Wilcox Farm Family History

Six generations of western farm crop production is the Wilcox family heritage. It’s been the family’s livelihood since Isaiah Wilcox first settled in Santa Clara, California after arriving from New York in 1847 and planted a pear orchard on 200 acres. The ranch prospered under the family’s farming operation for three more generations until the 1950s, when the area began transitioning to what it is know by today, i.e., “Silicone Valley”, and farming operations were replaced by asphalt, concrete and a world wide center for advanced technology.

The family’s move to the highly productive California Delta agricultural region during the 1950’s was orchestrated by fourth generation grower Frank Wilcox, who first established the family’s pear operations in this location. In the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, Frank worked with his boys (the fifth generation Wilcox brothers) to establish a progressive, diversified family farming operations which included pears, corn, wheat, barley, tomatoes, sugar beets, safflower and alfalfa .

As farm tractor design and production improved during this time, a new line of more powerful tractors gradually became the norm for most farm operations. Tillage tools designed specially for western farming conditions and field operations saw little, if any gain during this same period of time.

Fifth-generation Wilcox brother, Alan Wilcox, recognized this growing gap between increasing tractor horsepower and the lack of tillage tools to increase grower efficiencies and return upon his return from Cal Polly College to take over the family’s open field farming operations. He convinced his brothers of the need to redesign some of the basic mechanisms of these tillage tools. They began work in his uncle’s shop, with a confident belief that they could come up with design improvements on basic tillage tools that would make them better suited to unique California soil conditions and farming practices.

Though the Wilcox’s didn’t initially plan on entering the manufacturing business, Alan remembers:

In 1976, Alan and his brothers moved their shop operations to the small California Delta town of Walnut Grove. About that time, Rod and Stan Dolk of Dolk Tractor Company in Rio Vista realized how happy the first few farmers were with the chisels the Wilcox’s had made for them. They asked Wilcox to build a few of their chisels units for them because Rod and Stan thought they could sell them. Alan reluctantly agreed. After Dolk’s initial success selling the Wilcox chisel, they asked the brothers to design and build a heavy duty, high clearance roll-over plow especially for use out west, one that would more efficiently utilize the full horsepower range of the larger tractors being introduced at that time. Alan enthusiastically took on their request.

The new Wilcox plow was 50 to 80% heavier built than its midwest competitors and was designed with 50 to 80% more trash clearance to handle heavy crop stubble and irrigated California soils.

According to Rod Dolk, “They had what the growers needed and the industry lacked - their unique Wilcox designed, big, tough chisels that outperformed the completion and a high clearance, heavy-duty moldboard plow that was just about an “overnight success” because of how much better they worked compared to other plows available in the market place that were designed primarily for midwest farming operations.”

The Wilcox family farm story continues on.  Bruce Wilcox, Alan’s brother, is in charge of the family’s farming operations and manages the orchard activities. Wade manages the family’s open ground operations and also runs his own custom tillage operation. He is advancing his knowledge in global positioning satellite technology with ongoing tillage tool design, development and application. Wade is looking forward to carrying his own ideas forward, while already looking to the day when his young sons, Cody and Blake, will carry on the seventh generation of Wilcox family farming and tillage tool manufacturing operations.