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A wonderful account in this letter. My father went to Rio with the Merchant Marine during World War II and found the place equally fascinating and brought home a few small artifacts that seemed incredibly exotic to me as a child. But I still feel sorry for the mules.

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Being curious about C R Wilder I typed C R Wilder into Google search. The only C R Wilder that came up was a young man from La Paz Bolivia. So, did the elder C R go to La Paz Bolivia as well? His brother Josiah did live in New Ipswich and died in 1873 and Josiah's wife died in 1889 in Wilder village. I found no obit for C R. There was a C R Wilder in Boston who operated a transportation company in the 1840s, i.e. stagecoaches. I suspect railroads wiped out that business.

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