52 Ancestors: # 35 Simon (1809-1904) Wilcox and #36 Lydia Sharp (1810-1893) Wilcox -- in which I disagree with The Book of Wilcox

Death Certificate of Simon Wilcox

This is my latest post for the “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks” challenge initiated by Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small blog. For more information about the challenge and links to the other blogs participating in the challenge, please click on the badge in the right margin.

As I mentioned in last week’s post about George & Mary Jane (Currier) Wilcox, I have a copy of “The Book of Wilcox” [typed pages stapled together], sent to me by my grandfather Owen Carl Henn which states it is “copied from a paper prepared by Laoma Sanford in 1971” and that it traces my Wilcox family branch back to Simon’s father, who it says is Mortimore Willcock. It also includes some family stories and some descent charts. Unlike some of the written family stories or trees passed down in my family, this one does cite its sources: “1. a psalter printed in London in 1822, with dates recorded by Simon Willcock (now in the possession of William D. Wilcox; 2. Family Bible of William R. Wilcox, copied by Mrs. Floyd Wilcox (whereabouts unknown); 3. Family Bible of George B. Wilcox (in possession of Mrs. Hazel (Henn) McArthur); 4. Family Bible of Charles H. Wilcox (now in possession of Mrs. Pearl Chamber).” I have no idea where those family Bibles & psalter, or the referenced copies thereof, are now and have never seen them. The Book of Wilcox also refers to obituaries and oral recollections collected by Ms. Sanford, and she notes some discrepancies between her sources, most of which are in regard to Simon Wilcox’s birth. And what little I’ve found in regard to his birth contradicts all of those contradictions as well.

My copy of the Book of Wilcox
 sent to me by my grandfather probably 30 years ago
My Dad's name is redacted as I promised not to name the living in my blog

Like with all research done by someone else, I keep an open mind and try not to rely on it too much as family stories twist over the years, and details get lost, and others get grafted on – particularly the further back from the writer’s generation one goes. I discovered that initially in researching my Mom’s side of the family, and I re-discovered it in comparing my research to some of the documents that have come down through my Dad’s side of the family, including Lucille Robson Henn’s book Members of the Flock (some small details and some large, some I haven’t posted about, and some I have, see my post on Andrew Henn.) In researching Simon Wilcox, and, necessarily, his parents, I think I’ve come across another one of those places where my research is going to diverge rather sharply from the accepted norm in the family set by the Book of Wilcox, but more at the level of Simon’s father, than Simon, and this entry is [mostly] about Simon and Lydia. (And it figures that the major break came after I’d thought I’d written 99% of this entry, and had started to consider pictures/illustrations, and I was just doing one more check on one detail, lol. )

The Book of Wilcox states that Simon was born on April 12, 1809. It includes a transcription of an obituary, found in the George Wilcox Bible, (that I haven’t found otherwise yet), which states that Simon was born on that date in Maine, subsequently moved to New Brunswick. In the Book of Wilcox, Laoma Sanford also states her father (William D. Wilcox), told her that Simon was born in Ireland but ran away from home and came over on a cattle boat as “a young lad.”

The claim that Simon was born in Maine in 1809 is problematic in that Maine did not separate from Massachusetts and attain separate statehood until after the War of 1812, finally becoming an official separate state on March 15, 1820.  I have not been able to find a birth record yet, anywhere, for Simon, but on the 1851 Census of Canada East & Canada West and the U.S. Censuses of 1860 and 1870, Simon reported that he was born in New Brunswick (before the country of Canada was created).  The Maine/New Brunswick confusion could have its roots in the ongoing border disputes between Great Britain’s border claims for what became New Brunswick  (at one point that area was almost called New Ireland) and the United States. The final border was settled on in 1842, but the map below showing the various claimed borders and disputed land shows for several years a substantial chunk of land was claimed by each country. If Simon was born in a place that was part of the disputed lands, later ceded to Maine, it could explain why he stated he was born in New Brunswick most of his life and at the end of it his obituary reported that he was born in Maine.

Disputed borders between New Brunswick and Maine to 1842, when settled.
By User:Magicpiano [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’ve not found anything yet to support the claim that Simon was born in Ireland and came over on a cattle boat as a “young lad”, but I may be poring over ship’s passenger lists at Olive Tree Genealogy  in the future to see if I can substantiate it, if my most recent possible breakthrough doesn’t pan out.

The Book of Wilcox states that, according to information written in the psalter by Simon, Lydia Sharpf Wilcox was born September 17, 1810 in King County in the province of New Brunswick, and that she and Simon Wilcox married in 1833 in that province. It does not name her parents.

Simon and Lydia had eight children while they lived in New Brunswick, three of whom died within two years of birth (birth dates courtesy of the Book of Wilcox, The ones I’ve marked with an asterisk I’ve not yet found anywhere else but in the Book of Wilcox):  Eleda Wilcox Campbell (August 24, 1834 –December 16, 1868); William Robert Wilcox (November 27, 1835 – June 5, 1924); Rachel Wilcox (August 12, 1837 - ?); George E. Wilcox* (June 12, 1839 – June 21, 1839); George Butler Wilcox (October 9, 1840 – March 19, 1928); Abner M. Wilcox (September 10, 1843 – January 1, 1917); Amanda Wilcox* (December 20, 1845 – October 24, 1847) and Mortimore N. Wilcox* (November 14, 1848 – April 28, 1850).

In 1849, Simon and Lydia left New Brunswick with most of their family. But, the Book of Wilcox indicates that they left their daughter Rachael in New Brunswick with the Sharps, but does not name them. The 1852 New Brunswick Census shows Rachael Wilcox, 11 years old (should have been 14),  living in Kings County, New Brunswick in the household of her grandparents, William (61) and Sarah (58) Sharp, and their children: Susan (27), William R. (22), and Charlott (20).  I wonder why Rachael was left behind?

In the years leading up to the 1840’s New Brunswick was heavily protestant, but since the start of the potato famine in Ireland, there had been a large influx of Irish Catholics, and a corresponding increase of Orange-Catholic tensions (the Orange Society was a community organization and fraternal order of Protestants in the Provinces), which culminated in riots in 1847 in Woodstock, New Brunswick, and another larger riot, in 1849,  involving a 1000 people  in St. John, New Brunswick, in which 12 people died. In the Book of Wilcox, Simon’s grandson recalled that Simon marched in the Orangeman’s parade every July 12 in Marlette, MI, as long as he was able, & wore orange on St. Patrick’s Day. It is possible that he and Lydia felt this rise in tension between the two religious factions endangered his family which may have encouraged them to move their family to a safer area, where other Free Will Baptists were moving to in droves.

Map showing Oxford County in (now Ontario) Canada
By Vidioman [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Simon and Lydia moved, in 1849, with the rest of their family, to Blenheim, Oxford County in the unified province of Canada (in what later became the section of Ontario just above Lake Erie). A history of Oxford County, by Thomas S. Shenston, published in 1852, described Blenheim, as one of the three largest townships in the county. It was “good land and well timbered, and the best watered of any township in the county…”  It was the first settled but was not much improved until the mid-19^th century, when it made rapid progress. It was during this period that the Free Will Baptist evangelists came to Oxford County, and a Free Will Baptist church was organized in Blenheim Township. While a large number of them came from the United States, a significant portion also came from the Maritime Provinces. At first the family lived in a shanty (see George’s story for a picture. Simon and his oldest son William worked as coopers, according to the 1851 Canadian Census (taken in 1852). The census does not list an occupation for George (12) or say that he was in school; Abner (9) was in school, and baby Charles was less than a year old. During the period they lived in Blenheim, three more children were born to Lydia and Simon (birth dates supplied by the Book of Wilcox): Charles Harding Wilcox (August 9, 1851 – June 27, 1933); Jane Wilcox (August 25, 1853 – September 17, 1860) and Simon U. Wilcox* (December 20 1846 --??).

But Blenheim turned out to be just a way stop on their journey and Simon & Lydia and part of the rest of the family moved on to Michigan, where tall trees and fertile farmland beckoned. In the 1900 U.S. Census, Simon stated that he entered the U.S. in 1856. The earliest record of him I’ve found so far is the 1860 Census, which shows Simon and Lydia, William, Abner, Charles, and Jane living in Rutland Michigan  (in Barry County). Simon farmed, on property he valued at $1200, and maintained a cooperage as well. [Eleda had married Jabez Campbell in 1851 in Canada, and they later moved to Michigan as well; Jabez moved the family next door to Simon & Lydia after Eleda died.] By 1870, Simon and Lydia and their youngest son, Charles, lived in in Burnside MI in Lapeer County. At age 62, Simon was working as farm labor, while Lydia kept house, and Charles (18) was at home. Simon indicated that he was a citizen of the United States. In the 1880 Census, Simon  said her was a farmer; he was 71 & Lydia was 70. The census shows that they are living with their son, Charles (28), his wife Ida (21), and their infant son Melvin.

There is no copy of the 1890 Census as most copies were destroyed in a fire in the Commerce Building in Washington, DC.

Lydia (Sharp) Wilcox died in January 1894 at the age of 92.

On June 20, 1900, when the census was taken, Simon (91) was a retired farmer, living in the home of his son, George, a farmer; but in this census he indicates that he is not a citizen.  Also in the household were George, 58; his wife, Mary Jane, 57, their son Arthur (22), daughter Mertil (17), son Russell, 17; and daughter Ethel (15.). 

Simon died four years later on August 10, 1904 at the age of 95, in the home of his son George. The death certificate stated Simon died of “senile delability”; it also indicated that his father was Robert Wilcox, not Mortimore as the Book of Wilcox states.

I had not been able to find anything on Mortimore Willcocks/Wilcox after several weeks of searching, and had decided just to wait until my next pass through the family to try more vigorously. But tonight, as I was finishing up this post, I tried searching Robert Wilcox, the father listed on Simon’s death certificate. I found a Robert Wilcox, approximately 23 years older than Simon, born in New Brunswick, and later living in Blenheim Township,Oxford County, in the Unified province of Canada, at the same time Simon is there. Robert was a Free Will Baptist and worked as a Cooper  in Blenheim; his wife, Jane, was too young to be Simon's mother but may be a second wife.  Later Robert and his wife lived in Sanilac County Michigan (which is adjacent to Lapeer County where Simon lived). To me, this looks like there is a strong possibility that Robert is Simon’s father. This idea is reinforced, to my mind, by the name of Simon’s oldest son William Robert Wilcox – was he named for both of his grandfathers? I will be looking to follow this trail further in the future and see where it leads.

 Simon was survived, according to the obituary by his four sons William and George of Burnside Township, Abner of Berrian County (sic), and Charles of Marlette, Michigan, and one sister, Mrs. John Smith of Port Huron, Michigan.

The 4 sons of Simon and Lydia Wilcox [William (front left),  Charles Harding (front right), Abner (back left) & George (back right)]
Found on an Ancestry.com tree and used with permission of Kerry Rose

If anyone has any information they would like to share with me on my Wilcox or Sharp families, I'd love to hear from you. Please leave a comment below or email me at the address on my Contact Me page.

Edit: I just realized I never said how Simon and Lydia were related to me. They are my third great-grandparents. My grandfather's (Owen Carl Henn), mother's paternal grandparents. The descent is Simon and Lydia (Sharp) Wilcox, to George Butler Wilcox (m. Mary Jane Currier)  to Myrtie Mabel Wilcox (m. Owen James Henn) to my paternal grandpa Owen Carl Henn (m. Anna Mae Bennett) to my father, then me!

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I’m missing George and Lydia’s entire childhood. I’d like to find more about that, for both of them.

 I’d like to fink a marriage record for them.

I need to look further into the possibility that Robert Wilcox is Simon’s father, and trying to find out who his parents are.

I want to check property, probate, and naturalization records for all.

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Death Certificate of Simion Wilcox. 1851; Census Place: Blenheim, Oxford County, Canada West (Ontario); Schedule: A; Roll: C_11745; Page: 17; Line: 4 (1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia ). U.S. Censuses for 1860, 1870, 1880, and 1900. The Book of Wilcox by Laoma Sanford (1971); The Oxford Gazetteer: Containing an Abstract of Each Census of the County of Oxford, and the Townships Comprising it, by Thomas S. Shenston (Hamilton, C.W. by Chatterton & Helliwell. 1852.)[Found as a Google e-book at https://play.google.com/books/reader?printsec=frontcover&output=reader&id=fQ8lAAAAMAAJ&pg=GBS.PA1 ]; Pioneer Baptist Work in Oxford County, by Zella Hotson, found atwww.ourroots.ca; http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canon/research-topic-church-religion.html; History of New Brunswick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_New_Brunswick; Historical News section of the website of the Irish Canadian Cultural Association of New Brunswick, http://www.newirelandnb.ca/Stories/Historical-News-Introduction.html ; http://new-brunswick.net/Saint_John/enter.html ;