Copyright USGenNet Inc., 2022 All Rights Reserved USGenNet Data Repository Please read USGenNet Copyright Statement on this page: Transcribed and submitted by Linda Talbott for the USGenNet Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ =========================================================================== Formatted by USGenNet Data Repository Chief Archivist, Linda Talbott All of the above information must remain when copied or downloaded. =========================================================================== Illustrated Album of Biography of the Famous Valley of the Red River of the North and the Park Regions Including the Most Fertile and Widely Known Portions of Minnesota and North Dakota Pub. Alden, Ogle & Co., Chicago, IL, 1889 Page 654-657 ALVIN H. WILCOX. Prominent among the business men of the Park Regions of Minnesota is the gentleman whose name heads this article, a resident of Detroit, Becker county, Minnesota. He is a native of New York State, born in Cattaraugus county on the 21st day of January, 1834, and is the son of LANSING and MIRANDA (HOLMES) WILCOX, natives of New York. The father was a farmer in his native State, and is still living on the old home- stead. He is the son of WILLIAM and LORAINA (GREEN) WILCOX, natives of Massachusetts. WILLIAM WILCOX was a Presbyterian minister, and a graduate of Williams Col- lege at Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and of English de- scent. MIRANDA (HOLMES) WILCOX was the daughter of ALANSON and OLIVE (LEE) HOLMES, natives of Vermont, where they were engaged in farming. Her grandfather was ORASMUS HOLMES, a native of Massachusetts and a soldier in the Revolution. He enlisted under Col. ETHAN ALLEN, was present at the taking of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, and was afterward transferred to ARNOLD'S regiment. He was taken prisoner in the battle of Quebec, and after his release returned to the States and enlisted under General PUTNAM. He was finally honorably discharged, and settled in Chautauqua county, New York, in 1804, where, he purchased 3,000 acres of land, including the present site of the village of Freedonia. Afterward he moved to Ohio. This was in 1815. He died in Millersburg, Holmes county, Ohio, in 1828. The father and mother of our sub- ject were the parents of the following named children - MARY S., ALVIN H., CHARLES P., HELEN S., LUCY, ZETOLES and HOSMER H., all but one of whom are now living. Mr. WILCOX, the subject of this biographical review, remained at home until he had attained the age of twenty- one years. During that time he attended school and assisted his father operate the home farm. At the age of twenty-one he left home and commenced in life for himself. He went to Newark, Ohio, where he worked in a manufactory for two years. In the fall of 1857 he was appointed county surveyor of Licking county, Ohio, serving eighteen months. In the spring of 1859 he obtained the position of mining engineer of Coshocton county, Ohio, and remained there until the war broke out. In 1861 he organized a company for the Twenty-sixth Ohio Regiment, and enlisted himself. They went to Columbus, but were rejected for having to great a number of men at camp. Our subject then went to Chicago, Illinois, where he joined a company of engineers and bridge builders, but they were disbanded shortly after they arrived. Mr. WILCOX then went to Steamboat Rock, Iowa, and engaged in the profession of a school teacher during the winter of 1861-62. In the spring of 1862 he went to Dakota Territory, and located on the present site of Elk Point. In one week the river overflowed a few miles above him, drowning two settlers, which so discouraged him that he took the first steamboat going to Fort Benton. He went up the Missouri river to the Rocky mountains and was beyond any white habi- tation. When he reached Fort Benton he learned of the gold mines which were being discovered in the West and at once became fired with the idea of prospecting. He, in company with about a dozen others, crossed the Rocky mountains to Gold creek, into Montana, then Washington Territory, where they found seven miners searching for gold. Our subject, with his partner PATRICK OWENS, took the first claims and were among the first ten men who ever mined in Montana. One of the party was Ex-Governor SAMUEL HAUSER, and another GRAVILLE STEWART, afterward first president of the First National Bank at Helena, and now the president of the Montana Cattle Company. The location of their mining efforts was about ten miles from where the golden spike of the Northern Pacific Railroad was driven twenty-one years after- ward. Their efforts proved unavailing, for gold was not found in paying quantities, and when their provisions became scarce four of the party, our subject included, started for Walla Walla, which was the nearest settlement they knew of, being 450 miles distant. Their provisions soon gave out, and for three or four days they lived on fish and June- berries. They finally arrived at the Indian agency, Joco, where they recruited for a day or two. Our subject decided to remain and work on the Government farm, and the others resumed their journey. He remained there until the 13th of October, 1862, and then started for the Milk River country on the east side of the Rocky mountains, alone, with three horses. His purpose was to trap during the winter. After traveling for four days he met an emigrant train, under Captain FISK, the first party of emigrants who ever crossed the plains from Minnesota, and three men from this company joined our subject upon his return. While stopping to hunt a few days, near where the city of Helena now stands, a Blackfoot Indian stole one of the horses, and, although they shot and wounded him and recaptured the horse, the Indian escaped. On arriving at Fort Benton they learned that the Indian had organized a war party to pursue them. On account of the trouble with the Indians they finally decided to give up their hunting and trapping project and went up in the Rocky mountains, on the Prickly Pear river, remaining there all winter. The simple narration of their privations and hardships can not convey to the mind their meaning. They were sixty miles from a human being and 500 miles from a postoffice. Our subject remained in this out-of-the-way place for two years, during which time he was engaged in mining, and claims the honor of opening and operating the first gold mines within one hundred miles of Helena. For one period of five weeks they had nothing but meat to live on, and our subject went sixty miles in the dead of winter to secure a little flour, paying thirty cents a pound for it. During that journey he did not see a single house, and his bed was made with a blanket, with the snow for a mattress. In October, 1863, the few miners held a general election in the camp, and a party came one hundred miles to inform them that it was election day. While on the way an Indian stole his horse, but he followed him, shot him, secured his horse, and re- sumed his journey, but did not arrive until evening, so they voted by candle light, using an old hat for a ballot box. There were twelve votes cast, which included all the voters east of the Rocky mountains, one hundred miles from where Helena now stands, and it was the first election ever held in Montana. On the 15th of August, 1864, Mr. WILCOX started back for Ohio, going by way of Salt Lake City, 500 miles in a mule wagon, and thence to Denver, a distance of 600 miles, in a stage in six days and six mights. Mr. WILCOX says that that stage trip was the most severe journey he ever made. On arriving at Denver all travel to the States was suspended on account of Indian hostilities. After remaining three weeks in Denver he went to Omaha with a train of returning miners. Just before they arrived in Omaha they passed the first graders at work on the Union Pacific Railroad, a gang of fifty squaws. This was in October, 1864. Our subject then went across Iowa in a stage, and thence to Ohio, and in the following spring went to Pennsylvania, on account of the oil excite- ment. There he followed land surveying for six months, and then obtained the position of first assistant engineer for the Oil Creek Railroad Company, working in that capacity for six months, until the completion of the road. He then speculated in the oil territory, and was unfortunate in losing all he had. He then worked on the Alleghany river and in the pine woods for eighteen months. In the spring of 1868 he went down that river and the Ohio on a raft of lumber, on his way back to the West. He secured a position as civil engineer on a branch of the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy Railroad, and remained until the road was completed. From Chicago he went to St. Louis, Missouri, and obtained the position of deputy city engineer, working as such for six months. The climate not agreeing with him, in August, 1869, he removed to Minnesota, and in September landed in St. Paul with only $4 in his pocket. From there he went to Stillwater, and for some time worked in a sawmill, then engaging in the profession of school-teaching. In the next August he came to the Red River Valley as United States surveyor, and during that summer and the succeeding fall and winter surveyed through Becker, Clay and Wilkin counties. Taking a fancy to Becker county he decided to settle there, and has since been prominently identified with the official history of the county. He has since been engaged more or less in surveying, and in 1871 homesteaded 160 acres of land in Detroit township, where he settled and commenced to make improvements. In 1871 he was elected county surveyor, and re-elected in 1873. In 1875 he was elected county treasurer, which position he held six years. He then was elected to the county auditor's office, which he filled five years. For two years he was chief engineer of the Fargo & Southern Railroad. He purchased 4,000 acres of timber land and has since been engaged in the lumber business. He employs fifteen hands and is doing quite an extensive business. He owned a mill on the Otter Tail river, but in July, 1888, it was destroyed by fire. He has always been actively interested in the local interests of the northern part of the State. Mr. WILCOX was united in marriage on the 15th day of February, 1859, to Miss MARY E. HANNAHS, a native of Ohio and the daughter of SAMUEL and RACHAEL (PAIGN) HANNAHS, natives of Licking county, Ohio. Our subject is a repub- lican in his political affiliations and one of the promi- nent and representative men of the county. ==========================================================================