Nineteenth Century

1838

Wheatons Adopt Laban Wild

Childless after nine years of marriage, Eliza Baylies Wheaton and Laban Morey Wheaton adopted his young cousin, Laban Wild. Born in 1835 in Boston, the Wheatons adopted him at three years old and gave him the name of his adopted father.

Mrs. Wheaton’s diary reads, “He was a lovely little boy, though his mother told us before we took him she did n’t know what to do with him, he was so head-strong.”

Laban died at the age of eighteen of typhoid pneumonia. He was buried in the Wheaton lot on the Common.