BIOGRAPHIES: Mrs. Thomas D. (Mary GILLIES) WILCOX, Trempealeau Twp., 
Trempealeau Co., WI

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** Posted for informational purposes only -- the poster is not related
to the subject of this biography.

Mrs. Thomas D. Wilcox, a widely-known and highly-respected resident of 
Trempealeau Township, was born in Delhi, Delaware County, N. Y., April 
15, 1848, daughter of John and Euphemia (Thompson) Gillies. In the spring 
of 1849, while yet a babe, she accompanied her parents to Fond du Lac 
County, Wis., they settling on a farm near Waupun. John Gillies, who was 
a miller by trade, divided his time between farming and milling, following 
the latter occupation in mills at Fairwater and Waupun. In the spring of 
1855 Mr. Gillies started with his family for Minnesota, but falling in on 
the way with some other people who were seeking a good location for 
settlement, he decided, after talking the matter over with them, to halt 
on the east side of the Mississippi River, and accordingly stayed in Buffalo 
County a few days. Not being satisfied with that region after a short stay, 
he returned south to Trempealeau County, which he had passed through on his 
way up the river, and settled in section 7, Trempealeau Township, where he 
started in to develop a good homestead, and from time to time added to his 
farm until he had in all some 400 acres, part of this property being what 
is now known as the Wilcox and Jones farm [in 1917]. On this land he built 
the present residence, which it was his intention to enlarge; but having 
traded a yoke of oxen for 14,000 feet of lumber, he gave the lumber away 
at different times to neighbors who wished to build shanties, until he had 
none left, and, as most of his sons went to the war, he never rebuilt or 
enlarged the old home. He died Nov. 7, 1908 [according to the pre-1907 death 
records, and also his burial records, John actually died on 07 Nov 1898], at 
the home of his son Richard, in Trempealeau Township. At the time of his death 
he had been a widower for some ten years, as his wife had passed away Jan. 25, 
1898 [her burial record shows she died in 1888], at the old home in section 7. 
For many years before her death she had suffered from the affliction of 
blindness. Her remains now repose with those of her husband in the cemetery 
at Trempealeau Village. 

Their daughter, Mary Gillies, subject of this sketch, was brought up on the 
parental farm, where she lived until she was 29 years old, assisting in the 
care of the home, and for a number of years taught in the rural schools of 
Trempealeau County, and also taught one term in Buffalo County, Wis., and one 
term in Winona County, Minn. June 14, 1877, she was married there to Thomas D. 
Wilcox, the ceremony being performed by Elder Owen, pastor of the Trempealeau 
Congregational church. Her husband at the time of their marriage owned an 
undivided half of the Thomas Gillies place in section 17, Trempealeau Township, 
and as a bride she went to this place to begin housekeeping for herself. Mr. 
Wilcox had fought for the Union in the Civil War and came home with very poor 
health, but he continued farming operations for many years, dying in Trempealeau 
Township, April 8, 1908, near the village of Trempealeau. He was buried in the 
village cemetery. He belonged to the Grand Army of the Republic, but was not a 
member of any other fraternal societies. In politics he was a Republican, but 
held no political offices. For many years he was a member of Trempealeau Methodist 
Episcopal church, which his wife attended with him, although reared a 
Congregationalist. Their only son and child, Dean G. Wilcox, was born on the 
Booth place in Trempealeau Township, July 8, 1882, and is now one of the 
proprietors of the Wilcox and Jones farm, in Trempealeau Township. 

-- Transcribed from "The History of Trempealeau County Wisconsin, 1917" 
pages 429-430 

NOTE - Notations in brackets [ ] within this biography were made by me. While I 
believe that some of the information in this biography is inaccurate, it is up 
to the individual reader/researcher to decide which dates are correct.