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Wickes entered our Class at the beginning of its course and remained to the end of
Junior year, in August, 1862. While in college he joined the Sigma Phi fraternity; was a
member of the 'Technian Literary Society, and assistant librarian of the society library; a
member of the Williams Art Association, and Class orator at the Biennial Celebration, and
was elected one of the editors of Williams Quarterly, 1862-63.
Our classmate left college to enter the army, and in 1862, October 11, was mustered
into the United States service as captain of Company G, 150th New York Volunteers. He
served with his regiment at Gettysburg, and with the Army of the Potomac, until the
Eleventh and Twelfth Army Corps were transferred to General Sherman's command in
Tennessee. During the Sherman campaigns, after this transfer, namely, the Atlanta
campaign and the March to the Sea, Wickes was on the staff of Major-General A. S.
Williams. After the close of the war, by order of the President, Captain Wickes was
retained in the service for six months to muster out portions of the Fourteenth and
Twentieth Army Corps. In March, 1865, Wickes was brevetted major of volunteers.
At the end of his army service our classmate returned to New York City, and since
then has been active and very successful in various financial projects. From 1869 to 1873
he was the New York representative of the Tredegar Iron Works of Virginia. Toward the
close of 1873 he became vice-president and acting president of the Canada Southern
Railway and its allied companies. In 1889, with Francis Lynde Stetson (Williams, 1867) and
William B. Rankine (Union College), the work of utilizing the power of Niagara Falls was
undertaken and a construction company was formed. Wickes was made vice-president of
this company and still remains in this position, and first vice-president of the Niagara Falls
Power Company, a successor company. This undertaking was a pioneer movement, in this
country, at least, on a vast scale and at an enormous initial expense, in the direction of
utilizing water power to develop electric force for mechanical purposes. Williams is honored
in having two graduates among the pioneers in this work.
Beside the official positions in the above-named corporations, Wickes has been, or
is at this date, president of the Broadway and Seventh Avenue Railway Company, director
in the Cataract Power and Conduit Company of Buffalo, New York, and the Tonawanda
Power Company; also a governor of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary. He is a member
of the New York Chamber of Commerce and the New England Society of New York. He
is a member of the following clubs: Metropolitan, University, Suburban, Midday, and
Chatworth.
Wickes married, October 11, 1871, Mary Williams Forsyth, of Newburg, New York.
They have two children:
1. May, educated in London and New York City.
2. Forsyth, educated at St. Mark's School, Southboro, Massachusetts; Yale
University, 1898; Columbia Law School, 1900. He is now manager of the office of Masten
and Nichols, 49 Wall Street, New York.
Source:
Class of Sixty-Three Williams College Fortieth Year Report, by
the Class Historian, Thomas Todd Printer, Boston, 1903
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