Civil War Articles by Julian WilliamsWillcox Dynasty Divides - One Stays North, One Heads South
This article was compiled by Julian Williams.
Thomas Willcox, when he started his papermaking mill in Ivy Mills, Pennsylvania, in 1729, probably didn't realize just what he was starting. In fact, times were tough in those days, when Thomas Willcox and Thomas Brown built their mill-dam on Chester Creek in 1726 for the purpose of manufacturing paper. After this, they acquired additional property and erected the mill. And it wasn't long before they realized that the enterprise probably couldn't support both of them, so Mr. Brown sold out to Mr. Willcox.
Not only were the profits scanty in the early days, but so was the equipment. We see below the list of items Mr. Brown sold to Mr. Willcox in 1730 as he was leaving the business:
"A mortice and hammers, a Vatt and a Pott, two Stuff Tubbs, a rag knife and block, one press paper mould and a pair of Shop paper moulds, twenty-six fulling paper felts, seventy-seven shop paper Planks, a Press and Rag wheel, a screw and box, Glazeing Engine, two paring knives, two little pails with iron hoops, one small adz, two pairing frames, one pairing Bench, three cocks, two troughs, one winch, a halfting bench, two tressels, a Iron Bar, six posts and eighteen rails for hanging paper, one pad, one pair of stillards, a box of Paper Hanging stoll, one hundred and sixty Tap Pots, twenty cogs, and three washers." Complete Greek to one not familiar with the terminology of papermaking. And probably only as useful but to one possessing the skills thereof.
Anyway, after Brown left Willcox, things began to pick up. The Willcoxes worked hard at the hand mill at Ivy Mills, the Revolution came, and, their paper, with its counterfeiting foils built in, became known all around and the paper's quality was rated as the best. Things were going good.
But the Willcox family was not one to sit around and let grass grow under their feet. For some reason, John Willcox (referred to as John Willcox I) cut the ties of the security and familiarity of Ivy Mills and headed south to North Carolina. Maybe he got iron ore dust on him up there in Pennsylvania and wanted to see if he could do better with it in North Carolina, a state that probably was not as established in the iron business. Maybe he had read the reports of the early 1585 finding of iron ore in North Carolina by the settlers of Sir Walter Raleigh. Whatever the motivation, John Willcox came to North Carolina and helped establish the town now known as Fayetteville, North Carolina. He was its first merchant.
He left there with his wife, Rebecca, and headed for Deep River, Gulf, North Carolina. Maybe Rebecca wanted to get nearer the sea - her uncle was Commodore John Barry, "Father of the U.S. Navy." But, notwithstanding its name, this place was out in the middle of the state. Deep River, yes, but no ocean. But, away they went and purchased land and established an iron works, blast furnace, forge, a sawmill, another store, a ferry and opened up the first coal bed for commercial use in the state of North Carolina. And the grass was not growing under their feet. They also had owned 1,200 acres of iron ore land in Virginia but had been rooked out of it by some slick swindler of Brutusean loyalty. Some you couldn't trust then and some you can't trust now.
But John could take a lot. He was rugged and sometimes fiery. Those characteristics often got him into trouble and he was jailed as being identified as one of the "Regulators" protesting unjust and tyrannical treatment of the citizenry. Taking up for the folks also made him highly popular and the people elected him as one of the two representatives of the newly formed Chatham County (NC) at the Colonial Assembly in 1771.
But the Revolution was brewing into a regular war, with its attendant need for the weapons and ammunition of the day. With meeting the need for the "big guns" clearly in mind, John set about making cannons and cannon balls for the use of George Washington and the Continental Army. So, we have the Willcoxes making money for the colonies up North and John making guns for them down South. The Willcoxes were generating valuable resources on both ends, for sure. No grass.
But the British wouldn't leave him alone, for sure, either. As soon as they found he was making the dreaded iron missiles of death and the armaments which hurled them, they quickly and unanimously decided to put John out of business. They accomplished this in fine fashion by destroying his iron works. Alas, not only was the business gone, but he had never gotten paid for all those cannons and cannon balls. But John proved to be the true patriot. He was going to do his duty no matter what the cost. Whereupon, he served as a dispatch bearer and courier for the Second North Carolina Regiment - often "misdirecting" British supplies to General George Washington's army in Philadelphia. John was crippled at an early age but that didn't adversely affect his great determination to succeed at the task at hand. And although he was not able to serve in the regular army, his descendants to this day can gain admittance to the DAR because of his brave and unselfish service to his country in need.
And back up the road in Pennsylvania, old Mr. Thomas Willcox was dying, and he was handing the papermill over his youngest son, Mark, because John had gone to North Carolina, and the others had either gone somewhere or had died. It was Mark who had to carry the business. So, even though Mark was one of the most prosperous merchants in Philadelphia at the time, he went to the paper mill and took up the Willcox mantle to continue making the finest paper in the world. And after him, it would be James, his younger son, who would do wonders with the mill. And we will talk some about that next week.
Credits:
Telfair History Book, 1807-1987;
Willcox Family information;
Ivy Mills/Willcox articles by Arden Skidmore;
John Willcox's Iron Enterprises by George Willcox;
info furnished by Gertrude Wilcox Williams and Diane Williams Rogers and others;
various other sources.
