The generations of the Attix family seem to be unique among our ancestors. Rather than pioneering and farming they were enterprising entrepreneurs. I have chosen William Chance Attix and his son and grandson to represent the Attix line who are interesting and important to me and, I think, to my descendants. All of my family have helped me, as I have helped them in sharing all information we have found on family.
The first of this long string of ancestors to set foot in America, came from England in 1655 as an early pioneer to what is now Maryland. His name was James Adwick. As time went on his descendants became prosperous “planters”. One of them, Aquila Adwick, in the 1700s for unknown reasons, freed his slaves. Then next generations worked their way north – one started the first electric system in what is now New York City, others became storekeepers. The War of 1812 came and one ancestor, fighting for the side of the USA got to Seneca County in New York and there found potential opportunities in the area. He, Aquila Attix and his wife, Rebecca Chance had ten children including William Chance Attix, our ancestor. Rebecca’s ancestry has not been found by me, nor by many others who have searched. It has been many years and is still on-going. William Chance was born August 26th, 1816 at Florida, Orange County, New York the second son of Aquila and Rebecca. Some time before 1820 they moved to Lodi, Seneca County, New York where children 3 – 10 were born.
William Chance Attix was a true entrepreneur. He left his parents farm and as a young man started one of the first stores in the community. In 1840, at the age of 23, he married Cordelia Ann Brown, and they shortly had a daughter they named Eleanor but called Nellie. William Chance then went into business in Ovid, New York with his brother-in-law, James A. Brown in another a general store.
Sometime between 1841 and 1843 William and Cordelia moved west to Monmouth, Warren County, Illinois where Cordelia’s father had gone in 1832. In 1843 their son William Wiltshire was born, and William Chance tried his hand at farming. The same year that William Wiltshire was born Nicholas Porter Earp also moved to Monmouth, to the new frontier in Illinois with the rich new soil that was also overrun by border ruffians and stock thieves who made life hazardous for the peaceably inclined. Earp became a deputy sheriff and in 1848 his son Wyatt was born.
When the American Civil War began, William Chance became involved in organizing a military company to help defend the Union. The war dragged on and William is next found at Springfield, Massachusetts where the North was manufacturing armament as fast as could be done in an effort to save the Union. We do not know what he was doing there, but I have a copy of a document which shows that he obtained a patent for a bigger and better cannon than any ever seen. He had also arranged with the top general of the Union Army to buy the cannons. But before William could get them into production the War ended, and nothing ever came from William’s patent. He moved on west to again become a grocer in Illinois. His young wife died there leaving him alone with small children. This shock seems to have been so tragic to William, that he abandoned it all and went out of touch.
William Chance Attix’s death details are “unknown”. The last I have found about him, he was in what is now, the State of Washington pioneering again and no doubt looking for some enterprise to get involved with. His son, William Wiltshire Attix, as I have said, was born at Monmouth, Illinois. After his mother’s death and his father’s disappearance care of William Wiltsire and his siblings was taken on by his uncle. It wasn’t long though before the uncle decided he could only keep the youngest child. The others were scattered, and William Wiltshire went out on his
own.
As a young teenager, William Wiltshire went through several occupations such as house painting and cooking on a river boat and he gained a reputation as “restless”. In his later teens he got a job as salesman for a wonderful new invention called a “sewing machine”. It was advertised to relieve all of women’s time-consuming effort of making dresses and other garments, especially in factories back east. He travelled through-out the Americas, prospering in experience and wealth. When he came to New York City he met and married Mary Elizabeth Clark, the daughter of Dr. Walter Lee Clark and Annie Thorne Manny. I have the original Doctor Certificate of Dr. Clark. Annie had actual pirates in her background, but her own family had become devoted Quakers. Her family had not been very happy to see Annie marry Walter who was not a Quaker. Their short marriage produced four children but did not work out and they soon divorced. Annie got custody of the small children and her brother John became official Guardian.
On January 5, 1863, Annie’s daughter Mary married William Wiltshire Attix, without Annie’s knowledge. He was 18 years old and she was 16. Is there any wonder why Annie was concerned? Annie insisted they have a second marriage before a Quaker Meeting. Mary had received a good education for that time. At the academy she learned French, became “an accomplished singer and dancer” and used her talent in night clubs to pay for her education. William and Mary stayed in the New York area and had their first child.
After their time in New York, the young couple moved, with a baby son, to Elgin, Illinois where they tried farming and our ancestor, William Wallace Attix was born.
They then moved again, to a place that got the name of Richwood, in Minnesota. There William Wiltshire saw the potential for fortunes to be made from some of the best white spruce in the world. There was also nearby waterpower to drive the mill machinery to turn the harvested trees into lumber and a railroad running past to provide good means to market the lumber. William Wiltshire and his now adult sons and other extended family combined their resources into the lumbering business. They set up the mill, hired men, some with families and laid out a townsite called Orth. It appeared they had everything to become a thriving business, but it turned out it was a dismal failure. (The framed picture hanging in my office shows my Dad beside the locomotive used to build that railroad. In my files, there is another picture of Dr. Sheldon Attix, in front of the last remaining house in the abandoned town – with a “ghost” peering out of the window.)
William Wiltshire then decided to take out a “homestead” near Maple Lake in Minnesota and try farming again. His sons were now old enough to take “homesteads” as well. Other extended family came to do the same, including Dr. Clark, (who had gotten a new young wife) and it became quite a family clan. This is where in the early days Mary read stories after dark to the younger children using the light of burning twigs, and when winter weather prevented going to Cookston, 30 miles away, the children turned orange from the affects of eating only carrots and rutabagas.
It was this generation of the Attix clan who pooled their resources, bought the first automobile ever seen in the area and headed for California. They traveled over little improved wagon trails to establish a store selling organs and pianos. William Wallace opened a cigar store, complete with “wooden Indian”, at the door. The family also operated a trucking company so they could move the pianos. All this in what is now a part of Los Angeles within site of the iconic “HOLLYWOOD” sign.
As time went on, Dr. Clark went blind and had to give up his practice; the last two children were born to William and Mary; the older sons and daughters married; William and Mary aged and died. The one marriage, important to us, was when William Wallace Attix wed Susie Barker, the daughter of Judge Barker; and eventually became grandparents to me, Harry Arthur Tatro.