Legislative Reference Library

Texas Legislators: Past & Present

Allen W. Wilder

Allen Wilder
Full Name: Allen W. Wilder
Birth date: 1843
Death date: Deceased, date unknown

Terms of Service

  • House, 15th (2) (3) Legislature
    4/18/1876 - 5/13/1876
    Republican
  • House, 13th (1) (4) (5) Legislature
    1/14/1873 - 1/13/1874
    Republican
(1) Republican. Directory of the Members of the Thirteenth Legislature of the State of Texas 1873.
(2) Committee on Privileges and Elections report on contested election, 5/13/1876, pp. 148-149, concluding that A.W. Wilder did not receive a majority of all the "legal votes cast" and that H.R. Von Bieberstein is entitled to the seat. House Journal .
(3) H.R. Von Bieberstein, in election contest 5/13/1876, sworn the same day, unseated Allen W. Wilder. Members of the Texas Congress 1836-1845; Members of the Texas Legislature 1846-2004 2005.
(4) "A. Wilder was elected but never seated," p. 61. (Thirteenth House Journal clearly shows Allen Wilder sworn and voting in the 13th.) Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants: A History of the Negro in Texas Politics from Reconstruction to Disfranchisement 1935. Journal of the Thirteenth Legislature
(5) A.W. Wilder listed in Republican State Convention of 1873, Committee on Platform and Resolutions, pp. 154-157. Platforms of Political Parties in Texas 1916.

Biographical Notes and Resources

Resolutions and Journal entries

  • 79th Legislature, R.S., HR 589, paying tribute to African American legislators and constitutional convention delegates of 1868-1900. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
  • 81st Legislature, R.S., HCR 81, paying tribute to African American legislators and constitutional convention delegates. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
  • 85th Legislature, R.S., HR 452, celebrating Black History Month and honoring the leadership and vision of African American lawmakers. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary .
  • 88th Legislature, R.S., SCR 13, Recognizing the Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. SB 667, Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. Resolutions - Congratulatory and Honorary . SB 667 SCR 13
  • 88th Legislature, R.S., SCR 13, Recognizing the Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. SB 667, Texas Black Reconstruction Legislators Recognition Act. Resolutions - Legislative Policy . SB 667 SCR 13

Photographs

Other Resources

  • Portrait and biographical sketch, Allen W. Wilder. Born North Carolina, ca. 1845; died date, place unknown. Forever Free: Nineteenth Century African-American Legislators and Constitutional Convention Delegates of Texas 2002.
  • Mentioned in footnote 5, p. 264, Gideon Lincecum, 1793-1874: a Biography, by Lois Wood Burkhalter. "During the Reconstruction, Negroes found their military and political services in demand by the Texas Republican Party." Google Books .
  • WILDER, ALLEN W. (ca. 1845-?). Handbook of Texas Online .
  • Mentioned in Negro Legislators of Texas and Their Descendants 1970.
  • Mentioned in "Searching for One of History's Mysteries," October 2016, pp. 71-72, relating to African-American lawyers in Texas. Texas Lawyer .
  • Mentioned in "A Texas Law Graduate’s Quest to Uncover the Story of the State’s First Black Attorney," by John G. Browning, March/April 2021. "Despite some historians erroneously listing Allen Wilder, one of Texas' first Black legislators, as its first Black attorney, the evidence I was uncovering pointed to an even earlier legal mind named William A. Price." The Alcalde .
  • Mentioned in Chapter VI, "Black Belt Politics." The Negro in Texas, 1874-1900 1971.
  • Biographical sketch, p. 41; severely wounded in shooting in Chapel Hill, Washington County, 1884, p. 162. Birth year 1843, Appendix D. Through Many Dangers, Toils, and Snares: Black Leadership in Texas, 1868-1898 2016.

Committee Information

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