Wallace Wicks

BARKLEY, COMINS, ELLSBURY, HAXTON, NIERMAN, WICKS

Posted By: Judy Wight Branson (email)
Date: 8/13/2004 at 10:50:30

Wallace Wicks, who has lived retired at Earlham since December, 1910, was long and actively identified with agricultural pursuits in this county, winning thereby the competence that now enables him to spend his declining years in well earned rest. His birth occurred in Jefferson county, New York, July 23, 1841, his parents being Benjamin and Chrilla (Comins) Wicks, who were natives of Vermont and New York respectively. The father, an agriculturist by occupation, operated a farm in the Empire state until 1856 and then came to Iowa, purchasing a tract of land in Warren county, which he cultivated for a time. His demise occurred in 1866. His first wife passed away about 1850, and he subsequently married Fanny Fuller.

Wallace Wicks spent the first fifteen years of his life in the state of his nativity and then came to Iowa with his father, driving from Iowa City, then the terminus of the railroad, to Des Moines. On attaining his majority he left the home farm and subsequently was engaged in teaming in Des Moines for a year or two. Later he operated a rented farm in Warren county for a few years and then bought forty acres of land there, which he later traded for an eighty acre tract in Lincoln township, Madison county, on which he made substantial improvements. At the end of a few years he disposed of that place also and bought and improved a quarter section of land in Jackson township, where he carried on his agricultural interests with excellent success until the time of his retirement in December, 1910. He gave eighty acres of the farm to his son but still retains the remaining eighty. The past five years have been spent in honorable retirement at Earlham, where he owns a comfortable and attractive residence.

In March, 1865, Mr. Wicks was united in marriage to Miss Elizabeth Barkley, a daughter of Samuel Barkley, who was a native of Ireland and came to the United States in a very early day, locating in Davis county, Iowa, where he followed farming until called to his final rest. To Mr. and Mrs. Wicks were born five children, as follows: Chrilla, who is the wife of Herman Nearman and resides in Missouri; Charles, who follows farming in Jackson township, this county; Hester, who gave her hand in marriage, to Frank Ellsberry and resides in Earlham; Josephine, the wife of Oliver Haxton, an agriculturist of Guthrie county, Iowa; and Roxie, at home. The wife and mother passed away in June, 1908, and her demise was the occasion of deep and widespread regret.

Mr. Wicks gives his political allegiance to the democracy and is a worthy exemplar of the Masonic fraternity. The period of his residence in this part of the state covers nearly six decades, and he is widely known as an esteemed and venerable citizen of Madison county.

Taken from the book, “The History of Madison County, Iowa, 1915”