The first Wickersham to arrive in Marion County was Daniel. He was born in Kentucky, but he and his wife, Susannah Martin, who was born in Virginia, had moved to Indiana. Daniel Wickersham came to Marion County on horseback and purchased a mill which he operated. He returned to Indiana and brought his son Jesse and another hand back with him. After running the mill for about a year he went back to Indiana and brought his family (1848). He engaged in milling and farming in the vicinity of Yellville and accumulated a small fortune.
When Daniel was 75 years of age, his home was attacked by robbers. When he refused to tell them where he had concealed his money, they took him out and he was hanged on a tree. Some of the robbers went back to the house and tried to force his wife to tell where he kept the money. During this time, Mr. Wickersham managed to escape, but the guard shot him. He later died from the effects of the wounds.
His wife died in 1855. They were the parents of ten children: Elizabeth; Nancy; Rachel; Rhoda; Susan; John; Jesse; Sally; James; and Cassie. He later married Elizabeth Dozier. Their children were George, Newton, Jasper and Marion. Newton drowned in Crooked Creek.
James, born in 1826, the son of Daniel, married Narcissa Hamlet (1833), and located on a farm one mile from Yellville. In 1853 they moved to another farm. Their children were: Daniel; Abner, who went to Seattle, Washington; Mary, who died in childhood; Sarah, who died while young; John, a farmer; Jesse, who was killed while working on a bridge; Martha, who married Jacob Noe; James E., who married Nellie E. Jeffries; George; Belle, who married William Lewallen, a physician; Ellen and Elgada. James E. and wife Nellie were parents of Daisy, Homer, Roy and Ruth.
George married three times. His first wife was a Denton. They were the parents of two children. The second wife was Jennie Massey; and the third wife was Mary Magdaline (Molly) Elton. Their children were: Ernest; Flora; Kitty; Cassie; Lewis; Vernon (Dobie); Neville; and Thew (Chickie). Ernest married Pearl Doshier and they have a son, Earl. Flora's husband was H. C. (Claude) Doshier; Kitty married Arthur Porter; Cassie married Ambrose Briggs; Lewis married Willie Poynter; Dobie married Leona Still; Neville was the wife of Lum Horn, and Thew's wife was Moatte Camp.
The George Wickersham family lived on a farm just south of Yellville.
Reprinted with permission from History of Marion County edited by Earl Berry, copyright 1977.