J. Ralph Wilcox
(1866 – 1915)

J. Ralph Wilcox was born on a farm in Worcester, Otsego County, New York, in 1866. He was educated in Worcester. Little is known about any formal art training or studies with artists of the day. Elmira, New York city directories list him as an artist employed at the Elmira Portrait Company from 1890 to 1904. Wilcox’s great nephew, Dr. John E. Leverett, the expert on the artist, has traced only four portraits by Wilcox from this period.

J. Ralph Wilcox came to Seabreeze, Florida, in 1901. In 1905 he became a permanent resident of this seaside city now known as Daytona Beach. Local real estate records confirm his purchase of both a house at North Halifax and Glenwood Avenues and a cabin-stu...