My Genealogy Hound

HENRY WILCOX. One of the self-made men of Kearney county, who has hewn out his own fortune and made for himself a name and place in the community, is the gentleman whose name appears at the head of this sketch. He is a fine example of what can be done by any young man of ordinary intelligence, industry and good habits. He is the son of Martin V. Wilcox, whose sketch appears in this work. His mother bore the maiden name of Eliza Osborn, and was born in New York in 1836. Her father, W. H. Osborn, was a native of New York, and was a Congregational minister of considerable note.

Henry Wilcox, the subject of this biographical notice, is a native of Michigan, born in 1858. In 1861, his father (who was a farmer at that time) enlisted in the Thirteenth infantry and went South to help put down the rebellion, and was with the Army of the Cumberland the most of the time during his service of five years. He enlisted as a private, but after about three years’ hard service (he was in the battles of Stone river, Mission ridge, Lookout mountain and various other hard-fought battles), he was commissioned second lieutenant (afterward promoted to first) in the Fifteenth colored infantry. Shortly after receiving his commission, he was joined in camp by his wife and his son Henry, who remained with the army until 1866, during which period Mrs. Wilcox taught the colored soldiers to read and write, while Henry spent his time playing with the pickaninnies in the “contraband camp.”

In 1866, at the close of the war, Mr. Wilcox, with his family, went to Iowa Falls, Iowa, where Henry attended the public school until he was fifteen years old. In the spring of 1874, the family, consisting of father, mother and son Henry (aged fifteen), and infant son Frank (aged two years), boarded a “prairie schooner” and moved to Harlan county, Nebr., where they settled on a raw half section of “Uncle Sam’s” land, and went to work to make a home in the wilderness. They lived four years, with their nearest neighbor four miles away; Kearney, their nearest market and railroad point, thirty-five miles away, and water so deep in the earth that they were not able to pay for boring a well, and had to haul all the water they used seven miles from Turkey creek; when a well was finally sunk on the place, they had to go two hundred and thirty-four feet through the earth to get water.

In the meantime, Henry, in December, 1876, was married to Miss Mary Elkins, at the early age of eighteen — in fact, lacked three days of being eighteen on his wedding day — and his girl-wife was but a few days over seventeen. Miss Elkins’ parents resided on Turkey creek, a few miles from the Wilcox homestead, and were really earlier settlers than the Wilcox family, as they settled there in 1873. Both families were very poor and went through all the “grasshopper years,” and received rations from the government, which rations were issued to the “grasshopper sufferers” in 1874-75 to keep the settlers from starving.

Both families of the young people were somewhat opposed to the marriage, owing to the youth of the parties and the fact that it was almost impossible to make a living for a family in the “Great American Desert” at that time. But the young folk seemed determined to mate first and see about getting something to eat afterwards; and an increase in his father’s pension about that time enabled him (his father) to help him to get a team, and as soon as married he became the “head of a family,” thus becoming, under the homestead laws, competent to enter government land, and, being competent, he entered a “homestead” and “timber claim” adjoining his father’s. Then came the “tug of war” to provide for his young family. Two sons were born to Mr. and Mrs. Wilcox before either of them was twenty-one years of age. Their eldest son, Louie, died at the age of five years; their second son, Earl, is still living, a bright boy of eleven years. After six years of hard work, many privations, some sorrow and considerable happiness, they concluded to sell their farm and move to town. During the six years on the homestead, Mr. Wilcox had farmed what he could, had worked on the construction work of the Republican railroad, broke prairie for his neighbors and did his best to accumulate property and provide for his family, but it was a hard struggle; he succeeded as well as most of his neighbors, and probably enjoyed life better than most, as his married life was a continual “honey-moon,” and his family’s health was perfect (except the illness of his deceased son, Louie)— $20 would cover all his doctor’s bills during that time. But he did not like farming, and in 1882 he sold his farm of three hundred and twenty acres for $1,500 (worth now, 1890, $5,000). It took $600 of this to pay his debts, and with his wife, boy and $900 in money, he moved to Alma, the county seat of Harlan county, loaned his money at three per cent, to four per cent, a month, the current rate at that time, and, living on the income of that, he entered the law office of John Dawson and studied law for two years, and was admitted to practice in 1884. During this time, however, he had invested some money for Eastern parties and made a little money for himself, and about this time he formed a partnership with an old school-mate from Iowa Falls, Iowa, named Richard Wilde, under the firm name of Wilcox & Wilde. Mr. Wilde had considerable means, and the new firm went into the loaning business quite extensively — Mr. Wilcox also practicing law to a limited extent. But his natural aptitude seemed to run to banking and money loaning more than to law, and before long his loaning business took all his time and attention. He built a brick residence in Alma, and was interested in its first brick business block. In 1886, the firm of Wilcox & Wilde dissolved by mutual consent, and Mr. Wilcox immediately formed a partnership with W. R. Sapp, of Falls City, Nebr., under the firm name of “Bank of Wilcox,” and bought the town site of two hundred and forty acres, on which his name sake, the village of Wilcox, Kearney county, Nebr., now stands. The bank of Wilcox, the first building in the new town, was opened with a capital of $10,000, in June, 1886. The firm deeded a half interest in their town site to the Lincoln Land Company, and the B. & M. R. R. built their depot on their line from Blue Hill to Holdrege, in the centre of their two-hundred-and-forty-acre tract, which was platted about the same time. The town built up rapidly, and with their banking and town-site business, Messrs. Sapp & Wilcox, of course, made money rapidly. In 1888, the bank of Wilcox was incorporated, with a capital of $50,000, which was increased to $75,000 in 1889. Sapp & Wilcox sold their remaining interest in the town site to the new bank for $15,000, taking stock in the bank with the proceeds.

Mr. Wilcox was chosen cashier of the new bank, which position he still holds, with his faithful wife as his assistant. She has been a helper in his office almost constantly since they left the farm, and merits her full share of praise for her valuable assistance, advice and counsel. She has been his “right hand” on the farm, in the office and bank. They are rapidly acquiring a fortune now, and before age streaks their heads with gray they will probably be living at ease on an income from a fortune made in sight of their old “sod house on the claim.”