Our American Connection - The Biographies Part 4

BIOGRAPHY OF MATTHEW WILDE

Brother of Sarah Jane Wilde Burnett

Matthew Wilde was born at Oldham Lancashire England, October 29, 1852. His parents were John Wilde and Nancy Cocker.
Matthew joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints when he was 8 years of age. He was baptized by James Gledhill and confirmed by William Spaulding at the same time and place at Oldham Lancashire England
Before Matthew was even 14, he had a very splendid alto voice and was taken by friends to different towns around Oldham to sing in a great many concerts and tea parties.
John Wilde, Matthew's father had left England for Utah when Matthew was only about 1 year old. His mother and sisters had remained in England, waiting passage from the father. When John Cocker entered into a polygamist marriage in Utah, Matthew's mother it is assumed divorced John Wilde, and married Thomas Buckley. Eventually the mother and stepfather along with Matthew migrated to Utah and made their home in West Weber.
After about three years in West Weber, Thomas Buckley's sister came from England and brought Matthew a concertina. Matt played at dances all over the settlements of Weber County. He also was a very good accordion player and played with some of the violinist in the state.
When Matthew was 25 years old he married Elizabeth Naylor. They lived with his parents for a year and them moved to Bountiful to live with his wife's folks. For two years Matt worked at all kinds of farming. Mr. Naylor, who had moved to Neal Station to take charge of a section on the railroad, sent for Matthew to come to work for him. Matthew sold his team, wagon and harness for a little of nothing and took his wife and baby to work for $1.50 a day. After two years he was promoted to take charge of a section at Frisco Hill, Beaver County, Utah. He labored at Frisco Hill for 8 years and then at Milford for three.
In his autobiography Matthew Wilde writes of many experiences in his lifetime, such as follows;
One Saturday night when Matthew was 2 or 3 years old his mother was bathing him. She suddenly brushed her hand against a stocking or darning needle. It was pointing up through her baby's shoulder and lower part of his neck. The child had swallowed the needle while playing with it, weeks or maybe months before. He was immediately taken to a doctor to have the needle removed.
When only 5 years old Matthew was going to school not far from his grandfather’s home. Near the school was a large stone quarry. One day during recess, Matthew went to this quarry with some other children. He sat down on the edge and fell into the quarry some 40 to 50 feet. He was painfully crushed between two large stones at the bottom of the pit. There was barely a spark of life in his body. He suffered a broken collarbone but after good care from a fine doctor he recovered. Only a few weeks latter he received a broken leg when a large bag of cotton, at a nearby factory, rolled over his leg.
In 1871 Matthew and Edmund Ellsworth rode mules from West Weber to Soda Springs to cut and handle logs for a sawmill. They worked there all summer for $35.00 a month and board. In the fall some of the men started home with teams, but Matthew and Brigham (?) Ellsworth built a boat to row down the Bear River, thinking they could over come the rapids and arrive home before the teams coming over the wagon roads. They left Soda Springs in their boat and crossed over three or four rapids without mishap. Fortune was not with them at the next rapid for it was worse that the others. The two boys rowed there boat to the side and got out. They took all their food and bedding out of the boat and tied a rope to it to let their boat down easily over the falls, but the boat plunged over in the whirl pool and capsized. After much difficulty the boys were forced to let go of the rope to keep from being pulled into the maddening waters. Much to their humiliation they had to walk twenty miles, loaded down with their food and bedding to catch the teams ahead.
One cloudy day in the year of 1883, Matthew was standing on the door step of his home at Frisco Hill section house, when a flash of lightning passed a telegraph pole just ten feet from him. It was followed by a terrific clap of thunder. The lightning followed the telegraph wire along to the next pole and on for a distance of a mile up and down each side of the station. It slivered most of the poles up and down so nice and smooth that they looked as though they had been plated with ribbons on a May pole.
A storm followed so heavy that a cloudburst and a great wave of water came down off the mountain. There was such a terrible roar that it shook the house. Rock, cedars, brush, and driftwood all came down and flooded the railroad tracks. Two bridges were washed out. A few feet from the section house were two tracks, which were covered with gravel and brush.
Matthew and his family were alone on this lonely prairie. There was no section gang nearer than 7 miles. Matthew's wife, seeing that something must be done to stop the train at Milford, volunteered to ride the handcar to Milford. Matthew must stay at the section house. With the help of his wife, they put the handcart onto the track. Elizabeth, Matthew's wife jumped on the handcar, let out the brake and started for Milford a distance of 17 miles, which she made in 20 minutes without stopping. (Was this possible?) The grade from Frisco to Milford was from 100 to 190 feet, so Elizabeth had set a record.
After working for the railroad at Frisco Hill, Matthew went to work for some English friends who were coal miners. They took up a contract in blasting out some tunnels for the pipeline in Ogden Canyon.
When Utah was made a state and entered into the Union, Matthew and about 40 men were asked to join the regiment at Company B with George Driver as Captain. They drilled in the pavilion at Laster Park. They bought uniforms and marched about town. He was promoted to a corporal. Governor West asked them to participate in a two-day celebration at Salt Lake City on the 4th of July. Matthew got wounded while at the celebration. It was only a mashed thumb from putting his thump between two cannons they were pulling. He quit the militia after two years.
Matthew helped build a dam over Wilson’s of Wilson Lane, with James Robb and his son and a man named Edwin Fuller (no relation that we can determine). They were hauling gravel to the river. On one of the trips the sides of the wagon floated away, carrying James Robb and his son into the water. When Edwin Fuller saw they could not swim, he let the team go to make there own way to shore and he jumped into the water to rescue the father and son. The father clung to his boy and caught Mr. Fuller by the beard. In his excitement he held him down so that he was unable to swim. All three were drowned. When Matthew and some other men finally found them, the father had the son grasped in his arms and one arm around Mr. Fuller's neck.
Matthew then went to work for the Ogden Transfer Company as a section foreman. He worked for 10 years. and then in about 1907 he went back to work for the Central Pacific Railroad. He was working for his son Matthew Wilde Jr. at the Union Depot when he wrote his autobiography at the age of 63.
Matthew's first wife died in 1917 or 1918. She had raised five children. Matthew then married Mary Burt Atkinson. They were both along in years when they married. Mary died in 1931. At the age of 80 Matthew was living with his daughters in Ogden, Utah.
Matthew had assisted at the Golden Spike Ceremony and had worked on the railroad for a total of 40 years. He died in 1937 at the age of 84 years. He died at the Weber County Poor Farm, later the Weber Count Memorial Hospital.
It is from his autobiography that what information we have on his mother, Nancy Cocker Wilde Buckley has been taken.