Ludovicus French Wild (1825-1889)

Portrait from the Massachusetts State Library Archives.

    An interestingly named resident of Norfolk County, Massachusetts, Ludovicus French Wild was the son of local boot maker Ludovicus (1802-1884) and Mehitable French Wild (1803-1859), being born in the village of Randolph on August 1, 1825. Little could be found on Wild's early life, but notice is given as to his following in his father's footsteps, becoming a boot manufacturer. Ludovicus F. Wild married on October 4, 1849, in Braintree, Massachusetts to Charlotte Ellen Thayer (1830-1920), with whom he had three children, Marietta H. (birth date unknown), Lizzie Ellen (birth date unknown) and Henry Weston (1852-1894).

   Wild's life in the years following his marriage is sketchy at best, with little being known on what he was up to during this time. He served as collector of taxes for Randolph in 1872, and in that same year was Randolph's representative to the Massachusetts General Court, holding a seat on the house committee on the Pay Roll. He was later excused from this committee by an act of the legislature, and New Bedford Representative Ellis Perry was appointed in his place.

   Little else is known of Wild's life, excepting note of his death on August 3, 1889, in Holbrook, Massachusetts. His wife Charlotte survived her husband by over three decades, dying in 1920 at age 90. Both were interred at the Union Cemetery in Holbrook. The rare portrait of Wild shown above was featured in an 1872 Massachusetts General Court legislative portrait album, currently located in the archives of the Massachusetts State Library in Boston.