It’s not entirely clear when the first iteration of the home at 240 Jefferson Avenue first appeared. E.E. Bouldin, acting as commissioner in the suit of James D. Patton v. W.S. Patton transferred the property, lot 20, to Albert Wildman in January of 1888 as part of a resolution of a legal dispute regarding the division and distribution of the W.S. Patton estate following the latter gentleman’s death in 1884. The date of the sale belies the fact, however, that one Mr. Wildman was living on the property as early as 1880, as he appears on the census of that year alongside neighbors Alexander Martin (a pastor) and Robert C. White (a tailor) whom we’ve discussed previously.
Albert Wildman was born of Jewish heritage in Hungary on the 7th of February 1850. He arrived in the United States in 1860, and it appears he lived in Maryland for a period of time shortly after his arrival. It was in Maryland that he met Celia Virginia Macks, and the couple married in September of 1878. Shortly thereafter, Albert, his young wife, his brother Lewis, and his sisters, Annie and Regenia, arrived in Danville and moved into a home together on Jefferson Avenue.
Albert, during his early years in Danville, was a tailor and a clothing merchant, and he, with the help of his family, set up a shop downtown. His passport application of 1874 describes him as being 5’4″ with a receding hairline of black hair accompanied by a moustache, a dark complexion, and hazel eyes.
Albert and Celia’s family grew quickly until tragedy struck. The couple’s first child, May, arrived in November of 1879, followed by Hortense “Lillian” in 1880, Irene in 1881, Jean Seymour in 1884, and Joseph in 1886. Baby Jean passed away of an infection of the brain in 1887, and on November 18, 1888, Celia gave birth to a premature baby who shortly after died. Two weeks later, Celia passed away as well.
Shortly after his wife’s passing, it appears that Mr. Wildman returned to Baltimore for a time, perhaps to seek help with the couple’s young children from his wife’s family. He did not, however, surrender his ties to Danville. Not yet.
It was during this time in Baltimore that Mr. Wildman met the daughter of a successful jeweler. In November of 1891, he married Mamie Castleburg, and the family returned to Danville to assume occupancy of the Jefferson Avenue house. The couple had two boys, Nat in 1894 and Robert Henry in 1898. The census of 1900 also lists two servants living with the family, Cadelia Gunn, a 28 year old widow, and twenty year-old Mary Stephen. It is also because of this record that we know Albert taught all of his children to speak Magyar, his native language.
By 1903, the Wildman’s had had their fill of Danville. They sold the house and moved back to Baltimore, where Albert took up a partnership with his father-in-law in the jewelry business. Jacob Castelberg had inherited the business from his father who, having established the business in 1810, brought it over from England in 1847 and re-established himself and it in Baltimore.
Mr. Wildman passed away at his Baltimore home on January 19, 1921.
Since the Wildman’s, the house has traded hands often and has been used almost exclusively as rental property. In the 1920’s it was known as the Jefferson Apartments, and then later as the Spotswood Apartments. In 2003, Bill Wellbank acquired it, and the property benefited from a period of revitalization. In 2014, the Danville Redevelopment and Housing Authority purchased the property, and they currently operate the home as a multi-unit apartment complex.
Sources:
Census and Vital records found at Familysearch.org
Images and vital information, including biographical sketches found at FindaGrave.com
Death notices and other information found in the Danville Register, Danville Bee and other newspaper archives at Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank.com
Census, Directory, Newspaper, and other information compiled by Paul Liepe
