Background
Matilda Rausch was born to German immigrants in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada.
Matilda Rausch was born to German immigrants in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada.
As a youngster she attended public school in Detroit and then attended and graduated from the Gorsline Business College in the same city.
Wilson co-founded the Oakland campus of Michigan State University, now Oakland University, with John A. Hannah. The new university was built on her 1,400-acre (57 km2) estate: Meadow Brook Farms. After Dodge"s death in 1920, Matilda inherited his share of the Dodge Brothers Company and became one of the wealthiest women in the United States.
Upon Alfred Wilson"s death on April 6, 1962, Matilda again received the bulk of her husband"s estate.
Matilda and John Dodge had three children, Frances (1914-1971), Daniel (1917-1938) and Anna Margaret (1919-1924). Matilda and Alfred Wilson adopted two children, Richard and Barbara.
Wilson, a Republican, was appointed the 43rd Lieutenant Governor of the state of Michigan in 1940. She was the first woman to serve as Lieutenant Governor of a United States. State.
She was preceded by Luren Doctorate. Dickinson, Republican and followed by Frank Murphy, Democrat.
She was the author of A Place in the Country, a guidebook to her home, Meadow Brook Hall. In it she takes the reader through the mansion and introduces the reader to her art collection which includes works by Sir Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, Gilbert Stuart, George Romney, Frederic Remington, Emile van Marcke, Rosa Bonheur, Justus Sustermans and Louis Betts. During the later 1920s Wilson hired the Detroit architectural firm of Smith Hinchman & Grylls to design two of the Detroit area"s notable buildings, Music Hall Center for the Performing Arts (1928) and Meadow Brook Hall (1929).
Both were designed by William Kapp and both included architectural sculpture by Detroit sculptor Corrado Parducci.
In 1939, Matilda and Alfred Wilson had constructed a pale granite Art Deco style mausoleum in Woodlawn Cemetery, designed by New York architect William Henry Deacy and again, featuring sculpture by Corrado Parducci.