Mary Joanna Wild (maiden name: Rhodes) was born around 1799 in Rhode Island to William and Mary Rhodes. She married Charles Wild on December 29, 1819, and they had at least nine children: Charles, born on June 10, 1822; Susanna, born on December 17, 1823; Edward, born on November 25, 1825; Laura, born on January 23, 1828; Mary, born on May 6, 1829; Catherine, born on November 12, 1832; Emily, born on September 18, 1835; Walter, born on June 19, 1836; and Lydia, born on August 6, 1849. They lived in Brookline, Massachusetts, and her husband worked as a physician and mill agent. One scholar writes that she and her husband had a "difficult relationship." In her diary, she complained about her husband's behavior toward her and hinted at "jealousy and perhaps extramarital affairs involving Charles and other women."
By 1850, they owned $20,000 of real estate. They moved to North Providence, Rhode Island, in the 1850s, and by 1860, they owned $78,000 of real estate. Her husband died on May 3, 1864. By 1870, she was living in her daughter Mary’s household in North Providence. She died in the early 1880s.