George Brinton Wilcox was born on September 23, 1863 in Addison, New York. Wilcox was a career army officer. In 1897, he rode with Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders and took part in the charge up San Juan Hill. In November 1918, he commanded a detachment of men from Camp Polk to put down an attempted lynching in Winston-Salem. Wilcox died on July 2, 1949 in Bisbee, Arizona.