Crawford Co., AR - Biographies - Hon. Henry Wilcox

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Hon. Henry Wilcox (deceased) was born near Utica, N. Y., in 1800, and 
having been left an orphan at a tender age, was educated in Hamilton 
College of that State. In 1826 he was engaged as private instructor in 
the family of ex-Gov. Floyd, of Virginia, and in 1828 went to Marion 
County, Mo., to teach. In 1829 he married Miss Sarah P. Pettus, 
daughter of Thomas and Rhoda (Dawson) Pettus, natives of Virginia. 
Mrs. Wilcox was born in Green County, Ky., in 1812. Mr. Wilcox taught 
a few years after his marriage, and then conducted the Western Hotel, 
at Palmyra, for two years. In 1843 he began the study of law, and in 
1845 came to Van Buren, and was soon admitted to the bar. He devoted 
his entire attention to his profession, and was one of the legal 
lights of Northwestern Arkansas for over twenty years. For several 
years he was school commissioner of Crawford County. His death 
occurred in 1864. To himself and wife four children were born: 
Granville (deceased), Rebecca, wife of C. M. Thompson; Juliette E., 
wife of A. H. Lacy, and Antoinette, wife of F. W. Schaurte, of St. 
Louis. Granville Wilcox was educated at the Ozark Institute, and when 
the Rev. Robert Graham organized the Arkansas College, at 
Fayetteville, he followed him to that place, and remained under his 
instruction five years. He graduated from Princeton College at the age 
of twenty, and then began to study law at home under his father. He 
was admitted to the bar when twenty-three, and served as prosecuting 
attorney of the Western District of Arkansas one term. He was 
political editor of the Van Buren Argus nine years, and in 1866 and 
1867 was a member of the State Legislature. He died in 1886, aged 
fifty. He was, like his father, a man of unblemished reputation, and a 
man of extraordinary legal ability. He was known as the "Little Giant" 
of Arkansas. During the war he served in the Confederate army, 
entering as third lieutenant, and leaving lieutenant-colonel. He was 
also quartermaster in the Indian Department. Henry Wilcox was an I. O. 
O. F., and Granville belonged to the Masonic fraternity. Mrs. Wilcox 
is enjoying a ripe old age, and makes her home with her daughter, Mrs. 
C. M. Thompson.