Ohio Biographies

Willard Seeley Hickox

WILLARD SEELEY HICKOX, the subject of this biography, was born in Thorndyke (now Brimfield), Portage county, Ohio, September 18th, 1827. When he was six years old, his father, Joseph W. Hickox, removed to a piece of land which he had entered at the Wooster Land Office, situated one mile east of Loudonville, then in Richland, but now in Ashland county. It was a wild place, with little improvement of any sort, save the rude cabin which afforded them a shelter, and which, till they could obtain something better, they were content to call a home. Willard being the only boy, at that time, in the family, was early initiated into the mysteries of acting his part in the minstrelsy of a new clearing, with black hands and face, without burnt cork, and learned to go to mill astride of a bag of corn when he was scarcely large enough to balance the bag on the horse's back. Here he made himself useful as well as ornamental from the age of six to eleven years, receiving little or no schooling.

In 1838 his father sold out his improvements and engaged in shoemaking in Loudonville. Willard had no taste or ambition for the occupation of a cobbler, and, being thrown out of his accustomed employment, sought work among the neighboring farmers. His first experiment at "hiring out" was with a man by the name of George Webster, who gave him the not altogether congenial job of riding a young horse to plow corn in a stumpy field. He received his pay in hens, Mr. Webster agreeing to give him "a hen a day" for his wages. He thus accumulated quite a stock of hens, the eggs of which he sold for from three to five cents a dozen, which was then the market price. He got along from one thing to another, working at farming till fifteen years of age, and aiding in the support of the family at home. At one time he worked a whole month for a barrel of flour, which he sent home for the family's use. He saved means from his summer's wages to go to school with during the winter months, and thus availed himself of all the opportunity offered to obtain an education.

In the spring of 1842 he came to Mansfield and hired out to do chores at the jail. David Bright was then Sheriff and B. McCarron Jailor. Willard was a very trusty boy and came with a good reputation, and was, therefore, entrusted with the keys of the jail to feed the prisoners, and other responsibilities, to which he always proved faithful. As a boy, he was willing to work at any kind of work for an honest living, and proud if he could do his work well. As a man, in the height of his success and prosperity, he is not ashamed of any work he has ever done. He had the enterprise to start out from home and seek his fortune, with a smooth shilling and a smooth sixpence in his pocket, his whole wardrobe tied up in a cotton handkerchief that cost him twelve and a half cents. The smooth shilling and smooth sixpence he paid to Jefferson Sprangle, now editor and proprietor of the Ashland Union, to make him a chest, which was constructed of half-inch linn wood, used in that day for making coffins, and was painted red. Mr. Sprangle was at that time an apprentice boy in Mr. Blymires' cabinet shop, the same now occupied by Grove & Beard.

He remained at the jail about four months. Judge John Merideth, then County Auditor, took an interest in him and secured him as clerk aud chore-boy in his office. He engaged first at six dollars a month and grew in favor and efficiency, so that the next year he got seven dollars a month, and the next year eight dollars, his wages being increased each year till he got twelve and a half dollars a month, which was the highest wages he received till he was twenty-one years of age. In the meantime he saved his money and speculated on a small scale, often making more than the amount of his wages. Being in the Auditor's office, he had frequent opportunities to buy tax titles, which he did to the extent of his means. He would sometimes buy colts, and feed and get them up in good shape and sell them at considerable advance, and sometimes speculate in notes; but his chief profits realized in this way were out of tax titles. He gathered him a little library, worked in the office nights and mornings, slept on the desk where he wrote, and went to school three months in the basement of the old Congregationalist Church, which stood on the site of the present new and elegant edifice on Market street. It was called a select academy, and was taught by Lorin Andrews, afterwards president of Kenyon College, and the late Hon. William Johnson, who afterwards represented this district in Congress.

By the time Mr. Hickox was twenty-one years of age, by these savings and speculations, he had a farm of one hundred acres, all paid for, two miles east of Perryville.

While in the Auditor's office, on the 6th of September, 1848, before he was twenty-one, he was put in nomination for the Auditorship and elected on the second Tuesday in October, having in the meantime attained his majority, and become eligible to the office.

On the 24th day of October, 1848, he was married at Mansfield to Miss Mary Jane Rowland, daughter of Deacon J. M. Rowland. They commenced housekeeping in the house now occupied by Col. Isaac Goss, the house, furniture, and all the appurtenances thereunto belonging, costing only one thousand dollars.

Mr. Hickox served as Auditor two terms, being re-elected in 1850.

In 1853 he exchanged his farm first purchased, for what was known as the Clark farm and mills in Troy Township, near Lexington, where he engaged in farming two years, and found the change conducive to a more robust condition of health, which had become somewhat impaired in consequence of his close confinement to office. While here, by appointment and two subsequent elections, he held the office of County Commissioner for a period of seven years, and in the fulfillment of its duties, built the first iron bridge ever erected in the county.

In February, 1855, he was appointed, without application or solicitation on his part, freight and ticket agent of the Ohio & Pennsylvania, now the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, in which capacity he served at Mansfield up to 1860, when he became the general agent for the road in the State of Ohio. He bought largely of the depreciated stock of the Pittsburg, Fort Wayne & Chicago Railroad, and made handsomely out of it. the road becoming consolidated, and the war making it a paying road.

Mr. Hickox was the first, in connection with T. T. Woodruff, the patentee, and others, to introduce sleeping cars upon the railroads, and organized the Central Transportation Company, whose silver palace cars, contracts, and property, have since passed, by lease, into the hands of the Pullman Palace Car Company.

In 1857 he went to Crestline and took charge of the business of the railroad, acting in the capacity of freight and ticket agent, dispatcher of trains, and paymaster for Ohio, under the Receiver of the road, in which position he remained till after the breaking out of the war of the rebellion.

Up to the breaking out of the war, Mr. Hickox had acted with the democratic party, but at the call of his country old party ties were dissolved. He felt that the salvation of the Union was paramount to all other considerations. He circulated a call for a convention of Union men, without regard to party, which was responded to by a large convention of the county, which appointed delegates to the State Convention at Columbus, which formed the Union party and nominated David Todd for governor, whose triumphant election at that time so largely subserved the Union cause.

After the breaking out of the war, Mr. Hickox served as one of the County Military Committee, appointed by the Governor of the State, to aid in raising and organizing troops and forwarding them to the field. In this he did efficient service.

In the summer of 1862 he was commissioned Lieutenant of an infantry regiment and assigned to duty as Post Quartermaster at Camp Mansfield, under command of Col. C. T. Sherman, and while discharging the duties of this position, received a recruiting commission from Gov. Todd, with authority to enlist men for the organization of the 10th Ohio Volunteer Cavalry. He recruited and reported for duty in that regiment one hundred and ninety-six men, and was commissioned Major of the same on the completion of the organization. They were ordered to rendezvous at Camp Cleveland in October, 1862. Thence they were ordered to the front to join the Army of the Cumberland, at Nashville, Tennessee, about two months after, and were soon marched forward to Murfreesboro. While there, Major Hickox had an attack of typhoid fever and was six weeks confined to the hospital. After recovering partially, in the forward movement he was too actively engaged for his strength, which brought on a relapse, and he was compelled to resign. After returning home and partially regaining his health, in February, 1964, he received a commission, signed by Lincoln and Stanton, as Major of Volunteers, and was assigned to duty as Paymaster in the Department of the Mississippi, under Gen. Febbinger, with headquarters at St. Louis.

In the meantime, while in Washington, he procured a charter for the First National Bank of Mansfield, and, while on his way to his duties at St. Louis aided in the organization of the same. While at St. Louis, through the urgent solicitations of his friends, he was induced to resign his commission to accept the cashiership of the First National Bank of Mansfield, which was opened for business on the first day of July, 1864. He has been identified with the Bank from that time to the present, first as cashier and director, and for the last six years as president.

During all this time he has been carrying on a farm and giving his personal attention to private business, and is now serving the last year of his third term in the City Council. He has been largely instrumental in securing that great improvement to Mansfield, the Holly Water Works. He was the prime mover in the new railroad now being completed, the Mansfield, Coldwater & Lake Michigan Railroad, and also an important branch of it called the Toledo, Tiffin & Eastern. He is president of these roads.

Mr. Hickox is a member and one of the Executive Committee of the Ohio State Board of Agriculture, and President of the Richland County Agricultural Society, which office he has held since 1869, and has secured the location of the Ohio State Fair in Mansfield for 1872 and 1873.

Since 1864 Mr. Hickox has been teacher of an infant class in the Sunday School of the Market Street Baptist Church, a position which gives him more satisfaction than any other he has ever held. He and Mr. Colby built the church, principally from their own means. He has been a member of the same since Christmas Day, 1842, and is exemplary in his Christian deportment.

It will be seen by this brief record, that Mr. Hickox has had a remarkable career from boyhood up. Starting out for himself at an early age, with no dependence but his own integrity and enterprise, impelled by a worthy ambition and guided by a rare business sagacity, he has made his own way in the world, and attained, chiefly by his own exertion, an enviable position among the leading self-made and successful business men of the day.

His career is, therefore, an example to the young men of the present generation, and illustrates the success that may be attained from the humblest beginning where integrity, persistence, industry, and an honorable ambition, are brought to bear in the common tasks of life. Few boys have started out under more unpromising circumstances, and few men have attained to greater success than Willard S. Hickox.