George Norton Wilcox (August 15, 1839 – January 21, 1933) was a businessman and politician in the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, also known as the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian:

ɛ ɐwˈpuni həˈvɐjʔi Latin epsilon or open E (majuscule: Ɛ, minuscule: ɛ) is a letter of the extended Latin alphabet, based on the lowercase of the Greek letter epsilon (ε). It was introduced in the 16th century by Gian Giorgio Trissino to represent the pronunc ...

, was an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country from 1795 to 1893, which eventually encompassed all of the inhabited Hawaii ...

and

Territory of Hawaii The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territories of the United States, organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from Apri ...

Life

George Norton Wilcox was born in

Hilo Hilo () is the largest settlement in and the county seat of Hawaii County, Hawaiʻi, United States, which encompasses the Island of Hawaiʻi, and is a census-designated place (CDP). The population was 44,186 according to the 2020 census. I ...

August 15, 1839. His father was Abner Wilcox and mother was Lucy Eliza Hart. His parents were in the company of missionaries to Hawaii for the

American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions (ABCFM) was among the first American Christian mission, Christian missionary organizations. It was created in 1810 by recent graduates of Williams College. In the 19th century it was the l ...

, sailing in 1836. His parents taught at the Hilo Mission boarding school founded by David Belden Lyman and his wife. He had one older brother and two younger ones born while at Hilo. In 1846, the family moved to teach at a similar school at the Waioli Mission near

Hanalei, Hawaii Hanalei is a census-designated place (CDP) in Kauai County, Hawaii, United States. The population was estimated at 299 as of 2019. ''Hanalei'' means " lei making" in Hawaiian. Alternatively, the name ''Hanalei'' also means "crescent bay" and ma ...

, on the northern coast of the island of

Kauai Kauai (), anglicized as Kauai ( or ), is one of the main Hawaiian Islands. It has an area of 562.3 square miles (1,456.4 km2), making it the fourth-largest of the islands and the 21st-largest island in the United States. Kauai lies 73 m ...

. There he had four more brothers, although one died young. He graduated from

Punahou School Punahou School (known as Oahu College until 1934) is a private, co-educational, college preparatory school in Honolulu, Hawaii. More than 3,700 students attend the school from kindergarten through 12th grade. The school was established by P ...

1850–1860, and worked for

Samuel Gardner Wilder Samuel Gardner Wilder (June 20, 1831 – July 28, 1888) was an American shipping magnate and politician who developed a major transportation company in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Life Samuel Gardner Wilder was born June 20, 1831, in Leominster, ...

loading a shipload of

guano Guano (Spanish from ) is the accumulated excrement of seabirds or bats. Guano is a highly effective fertiliser due to the high content of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium, all key nutrients essential for plant growth. Guano was also, to a le ...

from

Jarvis Island Jarvis Island (; formerly known as Bunker Island or Bunker's Shoal) is an uninhabited coral island located in the South Pacific Ocean, about halfway between Hawaii and the Cook Islands. It is an Territories of the United States#Unincorporated u ...

. He then attended

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

from 1860 to 1862, where he studied

civil engineering Civil engineering is a regulation and licensure in engineering, professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads ...

in the

Sheffield Scientific School Sheffield Scientific School was founded in 1847 as a school of Yale University, Yale College in New Haven, Connecticut, for instruction in science and engineering. Originally named the Yale Scientific School, it was renamed in 1861 in honor of Jos ...

. When he returned, he and his younger brother Albert worked for

Robert Crichton Wyllie Robert Crichton Wyllie (October 13, 1798 – October 19, 1865) was a Scottish physician and businessman. He served for twenty years as Minister of Foreign Affairs in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Early life Wyllie was born October 13, 1798, in an area ...

on his Princeville Plantation. Albert would later buy the Princeville Plantation near Hanalei. George leased and then bought Grove Farm from Hermann A. Widemann (1822–1899) starting in 1864. Using his engineering training, he designed an irrigation system to bring water from the wet mountains to the

sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...

fields, an idea later copied by many other planters. He continued to grow the farm, and invest in related enterprises, such as other plantations on other islands, a guano fertilizer company of his own, and the Inter-Island Steam Navigation Company. In 1880 he was elected to the house of representatives of the

legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom The Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom () was the bicameral (later unicameral) legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom. A royal legislature was first provided by the 1840 Constitution and the 1852 Constitution was the first to use the term Legi ...

. When the upper house (known as the House of Nobles) became an elected body in 1887, he served in it from 1888 to 1892. He was appointed as Minister of the Interior from November 8, 1892, to January 12, 1893. A few days later the

overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom was overthrown in a ''coup d'état'' against Queen Liliʻuokalani that took place on January 17, 1893, on the island of Oahu. The coup was led by the Committee of Safety, composed of seven foreign residents (five Ame ...

ended the monarchy. The upper house of the legislature then became the senate of the

Republic of Hawaii The Republic of Hawaii (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Lepupalika o Hawaii'' epupəˈlikə o həˈvɐjʔi was a short-lived one-party state in Hawaii, Hawaii between July 4, 1894, when the Provisional Government of Hawaii had Black Week (H ...

where he was elected through 1898. After World War I, when the

US Army Corps of Engineers The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) is the military engineering branch of the United States Army. A direct reporting unit (DRU), it has three primary mission areas: Engineer Regiment, military construction, and civil wor ...

proposed building a harbor on the island, Wilcox bought the entire bond issue to finance

Nawiliwili Harbor Nawiliwili Beach Park is a beach park and port on the south-east coast of the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands The Hawaiian Islands () are an archipelago of eight major volcanic islands, several atolls, and numerous smaller islets in ...

. He died January 21, 1933. Since he never married, his estate was left to his nephews and nieces. It was one of the largest estates in the territory at the time.

Family and legacy

Younger brother Albert Spencer Wilcox was born May 24, 1844, married Luahiwa, and then Emma Mahelona, became a wealthy plantation owner and politician, and died July 7, 1919. Another younger brother Samuel Whitney Wilcox was born September 19, 1847, at Waioli, married Emma Lyman (daughter of the Hilo missionaries), had six children, and died May 23, 1929. Although Samuel's youngest son Gaylord inherited the farm, his two prominent daughters were Elsie Hart Wilcox(1874–1954), who became the first female territorial senator of Hawaii, and Mabel Isabel Wilcox (1882–1978) who led the restoration of the Waioli and Grove Farm houses into museums.

Wilcox Health Wilcox Medical Center is part of Hawaii Pacific Health Hawaii Pacific Health is a nonprofit health care network of hospitals, clinics, physicians and care providers covering Hawaii and the Pacific Region. History Hawaii Pacific Health was fo ...

and George Norton Wilcox Memorial Hospital are named for him; hospital founder Mabel Wilcox was a nurse and commissioner of public health. The Grove Farm Company (incorporated in 1922) was kept in the family until it was sold to Stephen McConnell Case in 2000.

Life

Family and legacy

Family tree

See also

References

Further reading