Will County IL Archives Biographies.....Wilcox, Edmund 1816 - 
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Author: Portrait & Biographical Album, 1890

EDMUND WILCOX. 

For a period of thirteen years 'Squire Wilcox has officiated as Justice of the 
Peace in Joliet, being elected to this office in the spring of 1877, and 
serving continuously by re-elections since that time. He was elected each time 
by an almost unanimous vote, and at the last election received all but fifty 
of the ballots cast. One year he received twenty-three hundred out of about 
twenty-four hundred - votes cast. Although a pronounced Democrat, his name was 
on all the tickets of all parties and these facts indicate his popularity 
among the people of this county. He keeps one of the neatest dockets ever 
opened, there being scarcely a blot on all the pages on which he has entered 
records for the last thirteen years. Socially and in business circles he is a 
universal favorite, being of genial and obliging disposition, and making 
friends where ever he goes. The subject of this notice was born September 18, 
1816, in Onondaga County, N. Y., and is thus approaching the seventy-fourth 
year of his age. He is the offspring of an excellent family, being the son of 
Loammi and Hannah (Paddock) Wilcox, who were natives respectively of 
Connecticut and Washington County, N. Y. The father was a farmer by occupation 
and met an accidental death in Onondaga County in 1836, at the age of fifty 
years. The parental household consisted of four children, of whom Edmund was 
the second born. His younger brother, Harvey, of Los Gatos, Cal., is now 
deceased; Cordelia W., Mrs. Clement, resides in Joliet; Caroline, the wife of 
Dr. Wilson, died in her native county; Loammi Wilcox was a carpenter by trade, 
which he followed, however, but a few years, finally engaging in the more 
congenial occupations of farm life. The Wilcox family was an old and prominent 
one in New England. The district school afforded Mr. Wilcox his early 
education and later he entered Hamilton College at Clinton, N. Y., from which 
he was graduated in 1835. The following year he came to Joliet, and for thirty 
years thereafter was engaged in the dry- goods business, being part of the 
time associated in partership with his brother-in-law, Mr. Clement. He has 
always signalized himself as a progressive and public-spirited citizen and for 
ten years was President of the Gas Company, superintending the construction of 
their building and being otherwise prominent in its management, and for a 
number of years was a prominent member of the City Council. In making the 
journey hither from New York State he traveled overland by team, sometimes in 
a wagon and sometimes on a sled, it being in winter, and accompanied by three 
other young men. He thus had a full experience of pioneer life and has been 
the interested witness of the transformation of this section of the country 
from a wilderness into the abode of a civilized and prosperous people. After 
becoming a resident of Joliet Mr. Wilcox was married March 26, 1845, to Miss 
Sarah M., daughter of Joseph and Electa (Chauncey) Green. The parents of Mrs. 
Wilcox came to this State from Washington County, N. Y., settling in McHenry 
County. During his younger years Mr. Green engaged in merchandising, but after 
coming to Illinois, turned his attention to agricultural pursuits. Mr. and 
Mrs. Green spent their last years in Blue Island, Cook County. Mrs. Wilcox was 
born July 23, 1825, in Washington County, N. Y., and remained a member of her 
father's household until her marriage. Of her union with our subject there was 
born a family of seven children, three of whom died in infancy: Alvin C. who 
died May 11, 1873, leaving one child, now the wife of H. E. Porter, of Joliet; 
William G., is Cashier of the First National Bank; Frederick C. is engaged as 
a lumber dealer, manager and partner of the firm of Wilcox Bros.; Charles C. 
is the City Clerk of Joliet. Mrs. Sarah M. Wilcox departed this life at her 
home in Joliet, March 12, 1890, at the age of sixty-four years. The long 
period during which Mr. Wilcox has resided in Will County has made him well 
known to the citizens, who will therefore welcome his portrait as a valued 
addition to the Album. 

Additional Comments:
Portrait and Biographical Album of Will County, Illinois, Containing Full Page 
Portraits and Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens 
of the County; Chicago: Chapman Bros., 1890

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