner to the Paris exposition of 1867, serving as chairman of the committee on horticulture and the cultivation and products of the vine, and took an active part in the move- ments that materialized in the Natural History rooms in Boston, the Massachusetts Agricultural college, of which he was senior trustee, and in the Institute of Technology, of which he was vice-president. He also founded the state board of agriculture, and the United States. Massa- chusetts and Norfolk County agricultural so- cieties, serving as president of the three last organizations. He was also president of the Massachusetts Historical society. 1840-48 ; the American Congress of Fruit Growers' (subse- quently styled the American Pomological society), being the founder of the society, and of the New England Historic-Genealogical society, 1868-84. He received the degree of Ph.D. from Dartmouth, 1877, and that of LL.D. from Roanoke college, 1884. He published the following addresses : On Laying the Comer-Stone of the First Massa- chusetts Horticultural Hall (1844); On the 225th Anniversary of the Settlement of Dorchester (1855) : lectures on California (1871), The Hybridization of Plants (1872), and On the Pro- gress and influence of Rural Art (1872). He died in Boston, Mass., Dec. 16, 1886.