Wilcox, Thomas W.

WILCOX, SMITH, BURDIC

Posted By: Roseanna Zehner
Date: 7/25/2006 at 21:24:47

WILCOX, THOMAS W.

Thomas W. Wilcox, a noted business man of Doon, has been in many places and has turned his attention to many things. He is active and pushing, always ready for business, and is never willing to let the opportunity for an honest deal go by. A portrait of our subject is presented on another page of this volume.

Mr. Wilcox came to Sheldon, Iowa, in 1877, and through the following winter worked at his trade as a tinner. In the spring of the ensuing year he went on a farm near Hull, which he carried on for two seasons. For three years he worked on a farm near Doon, and in 1882 went to California on an emigrant train, where he found employment in running an engine in a saw-mill camp that was engaged in turning the redwood trees into lumber. At the end of two years he gave this up to take a position as an overseer on one of the immense cattle ranches of that state, but a longing for home brought him back to Iowa in 1886. For two years he worked at his old trade, that of tinner in Hull, and then coming to Doon, purchased a hardware stock, the firm being Kaufman & Wilcox. The two were associated together for a year and a half, when Mr. Wilcox sold out to his partner, and started in Alvord a similar line, in which he was engaged for four years. When he retired from the store in Doon he accepted as cash payment for his interests a quarter section of land in Minnesota. The "hard times" came on, and no land could be sold, and no accounts collected. So he had to abandon his business in Alvord, and go on the road as a salesman. He was so employed until 1899, when he was able to secure a place at his trade in Hull, which he held until 1902. That year he came back to Doon, and bought the hardware store of Burg Brothers. He has been in business since that time on one of the best corners of the city, under the firm name of Wilcox & Company.

Thomas W. Wilcox is a son of Thomas L. Wilcox, who was born in Warren County, New York, and died at the age of sixty-two years, being killed by lightning. His father, Isaiah Wilcox, was a native of Rhode Island and of English parentage. He was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died after he had reached the age of eighty-seven years. The mother of Thomas W. Wilcox was Jane E. Smith, a daughter of Benjamin Smith, who was of English ancestry, and of Puritan stock.

Mr. Wilcox was married in 1883, while in California, to Miss Lucia M. Burdic. Her father, David S. Burdic, was born in New York, and died at the age of seventy-five years. He was the son of Job G. Burdic, who came of a Puritan ancestry, and was very close to ninety years of age when he died. To this union there has come one son, Clyde E., now a young man twenty years of age, who is assistant cashier in the Alvord Savings Bank. Mr. Wilcox is a member of Lodge 538, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Alvord, where he is also connected with the Modern Brotherhood. He is a Republican, and is recognized as one of the leading men of this community.

Source: Compendium of History Reminiscence and Biography of Lyon County, Iowa. Published under the Auspices of the Pioneer Association of Lyon County. Geo. Monlun, Pres.; Hon. E. C. Roach Sec’y; and Col. F. M. Thompson, Historian. Geo. A. Ogle & CO., Published, Engravers and Book Manufacturers. Chicago, 1904-1905

Transcribed by Roseanna Zehner, Darlene Jacoby and Diane Johnson