Joseph W. Wicker
Surnames: Cleveland, Fogen, Freer, Stevens
Regions: Onondaga Co., NY; Barton, Washington Co., WI,
Colby, Marathon Co., WI, Medford, Taylor Co., WI
Source: Commemorative Biographical Record of the
Upper Lake Region;
Containing Biographical Sketches
of Prominent and Representative Citizens and Many of the Settled
Families;
Illustrated; J.H. Beers & Co. Chicago 1905; Page 387
Joseph W. Wicker, D.V.S., is a prominent citizen and business man in Medford, Taylor County, Wisconsin, who has also taken considerable part in politics, and is now serving as sheriff of the county. He was born in Onondaga County, New York, June 19, 1849, and is of German and French descent.
James D. Wicker, father of Joseph W. was a native of New York, of German lineage. An attorney by profession, he went to Wisconsin about 1850 and lived for some years at Barton, Washington County. He then returned to the East, and was in New York City connected with the Brooklyn Navy Yard for several years, but went back to Wisconsin and spent the rest of his life there. Most of the time he lived in Barton, but his death occurred in Colby, at the age of seventy years. His wife, Caroline (Freer) Wicker, who was born in Ithaca, New York, of French descent, died at Barton.
Joseph W. Wicker was educated in the public schools of Barton and Brooklyn, NY and about his sixteenth year began to study with Dr. Biden, a veterinary surgeon at Newburg, Wisconsin, with whom he remained several years, and then in 1881 located at Colby and began practicing himself; for two years of his residence in Colby, he served as under sheriff of Marathon County. Later Dr. Wicker went to Chicago and was employed for some time as assistant chief of railroad detectives for the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul Railroad, where he had charge of twenty-six men. Returning to Wisconsin in 1890, he located at Medford and has been there ever since. For eight years Dr. Wicker conducted a livery stable in a large building which was his own property, but he has now sold the whole establishment. He is the owner of a number of buildings in different parts of the city.
Twice married Mr. Wicker's first wife was Ruth A. Stevens, of Washington County, Wisconsin, to whom he was united in 1871. Only one child survived the mother, Anabel, Mrs. Cleveland, of Medford. In 1888, he was married to Miss Florence Vogen, of Wausau, Wis., and to this union one child, Ethel, has been born.
Dr. Wicker has always been active in local politics, and in the fall of 1902 was elected sheriff of Taylor County, on the Democratic ticket, though the county is strongly Republican. He had previously served two terms as under sheriff, and had shown such qualifications for the advanced position that he was elected without regard to party distinctions. Fraternally he is a member of the B.P.O.E. at Mansfield; of the I.O.O.F., the Knights of Honor and the W.O.W. When the Taylor County Agricultural Society was reorganized Dr. Wicker was a prominent mover in the matter; he is superintendent of the speed department, and is much interested in the annual county fair held at Medford. He owns some of the best trotting horses in northern Wisconsin, and has probably the only horse of the world that will make a race without a driver.