USA > Massachusetts > Worcester County > Bolton > History of Bolton, 1738-1938 > Part 17
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He finally arrived in Paris on the very day and hour that Napoleon was proclaimed Emperor. To help him acquire a knowledge of the French language, he engaged as tutor Latour Maubrey, who was later the Emperor's private secretary. At the end of eighteen months, the young agent and his partner had taken 1200 persons into their employ, cleared $60,000 for Mr. Gray and about $30,000 for them- selves. Prosperity presented too many temptations for the partner to withstand, so Wilder returned to America, briefly, and dissolved the connection, with a loss of about $30,000. He later stated, however, that he was able at the time to do this "without much injury to himself," so it seems that the Wilder fortunes were indeed prospering. Thus began the life as an independent trader, which took him across the Atlantic sixteen times in the next twenty years, when crossings required from forty to eighty days and were most hazardous under the best conditions.
In 1807, when the British were blockading French ports,
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Wilder's first attempt to get passage was defeated by what turned out to be another of his "special Providences." Having obtained permission to board a ship sailing from Bordeaux, he started for that city by stagecoach in ample time to make the sailing, with, perhaps, two or three days to spare. The traveling was far worse than he had antici- pated, however, and the journey took much longer than anyone expected. A short distance from Bordeaux an axletree on the coach broke, and by the time he finally reached his destination the ship had been gone an hour. It was a bitter disappointment to the tired man. Feeling very much abused by fate, he wearily returned the four hundred miles to Paris in the uncomfortable stagecoach, jolting through mud and ruts. He closes his account of the inci- dent in this way, however: "Man proposes, and God dis- poses ; and how inscrutable are his ways, and how willing should we be, at all times and under all circumstances, to acquiesce in His just decrees. The vessel in question was never heard from, nor the captain, officers, or any of the crew."
Soon after, however, he was able to obtain passage, and came to America again on business. It was probably on this trip that he was the bearer of important messages to President Madison and Secretary of War Monroe. Relays of horses were provided to take him to Washington as fast as possible. Wilder, by that time, was accustomed to the pomp surrounding the courts of European rulers. He called first on Monroe who took him at once to President Madison. "Never," said Mr. Wilder, "was I more surprised. An old man came to the door with a nightcap on, holding a common candle in his hand. It was the President of the United States."
THE WILDER MANSION
4%
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By this time he had practical control of the French market, and was able to obtain goods from fifteen to twenty per cent cheaper than any of his competitors. Therefore, he found, on his arrival here that his services were in some demand. He finally accepted a position as agent for Stephen Higginson, after trying unsuccessfully to get Mr. Gray to give him a slight increase in commission, and re- turned to Paris.
Wilder had many interests in France besides business. Throughout the years he lived there, he was given many errands to perform for his countrymen. He acted as guar- dian for boys sent there to school; he provided suitable lodgings for travelers ; he suggested physicians for the sick and saw that they were properly cared for. Letters came from America asking him to purchase foreign magazines for the Boston Athenaeum, and grape vines from Fontaine- bleau; to visit the friends of an American Roman Catholic bishop and assure them of his welfare; to say a good word for the American ambassador to Sweden who, some thought, had been using his official position to further his private interests. The most spectacular experience of these years was the marriage of Napoleon to Marie Louise of Austria, and at this event Wilder had the honor of representing the United States, as the Ambassador, John Armstrong, was ill. On the same day he "had the honor of being present at, though not of partaking in" the banquet at the Tuileries given by the Emperor for several kings and queens.
It was not until his visit to this country in 1812 that he finally joined a church. It was observed that his "doctrinal views were not clear," though he was "in practice most conscientious." His life in Paris, however, had strengthened his feeling of "gratitude for the great work of redemption,"
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and he felt it expedient to make a public profession of his stand. It may be observed, in passing, that though it took so long for him to decide to become a church member, he made up for the lapse of time by belonging to three differ- ent churches during the latter part of his life. It was dur- ing this visit home, too, that he met Miss Electa Barrel, of Northampton, whom he married on June 15, 1814.
The next year he returned to France again in time to witness the final defeat of Napoleon. Paris was ordered to surrender within twenty-four hours or be delivered to pillage for three days. Wilder, at the time, had large supplies of merchandise on hand, and for a few hours was much con- cerned as to their fate. Luckily for him, the city sur- rendered before the stated time, and his goods were not destroyed or captured. Having visited the fields of battle, seen country villages destitute, farm lands laid waste, and the results of death and destruction on all sides, he concludes his account of the experience ; "Oh, happy America ! little do you appreciate the inestimable privileges you so pecul- iarly enjoy."
Having been in France during most of Napoleon's reign as Emperor, Mr. Wilder took an interest in his fate after his defeat. Through Latour Maubrey he sent a message to the former ruler which read, in part, "Fly to the United States ! I know the hearts of the leading men, and the sentiments of the people of America. You will there find a second coun- try, and every source of consolation." The scheme was this : Napoleon was to board one of Wilder's ships disguised as a valet. A large hogshead was to be made ready, with a false compartment from which water was to drip con- stantly. In the other end, Napoleon was to be concealed. When the party arrived in this country they were to pro-
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ceed to Bolton where the Wilder family was then living, and the fugitive was to be hidden, for at least six months, in a log cabin on the estate.
It was about the time of his marriage that Mr. Wilder bought the house in Bolton which, ever since, has been known as the "Wilder Mansion." This beautiful place became "home" for the next thirty years, though much of his time was necessarily spent elsewhere.
In 1817, Mr. Wilder took his family from Bolton to Paris. There the Wilder home became a center of Protestant influ- ence and an "exchange for all respectable Americans" in Europe. According to the Reverend Jonas King, later the first missionary sent out by the Paris Missionary Society, it was only through Mr. Wilder's influence with Talleyrand that religious activities could be carried on there so freely.
It was not only those interested in religious activities who gathered at his home, however. Washington Irving, Albert Gallatin, Edward Everett, and the Ambassador, John Armstrong, were frequent visitors there. Reverend Dr. Robertson of the Episcopal Church said later, "I met one evening at Mr. Wilder's, at an informal gathering, seventeen persons belonging to five or six different nations."
In June, 1823, Mr. Wilder and his family returned to America. His life in Bolton was "an Americanized ver- sion" of life in Paris. For some time he applied himself to the care of his farm, believing that he had permanently retired from business. Although he had retained manage- ment of the place during his absence, he was now able to attend to it personally, and he did much to improve the whole estate. He drained land and built dams, forming a large fishpond. He enclosed several acres to form a poultry yard of such dimensions that soon flocks of "domes-
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ticated wild geese would fly from it for miles about the country." He had sent fruit trees from France, and grape vines from the very gardens of Versailles, and these were now bearing fruit.
A great many men found work on the estate, and after a time the Wilders invited them and their families to the mansion to take part in family prayers on Sunday after- noons. Naturally, rumors had spread about the remarkable things to be seen at the Wilder home, and some of the neigh- bors asked to be allowed to attend these services, also. Their reasons were perhaps not wholly religious at first, but having satisfied their curiosity, many continued to come "from a more worthy motive." Unitarianism, to which Mr. Wilder was much opposed, had made headway in the community, and the Sunday meetings at the mansion offered an opportunity for those with more orthodox views to wor- ship in their own way. A short time later, the Hillside Church was started, an outgrowth of these meetings.
Early during his stay in Bolton, Mr. Wilder held the only political office he ever desired or accepted. It was that of road commissioner for the town. He was anxious to hold the office, and so much interested in improving the condi- tion of the highways that he offered to contribute money to the cause if the town would match from the treasury any amount he might give. He did his part only too well. The next year found him out of office, because the town feared it would be forced into bankruptcy if the expenditures should continue. It is probably the only time in the history of Bolton that she has not been in a position to accept finan- cial aid.
The Wilder Mansion was the scene of many happy gather- ings. Several who visited there have left records of their
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delight in the beauty of the surroundings, and the friend- liness of the household. "Bolton, beautiful Bolton Hill ; in many memories, what associations cluster about this pleasant Massachusetts home. . . An enlarged Christian hospitality was an essential feature of its daily routine." "The ride from Worcester to Bolton, as every one acquainted with it knows, can hardly be surpassed in rural beauty, and it then being mid-summer, the deep verdure and balmy air rendered it grateful and exhilarating. That pleasant twilight ride I shall never forget. Arrived at the mansion I was introduced to one of the sweetest home circles I had ever seen, I was provided with a fine saddle horse, and explored all the pleasant roads for miles around. Christian neighbors were invited to meet me, and prayer meetings were held. The whole air and atmosphere of that mansion was truly Christian."
The most distinguished visitor to the home in Bolton was Lafayette, who stopped there overnight on his visit to this country in 1824. Josiah Quincy was then mayor of Boston, and on August 27, 1824, he wrote Mr. Wilder giving final arrangements for conducting the French general through Massachusetts. He was to reach Bolton on Thursday evening, September 2, and proceed to Worcester the next morning in time to breakfast there. The arrangements were carried out as planned, and without delays, in spite of the large crowds which gathered all along the way to greet the beloved champion of liberty. No doubt it was the most picturesque event which ever took place in Bolton. Dr. Levi Sawyer prepared pitch-pine knots and placed them along the fence on both sides of the road for some distance below the mansion. One account says they extended clear to the Stow line. These were lighted as the cavalcade
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approached, so that it proceeded through an avenue of fire. Candles were lighted in every window through the town. The general was met at the county line by a band of cavalry from Worcester, and by the Bolton Militia, which was afterward known as Lafayette Guards. Thus escorted and cheered by the crowds which had gathered along the road to do him honor, Lafayette arrived at the Wilder homestead. The mansion was ablaze with light. An arch over the gate was inscribed with the words, "The sword of Jehovah, of Washington, and of Lafayette." Lanterns placed among the trees added still more brilliance to the gay scene. The veterans of the Revolution, according to an eye-witness, were formed in a hollow square "in the center of which was placed a box, lighted by candles on the inside, and with letters cut through forming the words, "Bunker Hill," "Newton," "Saratoga," and "Yorktown," battles in which these old veterans had participated. Throughout the night the Bolton company guarded the mansion, the first night, according to Lafayette, that he had been so honored. In the morning another great crowd assembled to see him off. He made another short speech, as he had done the night before, and then, escorted by the companies of soldiers, he resumed his journey. Bolton has the "hospitable home of S. V. S. Wilder, Esq." to thank for what is probably the most colorful event in her history.
In spite of Mr. Wilder's belief that he was through with the business world, he soon invested in a Boston manu- facturing company, with a factory located at Ware. Wilder was asked to represent the company's interests there and at first refused. The other men who made up the company knew how to get what they wanted, however. Although most of them were Unitarians, they offered, on two condi-
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tions, to contribute three thousand dollars to build an Evangelical Church in Ware. The conditions were that Mr. Wilder was to go to the village and manage the business, and the people of the town, interested in the project, were to give another three thousand dollars to the cause them- selves. When Mr. Wilder heard this motion seconded, "and saw twenty hands elevated in behalf of carrying the motion into effect, I did not dare to disregard the obvious call of Providence, and at once gave my consent." As usual, Mr. Wilder gave liberally of time and money to the cause of Evangelical Christianity. The report soon got back to Boston that he was allowing the workers to leave their jobs during working hours to attend religious services. One of the owners was sent to investigate the extraordinary state of affairs. He "found that the work actually accom- plished during that year, when religious meetings were so abundant, considerably exceeded in quantity that produced by the same number of hands the year previous . . . the directors were well satisfied, mysterious as the result was." Thus was Mr. Wilder among the first to discover that rested and happy workers are more profitable than long hours of labor.
In 1828, the family was back in Bolton again. It was in that year that the first steps were taken to form the Hillside Church, an account of which is given in another chapter of this book. It is well to note, however, that public opinion at the time was far from united as to the value of the project. The controversy between Unitarian and Evangelical churches, which raged so hotly in those days, found Wilder on the side of the Evangelicals. In Bolton, and the other towns from which people came to the Hillside Church, the question was the most pressing one of
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the day, religiously. Mr. Wilder was the target for blame by the Unitarians since it was largely through his activities that the Evangelical group was so active in this region. In 1831, therefore, forty men living in the south village of Lancaster sent him a long letter informing him, in no uncertain terms,
that we look upon your coming and view your presence among us as a calamity of no ordinary kind. ... That you are sow- ing contentions, hatred, and discord, where peace, happiness, and good order have hitherto prevailed. That family hatred, strife and abuse have been the effects in every family where you have made proselytes and we look upon the fruits of your zeal as worse than the pestilence that stealeth at noonday. . . . In short ... we shall hail your departure from this section of the country as a blessing to the people, which we hope may long be continued to them.
Somehow it is easy to sympathize with these people who found Mr. Wilder's attitude so uncompromising and care- less of the feelings of those who differed from him. His unusual wealth and strong personality must have made him a formidable foe.
The biography of Mr. Wilder, published by the American Tract Society, tells of an encounter between him and Presi- dent Jackson, who was also noted for his determination. In his first message to Congress, Jackson referred to the debt which France owed this country in such a way as to imply that unless it was paid within a short time the United States would go to war to collect it. The Duc de Broglie, whom Wilder had known in France, was then Prime Min- ister, and the following October he wrote Wilder to the effect that however great his desire to pay the debt might be, "yet were he to do it under the aforesaid threat, it would
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creat a revolution in France." He desired an apology, or at least a softer request, from our President before com- plying with the demand. Knowing the unyielding charac- ter of Jackson, Wilder had no great hopes of being able to accomplish the task of getting him to change his statement. Wilder went to call on him at the White House, and after a rather heated discussion, concluding with "an Appeal in his own inimitable manner," he finally got the Presi- dent to yield. The "appeal" which so "affected" the President begins thus :
If by one turn of your pen, merely softening an expression, you, sir, avert from this land and from France all the horrors of a bloody conflict, generations yet unborn will bless your name . . .. eternity alone will disclose all the beneficial effects of it amid the splendors of celestial glory. That you, sir, may have grace to do this, God grant for the Redeemer's sake !
During these years, Wilder continued his interest in religious, civic, and educational societies. In 1825, he was elected first president of the American Tract Society. In 1865, this organization published the only full account of his life ever written, from which most of the material for this chapter was obtained. He was a member of many other societies and organizations. At one time, in fact, he was active in twenty-one different societies.
As may be expected, Mr. Wilder was an ardent advocate of temperance. He conducted an experiment along this line on his farm in Bolton, and the account of it was later published as a tract entitled, "The Well-Conducted Farm." He requested his workers to give up "ardent spirits" in all forms for one year. In return for this he promised "nour- ishing food and drink in any abundance they wished and twelve dollars additional wages at the close of the year."
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His biographer remarks, "Mr. Wilder's offers were so liberal that no workman could suspect a sordid motive." The results were highly satisfactory, for the men "were after- wards remarkably uniform in their temper and deportment, still and peaceable." His strong stand for temperance makes it impossible not to smile, or sigh, according to one's temperament, at the irony of a fate, which, years later, built a cider mill on the very spot where his Evangelical Church stood. No doubt the forty men who wrote him their letter in 1831 would feel that the blessing of his long absence from among them had indeed been granted.
After 1830, the Wilders spent most of their time in New York, except for the summer months. In 1841, the Wilder fortunes again began to dwindle, as in past generations they had done for father and grandfather. The panic of 1836 did not strike at once, but by 1841 the frauds in connection with the packing and sorting of cotton, the depreciation in real estate values, and the collapse of the United States Bank, in all of which Mr. Wilder had interests, finally took their toll. The fortune, great as it was for those days, vanished, leaving the family actually in debt. Before the obligations could be met, Wilder was imprisoned for debt by a company which had been injured by his activity in the cause of temperance. The opportunity now came for him to show his sincerity in his religious stand, and he met the test in a way which all must admire :
Rather than do an act of injustice to lenient creditors by pay- ing, even if it were in my power, a coercive creditor, I am willing to go .. . to prison ... nor will I assent for the sake of avoid- ing a prison, to take the required oath that I am not in posses- sion, nor have under my control, nor do I possess to the value of twenty dollars, when the very glasses to which I must have recourse to sign the oath are worth more money.
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Accordingly, he was for a time an inmate of the Worcester Jail. He remained there until his creditors themselves arranged his release, since he refused to allow his friends to pay the debt while so many others were still outstanding. He insisted that "all creditors should be treated alike, and share alike."
In 1845, he definitely removed his residence from "beauti- ful Bolton Hill." The very last years of his life were spent in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and, during the summer, at White Lake, New York. In 1864, he and his wife celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in the latter place, among many friends and members of their family gathered to do them honor.
With the collapse of his fortune Mr. Wilder gave up most of his work in various societies, and the last twenty years of his life were spent in comparative quietness. In a less spectacular way he continued his work in church and community almost to the time of his death. His acceptance of his fate in the business world is described as "Christian resignation as opposed to the stoical, almost stolid, indif- ference with which most men affect to meet what they call the decrees of fate."
He died March 3, 1865, in his eighty-fifth year, and lies in the cemetery in Elizabeth, New Jersey. Probably few, if any, private citizens of his day had lived a life of such varied and, on the whole, useful activity. Having known great wealth, still he was not embittered by lack of it, and the last years of his life proved beyond a doubt that he could do that hardest thing of all - practice what he preached.
XXV BOLTON TODAY
Ring out the old, ring in the new.
LORD TENNYSON
TIME has wrought some changes in Bolton as elsewhere, but here it has been mostly in living conditions, which compare most favorably with those of the country as a whole. After two hundred years, the town remains a farm- ing and residential community, and the village is probably as good an example of a colonial town as one could find within a fifty-mile radius of Boston.
The citizens remain friendly, home-loving people, some- what reserved, interested in their church, schools, and local government - fine people and good neighbors.
Originally this town, like other New England towns, was built around the church, one church for all. As time went on, differences of opinions caused divisions in the congrega- tion and the formation of other churches. This was very satisfactory until the lack of finances and the economic unrest threatened the churches. Then the members of the Bolton churches solved this problem by uniting and forming the Federated Church. This has proven to be a good way of defeating a situation that is still worrying many other communities.
The backbone of any town is the resourcefulness and unity of its citizens. The people of this town have clearly shown both resourcefulness and unity in their management of town affairs during the past few years. Taxes have been
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and are a serious problem here as elsewhere, but the citizens have succeeded in keeping their taxes below the average of the rest of the state.
The preparations for the Bicentennial celebration have shown the same unity, every family in the whole town being active in these preparations.
Bolton's future appears assured. Situated thirty miles from Boston and twenty miles from Worcester, the town has an excellent location. It is certain that many desirable families will be attracted to take up residence here within the next few years, as there is a decided trend upon the part of city residents to remove into the country.
It is a matter of only a year or two before the new "Pike" from Boston connecting with the Mohawk Trail will be completed through the town. It will then be possible to drive to the business section of Boston in forty-five minutes or less. This feature will be certain to induce many business people to consider the town as a place of residence.
Bolton is truly a fine location in which to build, as it is possessed of many large hills whose tops are plateau-like and whose slopes are expansive, the view being unsur- passed in the eastern part of the state. From these hills can be seen farms, orchards, streams, forests, valleys, and always in the background various mountain ranges.
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