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Wilcox, Fred M. 1870 - 1944 | Wisconsin Historical Society

Historical Essay

Wilcox, Fred M. 1870 - 1944

Wilcox, Fred M. 1870 - 1944 | Wisconsin Historical Society
lawyer, politician, labor-relations and social-security administrator, b. Marshalltown, Iowa. He graduated from the State Univ. of Iowa (LL.B., 1893), and in 1894 moved to Wisconsin, settling in the town of Seymour, where he practiced law for four years. A member of the Progressive faction of the Republican party, Wilcox held various political offices, including that of district attorney of Outagamie County. He was state senator (1905-1908), and in 1913 was appointed to the Wisconsin Industrial Commission, serving on this board from 1913 to 1934, and as its chairman (1921- 1934). An authority on unemployment compensation and a leading figure in the regulation and enforcement of the state's labor laws, Wilcox left Wisconsin in 1936, and from 1936 until his death served by appointment as director of the Minneapolis headquarters of the Social Security Board. Wis. Blue Book (1907); W. A. Goodspeed, et al., Hist. of Outagamie County (Chicago [1911]); Minneapolis Star Journal, Jan. 14, 1944.

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[Source: Blue book]