The History of Cayuga County 1789-1879 page 287
Town of Conquest / Biographical Sketch of Harry Jefferson Wilcox

ditches over seven miles in length through the lowlands; built eight miles of new fence; and set maple trees on each side of the highway. At present there are six hundred acres more tillable land than when he commenced work on the island. He has built a grain barn capable of holding 24,000 bushels of grain; and within the last year has built a good sized farm house, eight hay barns, each eighty feet long; a horse barn and tool house, ninety-six feet long, and has repaired and painted such houses and barns as were worth repairing. He is now building a tenant-house. The last season he cut over 1,000 acres of grain and hay. He has cattle barns fitted up, and has at present 300 head of fat and store cattle, besides 125 spring calves.

If Mr. Fyler purchases this property, as he now contemplates doing, he purposes to divide it into farms of fifty or one hundred acres each and put them in the market.

The island lies lengthwise across the river. Its surface presents a somewhat singular conformation. With the exception of about one mile on the east side it is surrounded by a heavily timbered river bottom, varying from forty to one hundred rods in width, that upon one side being one or two feet higher than the opposite side. The south part of the island consists of eight hills, which spread out into inclined plains, separated by narrow intervals, and compose one-fourth of the hard land. These hills are similar in form, rising by a gentle inclination to about one-half of their height, then terminating abruptly and presenting a bold front to the north. Four are exactly 80 feet high; three others, about 100 feet; and the eighth some 12 feet higher than the latter. The remainder of the island consists of four ridges or table lands, which are separated from the hills by a narrow interval, and present the boldest front to the south. They are from one-fourth to one-third of a mile wide and one to one and one-half miles long, converging and uniting at the north and forming one general plain. The most easterly ridge is the highest and a line extended from it at an angle of two degrees touches the vertex of the other three. The hillsides are studded with boulders to a height of forty-two feet, but above that not a stone of any magnitude is found.

The soil is an exceedingly friable, sandy and gravelly loam, differing entirely with that of the surrounding mainland, which is a stiff clay loam. The temperature of the island, from its insular position, is some degrees higher and vegetation some days earlier than in the surrounding towns.

Exactly in the center of the island is a circular basin covering an area of about fifty acres and lying about six feet above the river bottom.

From the hillsides and higher parts of the table lands issue springs, about a dozen in number, with such force as to indicate their connection with the waters of the southern lakes in the County, which, conducted and kept under by the impervious underlying strata of the intervening country, finds an outlet through the porous soil of the island.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH



HARRY JEFFERSON WILCOX.

Harry Jefferson Wilcox was the third son of Mr. John Wilcox. He was born in Harpersfield, Delaware county, N.Y., March 3d, 1802. His father, who was born in Dover, Dutchess county, N.Y., February 7th, 1765, moved to Harpersfield in 1781, and purchased a farm of Mr. Alexander Harper, then an extensive land owner; but in the year 1840 he sold his farm and with his son Harry J., moved west and settled in Conquest, Cayuga County, N.Y. The following year Mr. John Wilcox died at the age of 76. His son, Mr. Harry J. Wilcox, has followed the occupation of a farmer from that time, taking the entire charge of his farm of 200 acres, until the year 1872. Since then he has spent much of his time in traveling west and south, which has afforded him the pleasure of witnessing the great growth of this nation during his life.

This gentleman has always taken an active interest in County and State enterprises. He is a Republican and strongly opposed to the oppression of any nation; and is always ready to contribute to the success or prosperity of our Union. He never sought notoriety, nor accepted public office.

December 21st, 1829, he married Miss Eliza Ann Brown, who was born in Blenheim, Schoharie county, N.Y., in 1807. They have had nine children--Delia, Mary, Robert, Henry, Ann Eliza, Julia, Martha, John and George, all of

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