(submitted by Wayne Wilcocks and Janet Firman)
Wayne Wilcocks reminisced about his great-great-grandparents leaving England and settling in Pennsylvania for some time. His great-grandparents moved to Avoca, Michigan, not far from Port Huron. This is where Wayne’s grandfather Joe was born in the 1890s. Later his great-grandfather moved to Ontario and settled on the east ½ of Lot 14, 6th Line NER (Hickory Creek Line), Warwick Twp.
Joe married Pearl Evans from Bosanquet Twp. They had four boys and two girls: Laverne of Warwick; Grant of Thedford; Murray of Forest; Donald of Warwick Village; Joyce, who married Kenneth Ross of Thedford; and Faye, who married Melvin Parker of Arkona.
Laverne Wilcocks (1919–1971) was born on the home place. He married Laura Martelle from Bosanquet Twp. in 1940. They had nine children: Wayne, who married Dorothy Davidson of Bosanquet Twp.; Harley, who married Dorothy Brown of Watford; Nelson, who married Marie Clarke, then Mary Vandenheuvel; Garry, who married Judy Scarrow of Warwick Twp.; Elmer; Janet, who married John Fitchett of Arkona; Willa, who married Douglas Campbell of London; Paul, who married Reta Vandenheuvel; and Brian of Sarnia.
Raising a large family on the farm was hard just after the depression years. Laverne and Laura raised chickens, killed, dressed them and took them to the Sarnia market to sell. Laura made all of the children’s clothing. She baked dozens of large rolls which were devoured very quickly. The Wilcocks family killed their own pigs. They had a freezer box at the Arkona Cold Storage where they kept the pork. Whenever one of the family was in Arkona and they needed meat, they would bring home a couple of large roasts.
On a Saturday night they always went to town. Their father would give them a bit of change for a treat. A movie was 15 cents in Forest; pop was five cents and a chocolate bar was five cents. In the spring their entertainment was going fishing in the creeks and spearing suckers which made good eating, only for the bones.
Wayne remembers the long walk to the old one-room school, SS#16 & 20 (Warwick & Bosanquet). It was over a mile each way. He also remembers cutting Jack and Mabel Goldsmith’s large lawn for twenty cents each time with a push mower. The Canada Bread truck came to the farm three times a week, leaving twelve loaves of bread or more each time, at nine cents a loaf. Wayne remembers in 1959 when the family put a bathroom into their house. They bought a new Ford Ferguson tractor in 1955 and had hydro installed in 1957.
The Free Methodist Church (White Church) at the corner of the Sixth Line (Hickory Creek Line) and 12 Sideroad (First School Rd.) was moved to Kettle Point by Nelson and Harley Wilcocks Bros. of Watford. For the past 36 years Nelson and Harley have built cement silos. They built the water tower in Watford. Also, they built steel grain elevator systems, small ones for farmers and large ones that hold three-quarters of a million bushels of grain or more for companies. They built three large grain storage bins for the Archer Daniels Midland Co. (ADM) in Windsor, Ont., one of the largest agricultural processors in the world. At one time there were only three companies that built these storage bins, now there are several companies.
Chapter 24 of 25 - Wilcocks Family
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