Barbara (Houck) Wilcox
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"Barbara Houck was born on 15 May, 1814 in Ashe Co., NC, a daughter of George and Barbara (Houck) Houck.
She was married on 16 August, 1839 to Samuel Wilcox, also of Ashe Co., NC.
Samuel Wilcox was born on 7 March, 1821 in KY, a son of Isaiah and Fannie (Greer) Wilcox.
They lived in Ashe Co., NC until 1850, when they moved to Pike Co., KY.
In the spring of 1862, Samuel and Barbara moved their family to Carter Co., KY and settled in the Rosedale / Deer Creek area.
In October, 1862, Samuel and their son, Francis Marion, enlisted in Co. D, 40th Regiment of the Kentucky Mounted Infantry.
After marching for miles through a freezing rain, Samuel caught pneumonia and died on 15 March, 1864 at Paris, KY.
Barbara (Houck) Wilcox survived her husband by almost thirty years, living in her Deer Creek home until her death on 6 April, 1893.
Samuel and Barbara (Houck) Wilcox were first buried in the Wilcox Cemetery on Deer Creek.
Later, their graves were moved to the East Carter County Memorial Garden Cemetery in Grayson.
They were the parents of the following eight children: Jerome (died young); Francis Marion (moved to IA);
Elizabeth, married William P. Lewis (lived at Pleasant Valley); Isaiah (lived at Rosedale);
Dr. Hamilton "Ham" Hardin (moved to SD); William (lived at Deer Creek); Dr. Daniel Boone (lived in Grayson);
and Samuel Vernon (moved to Huntingdon, WV).
In his journal, Francis Marion Wilcox wrote the following regarding his mother, Barbara (Houck) Wilcox:
"During her infancy she was learned to speak German, which language she spoke in her father's family until 21 years old,
at the same time speaking English fairly well.
She was deprived of attending American schools and consequently was not educated - only to read the Bible in that language.
Her relations in her father's family were domestic in every sense of the term.
She could sew, card, spin, weave, cook and do anything essential to be done in order to make her life useful.
Her services were in demand at fair wages in many families in which she did her part ably until over twenty years old
when she concluded she would rather be a Mrs. of her own house than doing another's chores.
Hence we find her matrimonially inclined. Upon meeting Samuel Wilcox by her good looks and loving smiles she
soon won for herself his undying affection...From the day Mother was united in matrimony it seems that her highest
ambition was to prove a devoted wife and make herself useful in all the realizations of a devoted wife and
afterwards to become a kind and obliging mother. Mother was a small woman not over five feet two inches tall,
fair complected, black hair, black eyes and in middle age possessing a round face with rosy cheeks,
an attractive nose and would weight at her heaviest about 140 pounds,
yet in later life seldom weighed more than 100 pounds. She was full of real life and inclined to joke and have her
innocent fun. Her greatest happiness seemed to be in having her children visit her at her home
where she would cook her rations and divide them with relish.
She lived for her children and friends and always enjoyed their presence and society.
As a neighbor she was kind and obliging and none was more attentive or devoted to those sick or in distress.
She would divide her last pound of coffee or flour in her house to accommodate a neighbor.
The poorer the individual the better it made her feel to accommodate them.
She did not crave wealth or riches, would often remark, "What need I to care for money?
When I am gone I cannot take anything with me when I die and so I live comfortable while here,
'tis all I need or want".
Submitted by: Chris Robinson, a great-great grandson of Samuel and Barbara (Houck) Wilcox.