My Genealogy Hound

GEORGE B. WILDS, Jr., is the fifth child of George B. and Mary E. (Meriwether) Wilds, He was born August 5, 1846, in Sun Flower County, Miss., and until the age of fifteen years lived with the family of his uncle, E. E. Meriwether, his parents having died when he was quite a small boy. At the breaking out of the civil war he espoused the cause of the South, and at the early age of fifteen enlisted in Company C, Seventh Kentucky Volunteer Infantry, and served throughout the greater part of the struggle. He was in the western campaigns under Corps Commander Polk, Van Dorn, Breckinridge and Forrest, and participated in a number of bloody battles, prominent among which were Shiloh, Baton Rouge, Corinth, Vicksburg, Guntown and Paducah. He surrendered with Gen. Forrest’s column at Grenada, Miss., and at the close of the war came to Ballard County, Ky., where he engaged in teaching, and, in 1867, commenced the study of law under the instruction of his brother, Judge John D. Wilds. He was admitted to the bar in 1870, but continued teaching, practicing his profession during vacation in the courts of Ballard and adjoining counties. In 1872 he was appointed principal of the Blandville High School, which position he filled until 1874, when he was elected surveyor of Ballard County, in which capacity he served for a period of three years. In 1876 he commenced merchandising in Blandville in partnership with Andrew Bodkin. Later he purchased the entire interest, and at present has one of the largest stores in the county; his stock represents a capital of over $8,000. He was married December 24, 1874, to Mrs. Eva Evans, daughter of Thomas M. and Ellen Horrell, by whom he has one child, George B.; Mrs. Wilds by a previous marriage had one child, Mary Ellen Evans. Mr. Wilds is a member of the I. O. O. F., and belongs to the Christian Church of Blandville, in which he has held the office of deacon for seven years.