Rev. Wilder N. Middleton
Rev. Wilder N. Middleton, one of the oldest living members of the Ohio Methodist Episcopal Conference, was born at Rapid Forge, Ross County, Ohio, September 22, 1835, and is the son of William and Mary (Himiller) Middleton, two of the pioneers of the Paint Valley. A year after his birth, his parents moved to a farm, where the village of Fruitdale now stands, and where they spent their lives. When seventeen years of age, he entered the old South Salem Academy, and after graduation there, spent three years at the Ohio Wesleyan University. In the Fall of 1858. he was examined by the late Dr. George C. Crum and was licensed to preach. On September 21, 1859, he left his home as an itinerant minister, having successfully passed the examination and being admitted in the Ohio Conference. In the years that followed, he was assigned to various fields of labor, among which were Dunbarton, Hanging Rock, Beaver, Waverly, Webster, Hilliards, West Jefferson, Rome and Wellston, at which last place, his throat became affected and he was compelled to give up his life's work and its ambitions.
On the twenty-eighth day of August, 1861, he was united in marriage to Cynthia E. Bailey, daughter of Cornelius W. Bailey, late of Piketon, Ohio. Two children have been born of this union, William H, and Arthur B. Since our subject retired from the ministry he resides on a farm in Pike County, enjoying the leisure he has so well earned. His son, Arthur B., resides with him, and his son, William H., is one of the Common Pleas Judges of the Second subdivision of the Seventh District.
Rev. Middleton is of a quiet and retiring disposition. He is diffident and unostentatious. He prefers being seen, rather than to be heard, but in support of his convictions will maintain them in face Of the fiercest opposition. He is a student of men as well as of books. In the forty years he has spent in the active ministry, he has maintained a most elevated Christian character. He is held in the highest regard, not only by the ministry of his church, but by all who know him.
From "History of Adams County, Ohio from its Earliest Settlement to the Present Time" - by Nelson W. Evans and Emmons B. Stivers - West Union, Ohio - Published by E. B. Stivers - 1900