William Wilker (also known as Wilhelm Wilker) was born January 12, 1847, at Solothurn, Solothurn, Switzerland and was the only son of Johann Wendell Wilker and Katherine Schorli.

Maria Kienzli was born October 17, 1842, at Oberbaldingen, Baden, Germany, the daughter of Mathias Kienzli and Katherine Lohrer. Other spellings for her surname include Kuenzlin, Kienzly, Kienzle, Kunzli.

William and Maria were married March 20, 1872, and made their home in Switzerland. They were converted to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Switzerland. William was baptized January 23, 1882, by Ulrich Fischer and confirmed the same day by Elder Hasler.

Maria was baptized February 16, 1882 by Ulrich Staufer and was confirmed the same day also by him. She was rebaptized November 8, 1883, and reconfirmed November 15, 1883, both by J.U. Stucki. This was after they came to America. Perhaps Maria did not have adequate record of her baptism; whereas, William had his certification of ordination to the priesthood as an elder, as he was ordained an Elder in the Schaffhausen Branch of the Swiss-Italian-German Mission November 16, 1882, by Elder J.G. Hafen. The family emigrated to America in the fall of 1883 and settled in Paris, Bear Lake County, Idaho.

William was by trade a painter—“maler” in his native language. He painted in the Logan Temple when it was under construction. In my Book of Remembrance is a picture of a group of workmen on the Logan Temple and Grandfather Wilker is in that picture along with some of my other progenitors. My father explained that his father was a sick man with consumption when he came to this country; the altitude was too high and he died from that disease and also dropsy. (Painters were also subject to lead poisoning and perhaps that was a contributing factor.) William died at Paris, Bear Lake, Idaho July 14, 1884, less than a year after his coming to America. He is buried in the Paris cemetery. His father had died in 1873 and his mother died June 2, 1883, so his parents were both gone when he left Switzerland, but he left two sisters there, Jeanette and Maria Ursula Wilker. I have been told that after William joined the church his family disowned him. However, when my father went to Germany on a mission some years later he went to Solothurn at the end of his mission to visit his two aunts for a short while. They were really surprised to see him and were pleased to see the son of their only brother.