Matilda Dodge Wilson
Matilda Dodge Wilson (October 19, 1883 – September 19, 1967), was born Matilda Rausch in Walkerton, Ontario, Canada. She was the widow of John Francis Dodge, who co-founded the Dodge motor car company in Detroit with his brother Horace Elgin Dodge. 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 (5.7 km2) estate: Meadow Brook Farms.
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. In 1902, she began working for the Dodge Motor Company and five years later, she married founder John Dodge.
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. Soon thereafter, she met lumber baron Alfred G. Wilson at the First Presbyterian Church in Detroit and they married June 29, 1925. 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). In addition, she was stepmother to John's three children from his first marriage. 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 U.S. State. She was preceded by Luren D. Dickinson, Republican and followed by Frank Murphy, Democrat.
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