Albion Interactive History / People

Samuel A. Wilder, 1836
 
    Died 1918

Samuel A. Wilder was born in Charlotte, Chautauqua County, New York, on October 9, 1836, and came to Michigan as a small child with his parents, who settled southwest of Tekonsha. Samuel entered the lumber trade in the 1880s in partnership with John W. Ott, in the firm Wilder & Ott, in Tekonsha. The Wilder family moved toAlbion in 1891 for better educational opportunities.

Samuel Wilder in fall 1892 entered into a partnership with a relative Edward P. Keep, andpurchased the defunct business of Hathaway & Moore at 101 S. Monroe Street, and the firm became known as Keep & Wilder. Five years later Mr. Keep sold his interest to Mr. Wilder and his son, Allen J. Wilder The business was renamed S.A. Wilder & Son.

The Wilders lived on 308 E. Erie Street until 1910, when Samuel moved to 108 S. Monroe Street, across from the lumber yard, where he spent his remaining days. When S.A. Wilder died in 1918, the firm was continued by his son, Allen, who operated it until 1941.

Source: Frank Passic. Homestead Savings and Loan and the Builders of Albion: One Hundred Years of Service, 1889-1989. Albion, MI: Homestead Savings and Loan Association. 1988.