Biographies For Muscatine County Iowa 1889

Source: Portrait and Biographical Album, Muscatine County, Iowa, 1889, page 524
REV. SHELDON E. WILCOX, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Muscatine, is a native of Ripley, Chautauqua Co., N. Y., and was born May 9, 1850. The family was founded in America in 1650, by ancestors who emigrated from Wales to America and settled in the New England States. The parents of our subject, Charles and Emily ( Palmer ) Wilcox, were natives of Connecticut, and in 1854 they removed with their family from Ripley, N. Y., to Wisconsin, and became residents of Waupaca County. At that time there were but five families in the county, and many were the trials and hardships which they endured on the frontier. They were obliged to go fifty miles to mill, and during the winter of 1854-55 the only bread which they had was made from corn ground in a coffee-mill. To add to the trials of the family, in the spring of 1855, the father was stricken with typhoid fever and died, leaving his wife with five children, the eldest of whom was but thirteen years of age, the youngest only four months old; but, notwithstanding her many difficulties and hard struggles, Mrs. Wilcox kept her little band together and provided their support.

During the winter of 1857-58 our subject attended his first term of school. The winters of Wisconsin were then very severe, and Sheldon had to walk a third of a mile to school with pieces of old bed quilts tied about his feet in place of boots. However, this did not prevent him making rapid progress in his studies. He began reading from "Sanders' Spelling-Book." but at the end of the term he was able to keep pace with those scholars who studied the fourth reader. The next winter he went through " Robinson's Higher Arithmetic," and in 1865, when only fifteen years of age, he began teaching school, and taught until 1870, being Assistant Principal the last year in the schools of Waupaca, Wis. In 1867 he was converted, and shortly after decided to study for the ministry. He pursued a three years' course in the Collegiate Academy of New York, graduating in the class of ' 73, with highest honors, receiving a $30 prize. In 1877 he graduated from the Madison University of New York, and delivered the philosophical oration, one of the highest honors conferred upon the pupils of that school. He was also elected a member of the O.B.K., for excellency of scholarship, and in 1880 his studies were completed by his graduation from the Hamilton Theological Seminary, of Hamilton, N.Y. The same year he received a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist Church in Homer, N. Y., and in 1884 responded to a call from the First Baptist Church of Muscatine, where he has since been stationed. He is an earnest laborer for the interests of the church, and under his ministration the church is in a prosperous and flourishing condition.

On the 14th of July, 1880, the Rev. Mr. Wilcox was united in marriage with Miss Sarah A. Baker, a daughter of John Baker, of Hamilton, N.Y. Three children have been born unto them: Florence Emily, born Sept.7, 1881; Frances Ethelwin, Nov.19, 1883, and Theodora Lucretia, Feb. 6, 1886.

---

Back to 1889 History of Muscatine Co. Index Page

Back to the Muscatine Co. IAGenWeb Index Page