AV 108 Wikoff Family Collection

              AV 108
Wikoff Family Collection
Page 1
OHIO HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Manuscripts/ Audiovisual Collections
AV 108
Wikoff Family Collection
Ca. 1900- 1920
OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION
Number:
AV 108
Title:
Wikoff Family Collection
Creator:
Charles Wikoff and P. Tennyson Williams
Dates:
Ca. 1900- 1920
Media:
Photographs, digital prints, glass plate negatives and compact discs
Quantity:
Approximately 2 cubic feet
Location:
Ohio Historical Center
HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE COLLECTION
Charles Allen Wikoff was born December 22, 1867 on his father’s farm in Adams County, Ohio, the youngest child of Allen Trimble and Angeline Collier Wikoff. The family moved to Columbus where Charles graduated from Columbus High School in June, 1885. After studying at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for a short period of time, Charles enrolled at The Ohio State University as a liberal arts student. Later, Charles secured a job at the Columbus Dispatch as a reporter. Working his way up, he was a drama critic and telegraph editor. In 1890 he was promoted to City Editor, a position he held from 1890 to 1904. While at the Dispatch, Charles developed a gastric ulcer which ended his career at the newspaper. He then joined his older brother, James, in the operation of a successful insurance company in Columbus. The Wikoff Insurance Agency was operated by Charles A. Wikoff until his death on September 22, 1939.
Charles met Mary Emily Bortle while they were in high school. They eventually married on July 14, 1896. Charles and Emily had a daughter, Helen Leslie Wikoff, born on July 9, 1900. Helen finished high school in Columbus and enrolled at The Ohio State University. She was the first woman to earn a doctorate degree in physiological chemistry at that university. Helen was a faculty member at Ohio State until her retirement in 1973. She was the official historian of the Wikoff Association and a member of the Ohio Genealogical Society in Columbus. Helen died on November 20, 1994.