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A portrait of Horace Wilcox (1842-1916)
Horace and his second wife, Martha Lord, standing in front of the house.
I still have the sewing rocker used by Amanda (McCourtie) Wilcox that's on the front porch.
A view from the west of the Wilcox-McCourtie home; The house is on the south side of what is now US-12 east of US-127.
Horace was a teacher at schools in Woodstock Township (he got his education at the Raisin Institute before enlisting in the cavalry
during the Civil War), and I think he served as township superintendent of schools at one time. This was in addition to farming.
He lived on the old McCourtie homestead that was inherited by his wife, Amanda McCourtie, after her mother died in the 1870s.
My grandmother, Jennie May (Wilcox) Welch, sold the farm out of the family after her father died in 1916. The upper level was
taken off sometime in the 20th century and the barn is also now gone, but the last time I was in the area about five years ago,
the house was still there.
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HUSBAND Horace Wilcox born October 26, 1842, Ogden Township, Lenawee County, Michigan married December 24, 1865, Adrian, Lenawee County, Michigan died January 5, 1916, Woodstock Township, Lenawee County, Michigan buried Chapman Cemetery, near Cement City, Lenawee County, Michigan age at marriage: 23 years age at death: 73 years son of Aaron Wilcox and Azubah Mark other marriages (2) Martha Lord, May 25, 1882, Jackson, Michigan WIFE Amanda McCourtie daughter of Thomas McCourtie and Catherine 'Cate' Doty Occupation Farmer; schoolteacher CHILDREN:
HISTORY: Horace Wilcox was born on his parents' farm in section 5 of Ogden Township, Lenawee County, Michigan. The family moved to a farm in section 31 of Palmyra Township about 1856. Horace did not get along with his father, so for
several years before the Civil War he lived with his brother Milesin Palmyra Village. Horace attended the Raisin
Institute in Adrian where he received his education. On August 22, 1862, he enlisted in Company F, 4th Michigan Cavalry at Adrian.
He served in Colonel Minty's brigade in Tennessee and Georgia. He was discharged as a Corporal with the companyin Nashville,
Tennessee on July 1, 1865.Horace returned home after the war and on August 4, 1865, bought a farm in section 34
of Palmyra Township from Edwin and Elizabeth Welch of LaGrange, County, Indiana. It was adjacent to the farm of H.J. Baldwin, a wagon maker and justice of the peace. This 70-acre farm was to be his, and his futurebride's, home for the next six years. On December 24, 1865, he married Amanda McCourtie in Adrian. Harvey J. Baldwin, JP, performed the marriage.In 1874 they bought the Thomas McCourtie homestead in Woodstock Township. The purchase was mentioned in the Adrian newspaper relating to land sales recorded in the County Register of Deeds Office, April 2, 1874: C.H. Chapman, et. al., to Horace Wilcox, land on Section 9, Woodstock Township, $3,600. Horace and Amanda lived on this farm for the rest of their lives. The farm remained in the family until Jennie Welch sold it in 1916.Horace Wilcox was a school teacher and farmer. He was also a school inspector for Lenawee County, and for two years was elected to the office of school superintendent for Woodstock Township. He probably taught at Woodstock School #2, as well as other rural schools in Woodstock Township. He was a life-long Republican and a member of the Congregational Church in Somerset, Hillsdale County. He was thrown from a horse on November 28, 1915 and later died of his injuries. His second wife, Martha, died in 1922 and is buried in Spring Arbor Cemetery, Spring Arbor, Michigan.Harry Dickens Wilcox, their son, served in the U.S. Army during World War I (serial number 1671404) as an aerial photographer. He enlisted on October 24, 1917, and, after serving in Europe, was honorably discharged on October 8, 1919. Before his enlistment he was teaching in the Holyoke (Massachusetts)High School. It was there that he met and married his second wife, Lulu Kamerer, by whom he had a son, Manon Wilcox, who was born in 1911/1912. Manon lived with his mother in Youngstown, Ohio in 1916 when he was mentioned in his grandfather's will. They disappeared while Harry was in Europe and were never heard from again. Harry's daughter, Grace (Wilcox) Putnam of Portland, Oregon was supposedly killed in an airplane accident in the early 1950s. Harry was a school teacher and real estate agent nearly all his life. At the time of his death he was teaching photography at a boys' camp in upstate New York. He is buried next to his parents in Chapman Cemetery.Edith was married to Benjamin North, an engineer at the cement plant in Cement City. They are in the 1910 census, he was 62, she was 42 and they had no children. HUSBAND Aaron Wilcox born November 10, 1803, probably Chester Town, Washington Co., New York married about 1827 probably in Ontario or Monroe County, New York died February 12, 1864, Palmyra Twp., Lenawee County, Michigan buried Hunt Cemetery, Madison Township, Lenawee County, Michigan age at marriage: age at death: 60 y 3 m 10 d [g.s.] son of Joel Wilcox and Catherine Randall WIFE Azubah Mark daughter of Miles Mark Occupation Farmer   Aaron Wilcox Azubah Wilcox (Images not available) CHILDREN:
HISTORY: Aaron and Azubah Wilcox probably arrived in Michigan in 1834. They bought land from the U.S. government in Section 5, Ogden Township, Lenawee County, in January 1835 and additional land in this same section on March 16, 1835. They sold parts of this farm on January 31, 1848, and March 30, 1850.On July 29, 1856, they got a mortgage from Nathaniel Gleason, both of Palmyra, for $204 down and $204 a year on a 95 acre farm in Palmyra Township,Lenawee County, described as the E' of the SW' of section 31. On April 30, 1859, a deed for 40 acres of this farm was recorded in Lenawee Countyand the mortgage was paid off on May 21, 1859. A part of this farm was his father's original land purchase in 1832. Aaron remained on this farmfor the rest of his life.Aaron and Azubah were separated during the 1850s and, according to the census records, Azubah went to live with her children in Ogden Township. She was living with Sarah Luke in 1860, with Luther in 1870, and was apparently dividing her time between Sarah and Miles in 1880. Aaron lived with a woman named Sarah (Randolph) Southwick and her two daughters, Lydia, aged 12, and Matilda, aged 2, in 1860. Their relationship to Aaron is unknown. Aaron's son, Franklin, also lived in his household in 1860.Harvey, listed in the 1850 census of Lenawee County as a cobbler, moved to Bryan, Ohio, where he married Ellen Young, probably in the mid-1860s. By 1870 they had moved to Topeka, Kansas, where Harvey (aged 38 and born in New York) worked as a real estate agent and with his wife (aged 25 and born in Michigan) were involved in real estate and operating a boarding house on Kansas Avenue in Topeka. Harvey published the Harvey H. Wilcox's Real Estate Publisher in October of 1869 (one issue) and served as president of the city council in Topeka in 1870 and as clerk, 1877-1879. They were in the 1880 census of Topeka with an adopted son, G.M. Stanley. Ellen probably died in Topeka between 1880 and 1883. Harvey then married Daeida Hartell, but the date and place are unknown. In 1883 the family moved to Los Angeles, California, where Harvey formed Wilcox and Shaw, a real estate firm, and was to found the city of Hollywood five years later. Elisha and Sarah Luke moved to Los Angeles at about the same time as her brother, Harvey, and Azubah probably went to Los Angeles with them. She is buried on the Luke family lot in Rosedale Cemetery. Harvey was also buried there, but was reinterred in Cathedral Mausoleum at Hollywood Memorial Cemetery (now called Hollywood Forever Cemetery) next to his second wife on November 13, 1922.Aaron Wilcox did not leave a will and there was no inventory of the estate, but the 1860 Agricultural Census shows the following property and harvests during the year ending June 1, 1860: Improved land: 30 acres; unimproved land: 10 acres; Value of farm: $1,600Value of implements and machinery: $100Horses: 5; No mules or oxen; Milch cows: 3; Other cattle: 1; Sheep: 10; Pigs: 3; Value of livestock: $467Bushels of wheat harvested: 32; No rye; Indian corn: 100 bushels; Oats: 80 bushels; Wool 40 pounds; No peas or beans; Irish potatoes: 200 bushels.
HUSBAND Joel Wilcox son of WIFE Catherine Randall daughter of Occupation Farmer CHILDREN:
SOURCES of INFORMATION Research by Mrs. Grace Dale of Fairfield, Connecticut. Death certificate of Susan Blackman Griffin, Cook Co., Illinois. Letter written by Susan B.W. Griffin to Mary Dale, September 1901. Letter, Susan Roberts, Perinton Town Historian, to Richard Welch, October 18, 1995.
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