Another Wilcox family tragedy

Kauai’s kamaaina Wilcox family was left in shock, disbelief and in great sorrow, when Charles Henry Wilcox (1880-1920), the son of Samuel Whitney Wilcox and Emma Lyman Wilcox of Grove Farm, Kauai, was killed in an automobile accident by Puukapele on the Waimea Canyon Road on June 20, 1920.

His death compounded the trauma the Wilcoxes had suffered seven years earlier on July 12, 1913, when Charles’ elder brother, Ralph Lyman Wilcox, had unexpectedly died of a heart attack while swimming at Haena.

At the time of his death, Charles Wilcox was the general manager of Grove Farm Plantation, owned by his uncle, George Norton Wilcox.

On Sunday, June 20, 1920, Charles Wilcox had set off for his home in Lihue at the wheel of his automobile after spending the day at his house in Kokee with family and friends.

Passengers in the car with him were his wife Marion Wilcox and their daughter Margaret Lois Wilcox, niece Miss Elizabeth Waterhouse, the daughter of John Waterhouse, treasurer of Alexander & Baldwin, Inc., and Jack Bottomley, the son of banker A. W. T. Bottomley.

Minutes before the car approached the stretch of road by Puukapele — which at that time skirted the edge of the pali, contained a small hummock, and was quite steep — a misty shower of short duration had fallen upon it, causing its surface to become slick.

Apparently, Wilcox’s car struck the rain-slicked hummock and was propelled over a bank, where it fell perpendicularly down the pali before crashing about 150 feet below the road.

Tragically, Charles Wilcox and Elizabeth Waterhouse were killed; Mrs. Wilcox was left badly bruised and with a dislocated left arm; Margaret Lois Wilcox suffered a broken collar bone, and Jack Bottomley luckily escaped with only a few scratches and bruises.

Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wilcox had two children besides Margaret Lois Wilcox — Samuel Whitney Wilcox II and Martha Marion Wilcox.