"Biographical Record and Portrait Album of Hamilton and Wright Counties, Iowa," Chicago, 1889, page 528:

Stephen Wilcox is one of the earliest of the pioneers of Wright County, in fact, he and his brother-in-law, William Stryker, have the honor of being the oldest residents of the county. Mr. Wilcox was born in Mercer County, Pennsylvania, in 1824. His father was Job Wilcox and his mother, before marriage, was Polly Gage. They had three sons and two daughters who grew to man and womanhood, viz.: Roxana is the wife of William Stryker, of this township; Stephen was the second, and the third was Daniel, now a resident of Arkansas; Isaiah went to California during the gold excitement and is probably deceased, as he has not been heard from for many years; Mary married Edwin Wallace, and died in the State of Indiana. The mother of the subject of this notice died in Indiana, about 1840, and the father in Illinois in 1846. Stephen was reared to the occupation of farming. He was obliged to make his own way in the world from an early age, working at whatever he could find to do and attending the school of his district as much as he was able. When he had grown to manhood he married Miss Sabrina Harrison. He came to this county with Mr. Stryker in 1854; his family then consisted of a wife and three children. He entered 160 acres of land, which he still owns, to which he has added and he now owns 278 acres of good land. Here Mr. Wilcox has lived for the long period of thirty-four years; here he and his faithful wife labored through the pioneer days to make for themselves and family a home. On the 20th of May, 1887, Mr. Wilcox was deprived of his faithful wife. To them had been born twelve children, ten sons and two daughters, all of whom are living, viz.: Henry I., Mary E., Job, Benjamin, Alexander, James, Frank, Wesley, Sarah, Nathan, Walter and Joseph. Three of the sons are at home in 1888. In politics Mrs. Wilcox is a Republican. Mr. Wilcox, as before stated, is one of the pioneers of Wright County, coming here when all was new, and has witnessed the marvelous growth of this part of Iowa. Scarcely had the red man ceased to claim this territory as his hunting ground when Mr. Wilcox came here; what changes have taken place, now all is plentiful where was then a boundless state of wilderness. The coming generations will scarcely realize the hardships and privations the pioneers underwent to make the great State of Iowa what it now is, and none is more worthy of a permanent place in the history of the pioneers than is Mr. Stephen Wilcox."