Georgia:  Coweta County:  Biography of JOHN B. WILCOXON

====================================================================
USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing
free information on the Internet, data may be used by
non-commercial entities, as long as this message
remains on all copied material. These electronic
pages may NOT be reproduced in any format for profit
or for presentation by other persons or organizations.

Persons or organizations desiring to use this material
for purposes other than stated above must obtain the
written consent of the file contributor.

The submitter has given permission to the USGenWeb
Archives to store this file permanently for free access.
This file was contributed by:
Nel Rocklein 
TAROCKLEIN@aol.com
====================================================================

JOHN B. WILCOXON, son of Levi and Lena (Griggs) Wilcoxon, was born in Hancock 
county, Ga., in 1823. His father was a native of South Carolina and came to 
Georgia in 1819, settling in Hancock county. Here he remained until 1830, 
when he came to Newnan, where he followed farming in connection with milling. 
He was elected judge of the inferior court of Coweta county eight or ten 
years. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. John 
B. Wilcoxon came with his grandparents to Coweta county one year before his 
parents' arrival. He attended school in a pine log schoolhouse with a dirt 
floor and a log cut out for a window and a large, old-fashioned fireplace, a 
stick chimney and puncheon seats. After he became a man he rode five miles 
every day from his father's home to Newnan and attended school. Then for two 
years he assisted his father, at the end of which time he came to Newnan and 
began the study of law with Charles McKinley, and in 1848 was admitted to the 
bar. He kept his office open at Newnan and did a good practice until the war 
came on, when, in 1861, he made up a company known as the Coweta rangers, 
furnished horses for some of the men, and went to Camp McDonald. He was made 
captain of the company, which went from McDonald to Lynchburg, and from there 
to western Virginia. In 1861, before going into regular service, when the 
Phillips legion was formed, he was made a major of cavalry. He was taken 
sick after a short time in South Carolina, and was discharged in 1862 and 
came home, but after he regained his health he raised another regiment of ten 
companies, which was called "Joe Brown's pets," and served one year, the term 
of enlistment. He was a great help to the Confederacy during the war, after 
which his father-in-law helped him to start at farming; he was very 
prosperous from the start and now owns 2,900 acres of good land in Coweta 
county, which are well improved, with a brick dwelling within the corporate 
limits of Newnan. In 1852 he was elected as state senator of Coweta county 
and served one session. At the time when Tom Hardeman was speaker of the 
house he served one session of two years as representative of Coweta county 
and since that time has given his entire attention to farming. In 1850 he 
was married to Mary West, daughter of Rev. John Q. West, of Wilkes county, 
Ga., to which union four children were born, two of whom are living: John W. 
and Hattie (Mrs. J. P. Jones). Mrs. Wilcoxon died in 1857, and in 1861 Mr. 
Wilcoxon married Mary H. Cleveland, daughter of Aaron Cleveland. To them two 
children have been born, one of whom is still living: Cleveland Wilcoxon, a 
prominent lawyer of Atlanta. Mrs. Wilcoxon is a member of the Presbyterian 
church. Mr. Wilcoxon is now one of Coweta county's best and wealthiest 
citizens.

Transcribed from MEMOIRS OF GEORGIA published by the Southern Historical 
Association, 1895.