Laura Matilda Phipps (maiden name: Wild) was born on January 23, 1828, in Brookline, Massachusetts, to Charles and Mary Wild. Her father was a physician who owned $20,000 of real estate by 1850. She grew up and attended school in Brookline, and she married Joseph H. Phipps on January 1, 1849. They had at least three children: Anna, born around 1850; Emily, born around 1852; and Harriet, born around 1844. They lived in Framingham, Massachusetts, and her husband worked as a Unitarian minister. By 1870, they were living in Kingston, Massachusetts, and they owned $1,800 of real estate and $1,200 of personal property. Her husband killed himself on July 20, 1871, while suffering from “extreme and continued mental depression.”
By 1900, she was living in North Andover, Massachusetts, with her brother Walter, her daughter Emily, and two grandchildren. She died of “old age” in North Andover on February 3, 1909.