Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Wilder, George H 
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Author: Past & Present Will County, 1907

George H. Wilder, an honored veteran of the Civil war, who for three years 
valiantly followed the stars and stripes on southern battlefields, is now 
engaged in general farming on section 4, Crete township, where he has a well 
improved farm of one hundred and sixty acres. This is the old homestead 
property, having long been in possession of the Wilder family. A native of 
Bloom township, Cook county, George H. Wilder was born June 1, 1842. His 
father, Almon Wilder, was born in Onondaga county, New York, May 21, 1806, and 
in his boyhood days removed with his parents to Ashtabula county, Ohio. At the 
age of twenty-two years he married Miss Anna Snow and removed to Lake county, 
Indiana, where his wife died in 1840. The following year he wedded Mrs. Louisa 
Wilson Raymond, a daughter of John C. Wilson, an early settler of Bloom 
township, Cook county, Illinois, who owned a farm where the village of Steger 
now stands. Mr. Wilder lived on the Wilson farm until 1844, when he settled 
upon the farm which he ever afterward made his home and which is now the home 
of George H. Wilder. It was government land, entirely raw and uncultivated and 
he performed the arduous task of breaking prairie and cultivating the land 
until it became arable fields. He died on this place, March 26, 1891, while 
his wife passed away August 6, 1890. In early life he was converted, joined 
the Methodist Episcopal church and for many years was one of the most 
consistent and valuable members of the church of that denomiantion in Crete. 
He voted with the republican party from its organization and was recognized as 
one of its leaders in the community. His fellow townsmen frequently called him 
to public office and he served repeatedly as supervisor, assessor, collector 
and in other local positions, the duties of which he discharged with 
promptness and fidelity. Because of his business integrity and good judgment 
in business matters he was often called upon to administer estates and no 
trust reposed in him was ever betrayed in the slightest degree. Earnest and 
zealous in educational matters, he served as trustee of the schools for many 
years and was school director for a long time. To the first marriage of Mr. 
Wilder there were born nine children, only four of whom are now living: Mrs. 
John Dodge, of Crete township; Mrs. Maria Modruff, of Englewood; Miss Malissa 
Wilder, of Chicago; and A. E. Wilder, of California. By the second marriage 
there were six children, the living being: Mrs. Charles Howard, of Denver, 
Colorado, and George H. George H. Wilder was reared on the home farm and 
attended the common schools. In early manhood he espoused the cause of the 
Union and in 1862 joined the boys in blue of Company F, Eighth Illinois 
Cavalry, as a private. With his command he went to the front and was mustered 
out at St. Louis, Missouri, at the close of the war, after serving for over 
three years, during which time he was promoted to corporal. He took part in a 
number of the most hotly contested engagements of the south and was ever found 
at his post of duty, faithfully defending the old flag and the cause it 
represented. When hostilities had ceased he returned to the farm and has since 
been engaged in its cultivation, now owning the old homestead of one hundred 
and sixty acres. As a companion and helpmate for life's journey Mr. Wilder 
chose Miss Augusta Brown, to whom he was married in 1869. She was born in Cook 
county, in 1844, a daughter of Adam and Phoebe (Meyers) Brown. Her father was 
a native of Guilford county, North Carolina, and when a child removed to 
Preble county, Ohio, where he was married in 1830. In 1833 he removed to Cook 
county, Illinois, being one of the earliest settlers of this part of the 
state. For many years his home was the stopping place for people traveling to 
and from Chicago, which at that time was a small village giving little promise 
of its present greatness. He and his wife lived together for sixty-two years 
in a most happy union. She died upon the home farm in 1892, and Mr. Brown 
passed away at the very venerable age of ninety years. Two of their sons, 
William, now deceased, and George, a resident of Kansas, were soldiers of the 
Union Army in the Civil war. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Wilder have been born a 
daughter and two sons. Jessie, an accomplished young lady, who was a graduate 
of the Northwestern University at Evanston, Illinois, and was engaged in 
teaching, died in 1900 and her death was most deeply regretted by a very large 
circle of friends, for she was very popular. Frank, at home, is a graduate of 
Bryant & Stratton Business College and is now serving as township tax 
collector. Charles married a daughter of W. C. Trowbridge of Crete, lives in 
that place and is employed in the piano factory at Steger. Mr. Wilder votes 
with the republican party and while keeping well informed on the political 
questions and issues of the day as every true American citizen should do, he 
has never sought nor desired office. The family attend the Methodist Episcopal 
church and he and his two sons are members of the Masonic fraternity. Both Mr. 
and Mrs. Wilder are well informed people, interested in good literature and 
they have a library well filled with choice books, with the contents of which 
they are largely familiar. Their social standing is irreproachable and the 
consensus of public opinion places them in the front rank among the 
representative citizens of Crete township.

Additional Comments:
PAST AND PRESENT OF WILL COUNTY, ILLINOIS By W. W. Stevens President of the 
Will County Pioneers Association; Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing 
Company, 1907

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