IRWIN MILES WILCOX
San Jose Broom Factory and Dairy Industry
Surnames: HOPKINS, WILSON
For many years representatives of the Wilcox family
have resided in San Jose, bearing an active and helpful part in the work
of general improvement and progress in this section, and Irwin Miles
Wilcox is actuated by the same spirit of enterprise and initiative which
dominated his father. As head of the San Jose Broom Factory he is
controlling one of the important manufacturing enterprises of the city,
and he formerly had large dairy interests, displaying marked executive
ability in the management of his affairs. A native of San Jose, he was
born September 13, 1875, his parents being Miles W. and Adeline
(Hopkins) Wilcox. Both arrived in California in 1863, the mother
crossing the plains in an ox-team train, and the father coming by way of
the Isthmus of Panama. The young people met at Marysville and were
married about 1866. Mr. Wilcox was engaged in manufacturing brooms at
Marysville, and later when they moved to San Jose he established the
first broom factory here, building up a large business on Bush Street.
He also established a glove factory and for many years conducted a
successful business in this line, and in his passing away on July 27,
1911, San Jose lost one of her most public-spirited citizens. His widow
survives him, and lives in San Jose.
Their only child, Irwin Miles, acquired his education at the San Jose
public schools and the Garden City Business College, and following his
father's death, took over the management of the broom factory. With keen
insight into business affairs, he has been able to formulate plans which
have resulted in the continued growth of the business, manufacturing
brooms for the Keystone Company of San Jose, Hedges, Buck & Company of
Stockton, and other local trade. Mr. Wilcox was associated with his
mother in the dairy business for many years. They had two ranches, one
at Milpitas and the other at Santa Clara, devoted to alfalfa and
dairying, and owned some fine pure-bred Jersey stock. From Milpitas they
shipped their milk wholesale to San Francisco, while the California
Dairy, on the Santa Clara ranch, had one of the largest retail trades in
San Jose. On the death of his father they sold the dairy business, in
order ot give more time to the manufacture of brooms. They still own the
ranch at Santa Clara, renting it out to others. Mr. Wilcox also has
valuable real estate interests in San Jose, having firm faith in the
future of this part of the state.
Mr. Wilcox was united in marriage in San Jose to Miss Nellie Wilson, a
native of Pescadero, Cal., and they have become the parents of two
children, Wilbur and Muriel. His political allegiance is given to the
Republican party and his is deeply interested in everything that
pertains to the welfare and progress of Santa Clara County. Fraternally
he is connected with the Garden City Lodge of Odd Fellows and he finds
recreation in hunting and fishing. While it is true that he came into a
business already established, he has demonstrated in its control that he
has the same executive power and keen discrimination between the
essential and the non-essential which characterized his father and
placed him at the head of extensive and important business interests.
That he is a man of strict integrity and moral worth is indicated by the
high esteem in which he is held by those among whom his entire life has
been passed.
E. T Sawyers-History of Santa Clara County, California Los Angeles, Calif.: Historic Record Co., 1922,. page 489
transcribed by Joseph Kral
SANTA CLARA BIOGRAPHIES