William Edgar Willcuts
Mr. and Mrs. William E. Willcuts, Mr. Willcuts Foster Children,
Miss Mabel Willcuts and Frank Carlton Loring and
Mr. Willcuts Step-Daughter, Miss Lola Mosure.
For many years the name of Willcuts has been associated with the history of Grant County, and the head of the house today, William Edgar Willcuts, is ably upholding the reputation built by his father and grandfather for honesty, integrity and true worth. William E. Willcuts has been engaged in farming for many years, and he is also a well known contractor of Marion, having done some of the best work in that line which has ever been performed in Grant County.
William Edgar Willcuts was born in Franklin Township, Grant County, Indiana, on the 4th of January, 1862. He is a son of the late Clarkson Willcuts and Hannah (Druckemiller) Willcuts. Clarkson Willcuts was born on the 2d of August, 1840, in Grant County, Indiana, the son of Clark and Eunice (Hall) Willcuts. Clark Willcuts was a native of the State of North Carolina, and he was one of the first settlers of Grant County when he migrated to this State in 1834. He settled one mile south of Marion, where he lived until 1843, when he removed to Franklin Township. He was born in 1792, and died November 27, 1862. He was the first man to build a fence in Grant county, and at one time he built five miles of fence. He owned at one time nearly all of the land from Tenth Street in Marion tot he top of the hill, and most of the abstracts in the county records show his name. He was a strong character, a staunch anti-slavery man and aided in the operation of the underground railroad. The Willcuts family were all Quakers, and Clark Willcuts was a charter member of the first Quaker meeting which was held in Grant county. He was three times married, and Clarkson Willcuts and a sister were the only children by his marriage to Eunice Hall.
Clarkson Willcuts, who is given more extended mention elsewhere in this volume, was a farmer and a stock raiser, as well as being interested in the grain and lumber business. he spent his entire life in Grant County, and was one of the most beloved men in this entire section. His sudden death on January 27, 1912, was a great loss to the community, deeply felt by everyone. His wife, who was born in Carroll County, Ohio, October 8, 1862, is still living. Clarkson Willcuts took an active part in the affairs of the church and in the civic life of the community. He was twice elected and once appointed a Trustee of Franklin Township. Four children were born to Clarkson and Hannah Willcuts, all of whom reside in Grant County.
William E. Willcuts was born on his father's farm, and he received his early education in the grammar and high schools of Grant county. He was one of the first two students who received diplomas from the Grant County schools. After leaving high school he attended Earlham College at Richmond, Indiana, and then became a student at Purdue University at Lafayette, Indiana. After leaving the university he became engaged in farming, and has been interested in that vocation more or less since that time. For the past twenty-five years, however, he has been actively interested in the contracting business, and has done much work in the line of bridge and sewer construction, and in concrete work. He has built many bridges in Grant and adjoining counties, and he and the various men with whom he has been associated from time to time have filled a number of contracts in Georgia, Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. He has built up a reputation for thorough and careful work -work that will last -and his services are in great demand. He was also engaged in the coal business for a time. He owns one farm in Franklin Township, consisting of about two hundred acres, and has a half section of land in Van Buren Township, he overseeing their management.
Mr. Willcuts was united in marriage on the 24th of September, 1885, to Margaret M. Johnson of Sims Township. She died on the 18th of March, 1911, after nearly twenty-six years of an ideally happy married life. Mr. and Mrs. Willcuts were inseparable, traveling together a good deal. They had visited practically every part of the western hemisphere, and had also traveled abroad. They had no children, but adopted and reared with loving care a boy and a girl, who have been an honor to them.
Frank Carlton Loring was a babe of four years when he came to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Willcuts, and he is now a brilliant and successful electrical engineer. He attended the grammar schools of Grant County, and was later graduated from the Marion High School. He then entered Purdue University, from which he was graduated in 1904, having taken the course in electrical engineering. He next spent eighteen months in Rochester and New York City, New York. In the fall of 1906 he entered Columbia University in New York, and during that year as instructor in Cornell University, spending one year there. In 1909 he entered the employ of the Metropolitan Street Railway Company of New York City, remaining with them until January, 1912. After nine months spent at home resting he went back to University work once more, and has been an instructor in electrical engineering at the University of Illinois since September, 1912.
The daughter of the family, Miss Mabel Willcuts, was taken from the orphans' home at the age of six years. She received her early education in the grammar and high schools of Grant county, being a graduate of the Marion High School. She then entered the Mechanics Institute in Rochester, New York, form which she was graduated from the domestic school as a demonstrator in the New England States. In that capacity she is in great demand by large corporations engaged in the manufacture of domestic utilities, especially gas.
On the 12th of June, 1913, William E. Willcuts was united in marriage with Mrs. Luella Hier Mosure. Mrs. Willcuts has a daughter, Lola Mosure, by her former marriage. Mr. Willcuts' household consists of himself and wife, his two foster children, Frank C. Loring and Miss Mabel Willcuts, and his stepdaughter, Miss Lola Mosure.
Source: Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914, page 1065-66.