Alice Maria Wilder

Older sister of Almanzo Wilder.

“Well, I like to make butter and I like to patch quilts. And cook, and sew, and spin. Boys can’t do that. But even if I be a girl, I can drop potatoes and sow carrots and drive horses as well as you can.” – Farmer Boy, Chapter 11, “Springtime”

Alice Maria Wilder was born September 3, 1853 near Burke (Franklin County) New York, the fourth of six children of James Mason Wilder and Angeline Albina Day. Alice had older sisters Laura (born 1844) and Eliza Jane (born 1850), older brother Royal (born 1847), and younger brothers Almanzo (born 1857) and Perley (born 1869).

Alice was educated at the local township school and at Franklin Academy in Malone, New York. In Farmer Boy, Alice Wilder is described as being particularly close to her brother Almanzo (see Chapter 11, “Springtime” and Chapter 23, “Cobbler”).

In the early 1870s, James Wilder decided to move to Fillmore County, Minnesota. Although Eliza Jane and Royal seem to have remained in New York for a while, Alice probably accompanied her parents to Minnesota. By June 1875, the whole family was settled in Spring Valley.

In September 1878, Alice Wilder married Albert A. Baldwin in Spring Valley. Albert was born in April 1848, the son of Lucius and Emeline Baldwin. Lucius Baldwin moved his family to Winona, Minnesota, where he died in 1868. Albert, his mother, and siblings moved to Fillmore County in 1879. Albert filed on a claim, northeast of Marshall (Lyon County) Minnesota. Alice’s mother, Angeline Wilder, purchased 160 acres in the adjoining section, and Almanzo Wilder farmed this land during the 1879 and 1880 growing seasons (see The Long Winter, Chapter 17, “Seed Wheat”).

Alice and Albert Baldwin had two children born in Lyon County: Myrtle (born January 1880) and Leland Edward (born December 1884). Just before Leland’s birth, Alice and Albert sold their farm. Due to Albert’s ill health, they had decided to move to a warmer climate. They settled on the Atlantic coast in Georgiana (Brevard County) Florida. There, Albert worked in the orange groves.

Alice’s health suffered in the Florida climate; she died due to consumption in Georgiana in February 1892. The following year, Albert remarried. He and his wife Ellen had at least one child, a daughter named Nina who died young. Albert Baldwin died in Georgiana in March 1905. Both Alice and Albert Baldwin are buried in Georgiana Cemetery on Merritt Island (Brevard County) Florida.

From my old pioneergirl Facebook page, dated June 24, 2025. For more images, see my comments in the original post:

THIS WAS NEWS TO ME — I was looking at Spring Valley (Minnesota) newspapers last week, and there was mention in the March 24, 1892, Spring Valley Mercury that Angeline and Perley Wilder had just returned to Spring Valley from their winter’s visit in Florida.

In 1888, Albert Baldwin purchased 35 acres on Merritt Island, in Brevard County, Florida. May 1890, Laura, Almanzo, and Rose left De Smet to live with Almanzo’s parents in Spring Valley, Minnesota. July 1890, Royal Wilder left De Smet for a family reunion in Spring Valley where “his sister in Florida was the only absent one.” October 1890, the sailing craft “Edith” set sail down the Mississippi River from Stockholm, Wisconsin, with Laura’s cousins Peter Ingalls and Joe Carpenter and Almanzo’s younger brother Perley aboard. In September 1891, Peter Ingalls married Molly McGowan in Holmes County, Florida. In October 1891, Laura, Rose, and Almanzo Wilder left Spring Valley for Cousin Peter’s home near Westville, Florida. February 22, 1892, Alice Wilder Baldwin died at her home in Georgiana, Merritt Island.

Was Angeline Wilder with Alice when she died? Where else in Florida would Mrs. Wilder and Perley have spent the winter? The Florida booklets say that Laura Wilder Howard was with her sister when she died, but I didn’t know that their mother might have been there as well. There’s a photograph out there of Laura (Alice’s sister), Eliza Jane, and Alice in which Alice looks sickly; was it take in Spring Valley before the Baldwins moved to Florida, or did Eliza Jane visit her sister in Florida as well?

Although I grew up in Florida, I haven’t been to Merritt Island (since I’ve been researching LH) to see where the Baldwins lived. Albert Baldwin’s 35 acres only had a few houses on it in 1950, but it’s now a subdivision full of houses. Although Merritt Island was surveyed using the STR system (section / township / range), parcels on the island were originally referenced using “metes and bounds” (using distances and referencing physical features of the land). Albert and Alice’s land was in Brevard County, Section 30, Township 25 South, Range 35 East of the Tallahassee Meridian. The original survey divides Section 30 into four lots (north to south); the Baldwin acreage was in Lot 3. The Baldwin parcel begins on the east shore of Merritt Island, then west along the lot line to a cabbage palm with an X and four dots on it, then to the west shore of Dr. Wittfeld’s lake, etc. etc. In a nutshell, their land was bounded by Honeymoon Lake on the west, Crooked Mile Road on the north (south of Randon Lane) and the part of Crooked Mile that jogged to the south and east (but not the Hilltop Lane part), and the Banana River on the east. I’ll put a couple of maps in the comments. Albert Baldwin drowned in the Banana River in 1905; the Baldwins are buried in Crooked Mile Cemetery on Merritt Island.

Reading about the Baldwins’ neighbor to the south, William Wittfeld (and why there are so many alternate spellings of his last name) is a really fun tangent.

Rough sketch of Albert and Alice’s 35 acre parcel (wiggly yellow line) on which you can also see street names.

📍LINKS:
Original surveys here — look up Township 25 South, Range 35 East of the Tallahassee Meridian in Brevard County, Florida: https://glorecords.blm.gov/search/default.aspx

Florida Illustrated, by Jesse S. Wooley (includes Merritt Island and Honeymoon Lake photos and photos of the Baldwins’ neighbor to the south): https://cdm17191.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/asm0157/id/1298/rec/1

William Wittfeld:
https://images.peabody.yale.edu/lepsoc/jls/1990s/1994/1994-48(1)58-Calhoun.pdf

Find-a-Grave / Baldwins:
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9929175/alice_maria-baldwin

     

Wilder, Alice (FB 1-3, 7-8, 10-13, 15, 17-23, 26)
     looks for wintergreen berries with Almanzo (FB 10)
     helps Almanzo fill potato baskets (FB 10)
     plants carrots with Almanzo (FB 10)
     feeds stray dog (FB 13)
     sits in parlor with Almanzo (FB 18)
     wins blue ribbon for jellies (FB 21)