Wilcoxen remembered
Newspaperwoman, historian, mother dies at 101

ALTAMONT — Charlotte Wilcoxen, a historian — persistent in the pursuit of knowledge but tempered by Southern manners — and mother of seven, died on Aug. 27, 2006. She was 101.
"Charming without pretense, honest without rancor, Charlotte grew up in an era when children learned kindness without discrimination, politeness for all," wrote long-time friend and colleague, Roderic Blackburn, of Mrs. Wilcoxen in a book on her historical writing.
Born in Cadiz, Ky., Mrs. Wilcoxen’s interest in history began at home as a child. "I opened a drawer in my mother’s room. I looked in there and there were all these papers. Among them was this funny looking thing, and I unfolded it," she once told Mr. Blackburn. "It was all dried up. I tried to figure it out" It was a genealogical chart."

She went on to contribute further to her family’s genealogy by tracing it back, past Myles Standish who arrived on the Mayflower, to their ancestors in England.
The newspaper in Paducah Ky., run by her mother, Edith Lawrence, is where Mrs. Wilcoxen got her start as a writer. She only worked there for a year or so, said her daughter, Faith Fogarty. "They thought women should be doing the society pages – Mother wanted something a little bit more," said her daughter.
While there, Mrs. Wilcoxen interviewed John T. Scopes after the "monkey trial" in Tennessee. Scopes was on trial for teaching the theory of evolution in a public school, he was found guilty. Mrs.Wilcoxen met her first husband, Henry Abbett Pulliam, while working on the paper. He showed her the sewer map of Paducah for a story she was working on. The couple married in 1929 and then, said Ms. Fogarty, "they left the South."

After five of their seven children were born, the family moved to an 18th-Century Dutch farmhouse, now known as Bozenbrow, on Bozenkill Road in the Helderbergs.
"That old Dutch house had an effect on Charlotte," wrote Mr. Blackburn. "It asked to be furnished in its own era."
Her children remember her seeking out furniture to restore at auction houses. She had a big pot of lye in the backyard that she would remove old paint with, recalled Ms. Fogarty. "Her hands were always a mess," she said.
"Many of the pieces were more impressive in style than perfect in condition," wrote Mr. Blackburn. "But as she said, they were always ‘interesting enough to be worth restoring.’"

Ms. Wilcoxen became an authority on Dutch colonial history and 17th-Century ceramics. She worked with the Albany Institute for years and served as an expert for the archaeological community. Invited to lecture in Holland several times, her mastery of her subjects were recognized far and wide.
"I asked her once," Mr. Blackburn told The Enterprise, "How have you managed to raise seven children""
"After a while the older ones take care of the younger ones," he recalled that she answered.

In 1952, her husband died, leaving her to raise their three youngest children. She married Lewis C. Wilcoxen in 1957 and moved to his native Michigan.
"A testament to her motherhood," said Ms. Fogarty, "is that we all really like each other. There’s no black sheep."

Ms. Wilcoxen eventually moved back to the Albany area and continued her historical work, publishing numerous articles and books.
"Her favorite drink is a bourbon Manhattan southern style which goes down as sweet and slowly as you please but can bring you up short to stare reality in the face," wrote Mr. Blackburn. "Charlotte is like that."