Mae Clara (Wildermuth) Seyler
also known as Mae Wildermuth, maiden; Mrs. Seyler after marriage; the eldest Wildermuth child
b. 1886-05-05, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio
d. 1939-10-23, Marietta, Washington County, Ohio
Mae Clara Wildermuth was the eldest of the nine children of William Clifford Wildermuth and Flora Schlicher Wildermuth. She was the oldest aunt of Chuck’s grandfather Robert Earl Wildermuth on the paternal Wildermuth side — one of his father Earl Adam’s elder sisters.
Born 5 May 1886 in Marietta, Washington County, Ohio, Mae Clara was the first of the long line of Wildermuth siblings who would emerge from the 1886 Marietta marriage. She lived her whole life in Marietta and died there 23 October 1939, age 53. The household-Marietta arc covers the entire Wildermuth-family expansion her father William Clifford anchored at 413 Harmar Street and the surrounding West Side neighborhood.
Married a Seyler — two children at the Front Street house
A labeled c. 1913 Wildermuth-family photograph that surfaced in this archive in June 2026 names Mae Clara’s two children: Ruth Mae (Seyler) McIntyre (b. 28 April 1907) and Robert “Bob” Marion Seyler Sr. (b. 19 April 1910). The photograph — the c. 1913 Wildermuth-sisters’ children portrait on Front Street — is taken in front of Mae Clara’s Front Street house, with her younger sister Margaret Zelma Wildermuth Clarke and Margaret’s two children visiting. The print confirms Mae Clara’s married name was Seyler.
Mae Clara’s husband’s first name and his life details are open research. The Front Street house she lived in remained in the family — her son Robert Marion Seyler Sr. inherited or stayed at it after her 1939 death, and the print continued to be labeled with reference to “Mae Clara Wildermuth Seyler’s” house through 1943, four years after her death.
Her sibling cohort (b. 1886 to 1902): Mae Clara (1886), Charles Daniel (1889), Margaret Zelma (1891), Emma (1893), William Jr. (1896 — d. 1897 in infancy), Earl Adam and his twin Pearl (both 1899), George D. (1902), and Blanche (dates unrecorded, presumed early death). Mae Clara was the eldest of the nine.
Sources: Dale Eesley / FamilySearch — Wildermuth family record; Robert Earl Wildermuth’s 1990 Wildermuth/Fleming Heritage.
