Biography - Joseph Wild
JOSEPH W. WILD, the associate editor of the Free Press Gazette and Deutsch Amerikaner, was born near Bayfield, in Huron County, Ontario, Canada, on the 6th of March, 1856. He is the elder of the two children born to Joseph and Crescentia (Vogt) Wild, both of whom were born in Germany, the former in Baden and the latter in Wuertenberg. During the revolt in 1848, while still in his native land, our subject's father identified himself with the Revolutionists, and like many others of his countrymen found that America was a genial country in which to take refuge, and in 1848 he located on a farm in Huron County, Ontario, where he still lives.
Our subject was but three years of age when bereft of his mother. His baby sister, one year younger, is now the wife of Herman Kaupp, of St. Louis. His father again married and reared an additional family of three boys and eight girls. Young Wild grew up on his father's farm, receiving a very fair education until sixteen years of age. He was then seized with the desire to learn the printer's trade and finally got his father's consent to enter the office of the Berliner Journal in Berlin, Canada, the same being owned and edited by an uncle, John Motz.
With his uncle as preceptor, Mr. Wild mastered the art of printing, and remained in the Journal office until 1879, when he determined to seek fame and fortune in the United States, so turned his steps Westward. He worked for a time in a newspaper office in Detroit, thence went to St. Louis, where he was employed in a job office until he came to Nokomis, in the spring of 1881, to take charge of the editorial department of the Deutsch Amerikaner, which had a short time previously been established by his present partner. As above stated, he became a partner eight years later. Mr. Wild is a very energetic business man and has done his full share in making the large newspaper the success that it is, and also in conducting the real-estate and insurance business of the firm. Personally, he is a whole-souled man, hale-fellow well-met with the best of all classes of people, and a general favorite with everyone in his locality.
September 14, 1886, Mr. Wild was united in marriage with Miss Ida M., daughter of a wealthy and retired steamboat captain, Michael Ohlman. Two bright children have been the result of this union, Olivia T. and Ionia E. Our subject was born and reared, and is a strong adherent of, the Roman Catholic faith. He is one of the charter members of the Catholic Knights of Illinois, a Catholic organization of Nokomis.
Extracted 10 Jan 2017 by Norma Hass from 1892 Portrait and Biographical Record of Montgomery and Bond Counties, Illinois, page 322.
