Edward Parker Wilcox was born on December 17, 1837, in Victor, New York, to Jairus and Mary E. Wilcox. He moved to Chicago with his family, where his father, a Yale graduate and Presbyterian minister, succumbed to cholera in 1851. Edward began his career in the lumber business and served with distinction in the Civil War, achieving the rank of captain. Post-war, he established successful lumber and grain businesses in Chicago and later Yankton, South Dakota. In 1887, he founded the American Mortgage Company. Married to Fannie S. Hurlbut in 1867, they had two children, Jessie and Dudley.
Edward Parker Wilcox is a native of the old Empire State of the Union, having been born in Victor, New York, on the 17th of December, 1837, a son of Jairus and Mary E. Wilcox, of whose nine children five are yet living, namely: Albert B., who is a resident of San Francisco, California; Dr. Robert J., who resides in Wisconsin; Henry M., deceased; Ann A., who is the wife of Benjamin W. Thomas, of Chicago; and Edward P., the immediate subject of this sketch. Jairus Wilcox was born in Middletown, Connecticut, about the opening year of the nineteenth century, and he died in the city of Chicago, Illinois, in 1851, having been one of the honored pioneers of the western metropolis, which was a mere village at the time when he there took up his abode. His death resulted from an attack of cholera, during the memorable epidemic of the dread disease in the year mentioned. He was a man of high scholastic attainments, having been graduated from Yale College and having been ordained as a clergyman of the Presbyterian Church. His first pastoral charge was in the state of New York, and in 1837 he removed to Genesee, Illinois, being called to Chicago in 1845, and being one of the early ministers of the Presbyterian Church in that city. His loved and devoted wife survived him many years, her death occurring in 1885. The paternal grandfather of the subject was a valiant soldier in the Continental army during the war of the Revolution, having served as captain of a Connecticut company.
Edward P. Wilcox remained at the parental home until the death of his father, having been fourteen years of age at the time, and he forthwith initiated his independent career, bravely facing the exigencies and showing that self-reliance which has been the conservator of his pronounced success in later years. His early education was secured in the common schools and he had also the advantages implied in the environments of a cultured and refined home. From the age of fourteen until 1861 he was employed in the lumber business in Chicago, and he then withdrew from the vocations of peace to take up arms in defense of the republic. During about seven months of the year 1861 he was employed in the quartermaster’s department at General Grant’s headquarters, and in August 1862, he enlisted in Battery B, First Illinois Light Artillery. He entered as a private and was later promoted sergeant, orderly sergeant, and finally lieutenant, and in 1864, when his battery was consolidated with Battery A, same regiment, he was made captain of his company and commanded the same during many spirited engagements. He participated in the battles of Chickasaw Bayou, Arkansas Post, the siege of Vicksburg, the battles of Missionary Ridge, Resaca, Dallas, Atlanta, Nashville, and many other of the important engagements incident to the progress of the great civil conflict, and he received his honorable discharge in July 1865, having served practically during the entire course of the war.
After the crown of victory rested on the Union arms he returned to Chicago, where he became associated with his brother-in-law, Benjamin W. Thomas, in the lumber business, under the firm name of Thomas, Wilcox & Company. The business of the firm was rapidly expanded in scope and importance and the concern became one of the leading ones of the sort in Chicago, controlling large tracts of timberland in Michigan and manufacturing lumber upon an extensive scale. In 1870 Mr. Wilcox disposed of his interests in Chicago and came to the territory of Dakota, locating in Yankton, which was then the capital of the territory, and here establishing lumber yards, under the title of the Wilcox Lumber Company, while later branch yards were established in other places in the southern part of the territory. Finally, the concern also began dealing in grain and the business in both departments grew to be one of extensive proportions, while the firm gained the confidence of all with whom it had dealings, the policy followed being one of the highest business honor and integrity. In 1887 Mr. Wilcox withdrew from the firm and organized the American Mortgage Company, which was incorporated, and of the same, he has since continued president, the corporation being one which controls a large business and which provides facilities in the extension of financial loans upon reasonable terms and in such a way as to justify the confidence of the people who have recourse to the same. In 1890 Mr. Wilcox gave distinctive evidence of his public spirit and his interest in the upbuilding and progress of his home city, since he then erected one of the finest business blocks in the city, the same bearing his name, and in this fine structure the offices of the American Mortgage Company are now located. In politics he accords an unwavering allegiance to the Republican Party, and while he has never sought official position of any sort he consented to serve as a member of the board of aldermen, having held this office for one term. He is at the present time a member of the board of trustees of Yankton College, having been in tenure of this office from the time of the organization of the college, save for the interval of five years between 1886 and 1891. He and his wife are prominent and valued members of the Congregational Church, in which he held the office of deacon for about a quarter of a century, taking a zealous interest in all departments of church work and contributing liberally to its support.
On the 19th of November 1867, Mr. Wilcox was united in marriage to Miss Fannie S. Hurlbut, of Chicago, Illinois, and they are the parents of two children: Jessie H., who is the wife of Frederick W. Gurney, of Jamestown, New York, and Dudley B., who is a resident of Los Angeles, California.
Source: Robinson, Doane, History of South Dakota: together with mention of Citizens of South Dakota, [Logansport? IN] : B. F. Bowen, 1904.