About the Diary
Mary Wild's diary begins on January 1, 1851. Under a note that says "A few private mems of M J Wild. p. 1st," the first entry reads:
"A new year begins and may be the last to some of us. If so, we are commanded to be ready."
(The book in which the diary is written also includes several pages of her mother's diary covering 1845 to 1850. Mary's mother, Mary Throops (Jenckes) Rhodes, died in April 1850.)
Mary often writes tersely and matter-of-factly. She describes daily activities, including keeping house, making clothes, buying household supplies, attending to her own health and that of her family, etc. But she also describes an active social and community life, including concerts, lectures, visits with neighbors and family members. Regular visits to church on Sunday, and comments on the sermons, appear throughout the diary.
She travels frequently to Rhode Island to visit her daughter Mary and other family members. (She will eventually move back there in the late 1850s while staying connected to Brookline people and events.) She describes important events locally and nationally, including, of course, the Civil War. (Her sons Edward and Walter served in the war, and Edward had his left arm amputated after being badly wounded.)
She writes about relations with her husband. It was a difficult relationship. There are complaints about his behavior toward her, and there are hints of jealousy and perhaps extramarital affairs involving Charles and other women. But she takes care of him in Rhode Island during the difficult months at the end of his life.
The diary ends in August 1865, 15 months after the death of Charles. Mary would live another 18 years.
NOTE: The Wild diary project is a work in progress. The first 42 pages, up to the time Mary moved back to her childhood home in North Providence, Rhode Island, in 1855, were completed in the winter of 2020. The pages covering the next 10 years -- still filled with people and events in Brookline as well as Rhode Island -- are being completed in stages.
