CORNELIUS E. WILDER. The late Cornelius E. Wilder, of Leominster, was descended from sturdy Puritan ancestry, who immigrated at an early date in the colonial period, in order to escape persecution for their non-conformity to the teachings of the Established Church of England. He was a descendant of Thomas Wilder, who immigrated to New England prior to 1651, in which year he was admitted a freeman at Charlestown, Massachusetts, and in 1659 he settled in Lancaster, this county, where his death occurred in 1667. Thomas Wilder, a descendant of Thomas the immigrant, was one of the first settlers in Leominster and established the branch of the family in that town to which the principal subject of this sketch belonged. The descendants of the original Thomas are numerous. Not a few of them have acquired distinction and among the latter was Marshall P. Wilder, one of the founders of the New England Historic Genealogical Society. Cornelius E. Wilders' parents were Darwin and Averilla (Lincoln) Wilder of Leominster.

Born in Leominster February 22, 1838, Cornelius E. Wilder acquired his education in the public schools, and after graduating from the high school was apprenticed to a cabinet maker. Having learned the trade he followed it in Leominster until the breaking out of the civil war. He enlisted as a private in Company A, Fifteenth Regiment, Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, and left Leominster for the front June 28, 1861. At the siege of Petersburg in June, 1864, he was, with a large portion of his regiment, captured by the enemy, and was confined in Libby Prison from June 24, until July 8, when he was exchanged. He subsequently returned to Massachusetts and was mustered out with his regiment. When sufficiently recuperated Mr. Wilder resumed his trade and for some time was engaged in making pianoforte cases. He later established himself in the dry goods business at Leominster, and for the remainder of his life devoted his energies to that line of trade with gratifying success. In politics he was a Republican and although frequently solicited to accept nomination to public office he invariably declined. He died in 1902.

In 1871 Mr. Wilder was united in marriage with Miss Ella M. Pitts, who survives him. She was born in Lancaster, Massachusetts, November 12, 1846, daughter of James and Lucinda (Burditt) Pitts. In 1810, her grandfather, James Pitts. went from Taunton to Lancaster and purchased of Elias Sawyer a tract of land containing eighty acres, located in what was known as the South Woods. There he erected a frame house. Some five years later he removed his family there and settled permanently. He subsequently constructed a dam and erected a cotton mill which he operated by the waterpower thus obtained, and he conducted it successfully for the rest of his life. He died in 1835. His son, James Pitts, Mrs. Wilder's father, was what is sometimes termed a mechanical genius. In addition to operating a large cotton mill at Clinton, he persistently experimented in mechanics and was the inventor of several useful appliances. In his declining years he was frequently in a reminiscent mood, and his vivid recollections of local incidents, together with personal anccodotes of people of a past generation furnished the material for many interesting articles in the Lancaster Courant.

The late Mr. Wilder left one son, Clifton W., who was born in Leominster, October 6, 1876. He acquired his early education in the Leominster public schools including the high school, was graduated from the mechanical engineering department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now following his profession in Brooklyn, New York.