The Bay State Monthly, Volume 1, issue 1 | Page 4

opened Congress granted land to the several
States for agricultural colleges, and in 1865 the Legislature
incorporated the Massachusetts Agricultural College. He was named
the first trustee. In 1871, the first class was graduated, and in 1878 he
had the honor of conferring the degree of Bachelor of Science on
twenty young gentlemen graduates. He delivered addresses on both
occasions. In 1852, he issued a circular in behalf of several States for a
national meeting at Washington, which was fully attended, and where
the United States Agricultural Society was organized. Daniel Webster
and a host of distinguished men assisted in its formation. This society,
of which he was president for the first six years, exercised a beneficial
influence till the breaking out of the late Civil War. On Mr. Wilder's
retirement he received the gold medal of honor and a service of silver
plate. He is a member of many other horticultural and agricultural
societies in this and foreign lands.
Colonel Wilder, at an early age, took an interest in military affairs. At
sixteen he was enrolled in the New Hampshire militia, and at
twenty-one he was commissioned adjutant. He organized and equipped
the Rindge Light Infantry, and was chosen its captain. At twenty-five
five he was elected lieutenant-colonel, and at twenty-six was
commissioned as colonel of the Twelfth Regiment.
Soon after his removal to Boston he joined the Ancient and Honorable
Artillery Company. In 1856, he was chosen commander of the corps,
being the one hundred and fifty-fifth in command. He had four times
previously declined nominations. He entered into correspondence with
Prince Albert, commander of the Royal Artillery Company of London,
founded in 1537, of which this corps, chartered in 1638, is the only
offspring. This correspondence established a friendly intercourse
between the two companies. In June, 1857, Prince Albert was chosen a
special honorary member of our company, and twenty-one years later,
in 1878, Colonel Wilder, who then celebrated the fiftieth or golden
anniversary of his own membership, nominated the Prince of Wales,

the present commander of the London company, as an honorary
member. Both were commanders of the Honorable Artillery Company
of London when chosen. The late elegantly illustrated history of the
London company contains a portrait of Colonel Wilder as he appeared
in full uniform on that occasion.
In 1839, he was induced to serve for a single term in the Massachusetts
Legislature, as a representative for the town of Dorchester. In 1849, he
was elected a member of Governor Briggs's Council, and the year
following a member of the senate and its president, and he is the the
oldest ex-president of the senate living. In 1860, he was the member for
New England of the national committee of the "Constitutional Union
Party," and attended, as chairman of the Massachusetts delegation, the
national convention in Baltimore, where John Bell and Edward Everett
were nominated for President and Vice-President of the United States.
He was initiated in Charity Lodge, No. 18, in Troy, New Hampshire, at
the age of twenty-five, exalted to the Royal Arch Chapter, Cheshire No.
4, and knighted in the Boston Encampment. He was deputy grand
master of the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was one of the six
thousand Masons who signed, December 31, 1831, the celebrated
"Declaration of the Freemasons of Boston and Vicinity"; and at the
fiftieth anniversary of that event, which was celebrated in Boston two
years ago, Mr. Wilder responded for the survivors, six of the signers
being present. He has received all the Masonic degrees, including the
33d, or highest and last honor of the fraternity. At the World's Masonic
Convention, in 1867, at Paris, he was the only delegate from the United
States who spoke at the banquet.
On the seventh of November, 1849, a festival of the Sons of New
Hampshire was celebrated in Boston. The Honorable Daniel Webster
presided, and Mr. Wilder was the first vice-president. Fifteen hundred
sons of the Granite State were present. The association again met on the
twenty-ninth of October, 1852, to participate in the obsequies of Mr.
Webster at Faneuil Hall. On this occasion the legislature, and other
citizens, of New Hampshire were received at the Lowell railway-station,
and were addressed by Mr. Wilder in behalf of sons of that State

resident in Boston.
The Sons celebrated their second festival, November 2, 1853, at which
Mr. Wilder occupied the chair as president, and delivered one of his
most eloquent speeches. They assembled again, on June 20, 1861, to
receive and welcome a New Hampshire regiment of volunteers, and
escort them to the Music Hall, where Mr. Wilder addressed them in a
patriotic speech on their departure for the field of battle.
The two hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary of the settlement of
Dorchester was celebrated on the Fourth of July, 1855. The