Biographical Sketch of J. C. Wilkinson, Johnson County, Missouri,
Jackson Township.

>From "History of Johnson County, Missouri," by Ewing Cockrell,
Historical Publishing Company, Topeka, Cleveland, 1918.
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J. C. Wilkinson, a successful and prosperous farmer and stockman of
Jackson township, is a worthy representative of one of Johnson countys
best pioneer families.  Mr. Wilkinson is a native of Johnson county.
He was born in 1871, a son of Alec and Elizabeth (Wolfenbarger) Wilk-
inson.  Alec Wilkinson was a son of James S. Wilkinson, who was a 
member of a prominent colonial family of Virginia.  The Wilkinson's
were well to do people in the South and the parents of James S. Wilk-
inson spent their lives on the large plantation in the state of 
Virginia.  There the son, James S., was born and reared.  On his
father's plantation, he received his first lessons in practical 
husbandry and by the time he had attained manhood he was a capable and
intelligent agriculturist.  He came to Missouri in 1856, the first of
this particular branch of the Wilkinson family to settle in Johnson
county.  Alec Wilkinson, father of J. C. Wilkinson spent his childhood
and youth on the Wilkinson home place in Johnson county.  The public 
schools afforded him the advantages of an elementary education and he
conscientiously pursued his studies with the object in view of prepar-
ing himself for teaching.  For several years, he was engaged in educa-
tional work in Johnson county.  As a teacher, he displayed abilities of 
a high order, but not being pleased or satisfied with the financial
prospects the educational fields presented an ambitious, young man, he
wisely decided to direct his abilities into the other channels and for
many years was engaged in blacksmithing and in later life in farming
and stock raising.  Mr. Wilkinson was the owner of six hundred acres of
land at one time, one hundred sixty acres of which were located in
Lafayette county.  In 1880, he moved to his farm in Lafayette county
and there his death occurred, a few years afterward.  Mr. and Mrs. Alec
Wilkinson were the parents of ten children, eight of whom are now
living: J. C., Bates City, Missouri; Mrs. Anna Patterson, Odessa, Miss-
ouri; Joe M., James M., Ivan A., Mrs. Maggie Dean, Eva M. and Wesley M.
all of Bates City, Missouri.  While he primarily attended strictly to
his farm duties, Alec Wilkinson was not unmindful of the claims a
community has upon its citizens.  Public spirited, he took an active
and deep interest in the affairs of his township and county and in
social circles his standing as a high minded, courteous gentleman of
the old school was fully assured.  Throughout life, Mr. Wilkinson gave
his aid and influence to further all enterprises which tended to the
social and moral advancement of his fellowmen.  Elizabeth (Wolfenbar-
ger) Wilkinson, daughter of John Wolfenbarger, one of the first 
settlers of Johnson county, has been making her home since the death of
her husband with an unmarried daughter in Lafayette county.  J. C.
Wilkinson attended the city schools of Odessa, Missouri, and later was
a student at the Warrensburg State Normal School.  He completed a
business course at Spalding's Business College, Kansas City, Missouri,
and then began life for himself engaged in farming and stock raising.
Mr. Wilkinson now owns four hundred fifty-one acres of excellent farm
land in Johnson county and one hundred ninety-six acres elsewhere.  Two
hundred forty acres of his place are in bluegrass and Mr. Wilkinson is
devoting much time and attention to stock raising.  He handles high
class jacks and keeps a registered trotting stallion.  He is constantly
buying and selling stock and, at the time of this writing, he now has
thirty-five head of mules, ninety head of cattle among which are 
twenty-five head of purebred Herefords and a registered Hereford male,
and about fifty head of Duroc Jersey and Poland China hogs.  The Wilk-
inson farm is well watered and fenced and is admirably adapted to stock
raising and grain producing and this autumn, of 1917, Mr. Wilkinson 
harvested fifty tons of hay, fifteen hundred bushels of wheat, twelve
hundred bushels of oats, and he had one hundred twenty-five acres in
corn and has planted one hundred twenty acres of his farm in wheat.  
Mr. Wilkinson is an up to date, highly intelligent agriculturist and 
an enthusiastic advocate of crop rotation, clover growing, and of the
constant use of the manure spreader.  Mr. Wilkinson is a stanch suppor-
ter of the principles of the Democratic party.  He is, as his father 
was before him, a public spirited, enterprising citizen, one who 
possesses the unbounded confidence of all who know him.  His success in
life is not altogether the result of self-denial, but rather the out-
come of intelligent financiering, industry, and good judgement.  In
short, he is the kind of many every community is proud to claim.

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