AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



43 



No. 64 -FraiiHln Wilcoi 



One of the prominent figures on the 

 wonderful gallery of the Agricultural 

 Building at the recent World's Fair, 

 where were found the more wonderful 



FRANKLIN WILCOX. 



and beautiful exhibits of the apiary, was 

 Mr. Franklin Wilcox, of Mauston, Wis. 

 We had never had the pleasure of a 

 personal acquaintance with him before 

 the past summer, but now we feel that 

 in Bro. Wilcox, as in many other nice 

 bee-folks whom we first met the past 

 year, we have indeed a good and true 

 friend. So we are glad to have this op- 

 portunity to also present to our readers 



another leading bee-keeper— one who 

 has done so much for advanced apicul- 

 ture in the State where he lives, and 

 who takes such a deep interest in the 

 prosperity of all. 



Like a great many of the famous men 

 of the United States, Bro. Wilcox had 

 the good fortune to be born in the State 

 of Ohio. We are not sure that this fact 

 has anything to do with his success as a 

 bee-keeper, but somehow we imagine 

 there must be something encouraging in 

 the feeling that one hails from a certain 

 locality where have come many who have 

 won deserved distinction, even to filling 

 the highest position of honor in the gift 

 of the Nation. However that may be, 

 at any rate Franklin Wilcox was born 

 in Hardin county, Ohio, in 184:0. He 

 moved to Wisconsin in 1851, and settled 

 in Juneau county, near where he now 

 resides. There being no school to oc- 

 cupy his mind, for a few years he spent 

 much of his time in the summer season 

 hunting his father's cows — for pastures 

 were bounded only by the horizon, and 

 the cows seemed anxious to find the 

 outer edge ; in the fall he frequently 

 went with his father bee-hunting, and 

 there learned from observation some 

 practical lessons in bee-keeping, and we 

 think he would spend a little time each 

 fall yet, in the woods, "lining up" the 

 wild bees, if time would permit. 



At the commencement of the late 

 War, he went into the army and served 

 to the close, being wounded at South 

 Mountain, Md., in September, 1862, 

 which disabled him from active service 

 for one year. 



At the close of the War he married, 

 and settled on a farm where he still 

 lives. He thinks himself quite content 

 with his comfortable home, a good wife, 

 and four children. 



In connection with his farming sum- 

 mers and teaching a country school win- 

 ters, he kept a few colonies of bees, as 

 some farmers do now, until about the 

 year 1877 or 1878, when he subscribed 

 for the American Bee Journal, and 

 soon after added Gleanings, " Cook's 



