THOMAS JEFFERSON COX

        Thomas Jefferson Cox was born in a backwoods log cabin on a cold winter day in Ohio  County,  Kentucky,  February  28,  1811,  only  thirty  years  after  the  end  of   the American Revolution (1775-1881).  He was the only son and second child of the six known children of James Cox and his wife Elizabeth Leach.  It is said that James Cox came into Kentucky as a young boy with his parents, who were among the early Coxes to arrive in Ohio County in 1801.  This date was less than three years after the county was created from Hardin County on December 17, 1798, and just nine years after Kentucky achieved statehood in 1792.

            Ohio County was the 35^th county created in Kentucky and at first covered a vast territory.  Before its formation, the region of Ohio County had been successively under the jurisdiction of Fincastle County, Virginia (1772-1776); Kentucky County, Virginia (1776-1780); Jefferson County, Virginia (1780-1784); Nelson County, Virginia (1785-1792); Nelson County, Kentucky (June 1792-February 1793); and Hardin County, Kentucky (1792-1799).  The county was named after the Ohio River, its northern boundary line until Daviess County was created from Ohio County’s northernmost territory.  Later, as new settlers poured into the area, territory was taken from Ohio County to form parts of Butler and Grayson in 1810, the entire county of Daviess in 1815, and parts of Hancock in 1829 and McLean in 1854.

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            In 1800, the population of Ohio County was only 1,223.  Ten years later it had nearly tripled to 3,792.  According to the tax records of Ohio County, John and Thomas Cox were among the early settlers in 1801.  The next year two William Leaches appeared in the county – one on Sulphur Creek Run and another on Muddy Creek; the latter William, over the age of 21, owned 250 acres.  In 1803, in addition to John and Thomas, more Coxes appeared on the county’s tax rolls:  Benjamin, Phineas and John Cox, Sr. On May 12, 1804, James Cox was listed for the first time in the column for males between 16 and 21 years of age.  He owned one horse.  Next to him on the tax rolls, John Cox, Jr. was listed, over the age of 21.  In 1811, new Coxes on the tax rolls were Meredith, William and Joseph.  Most of these Cox men owned from one to four horses.  Relationships are unknown.

            In that early day, settlements were scattered and few.  In some cases a settlement might be composed of just one family, and if there were more, the closest neighbor might still be three or four miles away.  Other settlements might be as far apart as ten miles.  There were no real roads.  The paths and trails created by animals and Indians were the forerunner of roads in the county.  Basically, the early families were related to the land they lived on and their immediate environment.

            Each family brought its own culture, values and traditions to the wilderness.  Boys usually did most of their courting within a five to ten mile radius of their own home.  Horses were their only means of travel, which set limits on how far they could ride and still get home in time to get the livestock fed.  After several generations, the young men of the county had to visit other settlements looking for wives in order not to marry kinfolk.  Even today many Ohio County residents are related to each other if one goes far enough back down the ancestral lines.

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            Thomas Jefferson’s parents, James and Elizabeth (Leach) Cox, were married in Ohio County, Kentucky on May 12, 1806 by Thomas Taylor.  John Cox served as bondsman for James.  The brother of James Cox (and therefore the uncle of Thomas Jefferson Cox) is thought to be John M. Cox, who married Eleanor Gray in Montgomery County, Maryland on December 28, 1798, shortly before migrating to the new state of Kentucky.  Many of the earliest settlers in Ohio County came from Virginia and Maryland.  It is thought, but not proven at this date, that both of Thomas Jefferson’s parents came from Montgomery County.  The family of James Cox is said to have settled for a few years in what was then Virginia, but later became one of the Kentucky counties. They may have waited to move further west until near the turn of the century due to the considerable Indian depredations and unrest during the 1770s and 1780s.

            The parents of Elizabeth Leach, wife of James Cox, are believed to be William and Aley Leach.  According to his will written August 5, 1808, which named his children, William had three sons, Leonard, William Leach, Jr., and one son not mentioned by name; three daughters, Susannah Leach, Patsy Miller, and Lisbah Cox.  “Lisbah” is thought to be a family pet name for Elizabeth.  As mentioned in his will, each of William’s children received “equal shares of the land that the testator got of Ignatious Pigman.”  He also specifies that he leaves his wearing apparel to three sons, although only two are named.  Leonard Leach, the oldest son, was named the sole executor of his father’s estate.  William Cooper and Benjamin Cox were witnesses to the signing, but three months later when the will was probated in the November term of court, 1808, the testator’s mark was proven by William Cooper and Henry Addington, an indication that Benjamin Cox was not available for the probate hearing.

            James and Elizabeth (Leach) Cox, who married in Ohio County on May 12, 1806, had six children, all born in Ohio County:

Nancy, who was born about 1809, may be the Nancy Cox who married Wesley Davis in Spencer County, Indiana, on March 27, 1827.  This couple does not appear in the Ohio County records of 1850, or later.

Thomas Jefferson, born February 25, 1811 in Ohio County, married first, Susannah Miranda Leach on December 24, 1829, when he was eighteen.  After Miranda died June 7, 1859, he married Cinderella (Rogers) Wilson, the widow of Simon Wilson of Butler County, Kentucky, Jan 12, 1860.  Thomas and Miranda had four children, Elizabeth Mary; James William, Leonard Thomas and John T. B. Cox.

Susan was born about 1813 and at age eighteen married Alfred Davis on June 5, 1831 in Ohio County.  Bondsman for Alfred Davis was Wesley Davis. This couple had six known children:  Philip R. Davis, born May 27, 1833; James W. Davis, born 1836; Martin C. Davis, born 1837; Sara E, born Aug 2, 1839; Mary E., born October 12, 1842; and John L. Davis, born 1849.  The first four children were born in Kentucky, the last two in Illinois, an indication that Susan and Alfred migrated from Kentucky to Illinois between 1840 and 1842.

Lucinda, born about 1815, married George Washington Wallace, also born about 1815, on August 29, 1833 when she was eighteen.  They left Ohio County after 1840 and moved to Union County, Illinois, where she died an untimely death sometime after November 1845 when her last child was born.  This couple had seven children:  James T., born 1834, who married Sarah Gregory; Betsy A., born 1835, who married John W. Bryant; Franklin, born 1837, who became a doctor; Virgil T., born 1839; Matilda J., born 1841; Mary J., born 1843; and Josephine, born November 8, 1845, who married William H. Eden.  Lucinda died shortly after Josephine was born, leaving children ranging in age from eleven to her new infant. 

George Wallace, who needed a mother for his children, married an English lady, Agnes Mary Maddington, and they had two more children, Samuel T., born in 1847, and John W. Wallace, born in 1850.  George became a doctor and died during the Civil War in Rock Island Prison.  George is buried in the old Allen Farm Cemetery just south of Carbondale Illinois, near Makanda on Highway 51, Jackson County.

Althea was born about 1819 and married September 24, 1838, Philip Cox, believed to be the son of William Cox and his wife, Harriet Davis.  They had at least six children:  Mary, born 1839; Nelson and Nancy (twins), born 1843; George Washington, born 1845; Martin, born 1849; and Marinda, 1850. This couple moved to Vergennes, Jackson County, Illinois after 1862.  Philip died in 1875, and Althea died six years later on November 17, 1881. 

Elizabeth, the youngest daughter, was born about 1822 and married Allen P. Poole, born about 1812 in Kentucky.  Allen was about ten years older than his bride, who was about fourteen or fifteen years of age.  (Allen Poole is thought to be a brother of Logustin Poole, born about 1805 in Kentucky.)  Thomas Jefferson served as bondsman for his future brother-in-law.  Allen and Elizabeth were married November 29, 1836 in Ohio County, Kentucky and were last shown in the in the 1850 census. They later migrated to the area of Vergennes, Jackson County, Illinois.

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            The Kentucky pioneers faced many hardships and privations in their new homes.  It was never an easy life.  Most of their experiences, however, were common to that day and time.

            Like all primitive settlers, the Cox families lived in simple log houses, typical of pioneer days in early Kentucky.  Women of that day had to make do the first year or so after their arrival with the things they had brought from their former homes.  It was not uncommon for some of them to help cut logs for their cabins or even help dress hogs.  Some could hunt and shoot as well as the men.  Women were full-time partners with the men in meeting the requirements of those times.  They all managed to get along the best they could.

            Game was abundant in Ohio County.  To keep the family table supplied, the men and boys had to go just a few hundred yards from their doorways into the thickets and dense woods to hunt for deer, turkey, squirrels and other wild game.  Fish were plentiful in the county’s creeks and rivers.

            Children learned early in life the meaning of work.  In many families, the girls worked in the fields, the same as the boys.  Girls learned from their mothers and grandmothers how to cook, sew, and use the spinning wheel and loom.  Boys learned from their fathers and grandfathers how to hunt and trap animals for their furs, from which they made articles of clothing, bartered for essential goods, or sold for money to the fur traders in the area.

            For the most part, the pioneers were self-sufficient.  They built their own houses and barns, grew most of their own food, smoked or dried their own meat, spun their own cloth from cotton and wool for clothing, and tanned hides for shoes and leather.  When there was illness or disease, they made their own medicinal remedies from “recipes” handed down for generations.

            Back then, neighbors helped each other.  When a man was sick or his house burned down, neighbors came from all around and pitched in to help with the crops or in any way they could and whenever they were needed.

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            It was in this setting that Thomas Jefferson Cox was born in 1811.  His parents named him after the third and popular president who had just finished serving two terms of office 1801-1809.  Young Thomas was born in an unforgettable year – the year of the great earthquake that shook Kentucky and New Madrid, Missouri.  Some thought the world was coming to an end.  Others remembered it as the day the Mississippi River flowed backwards.

            Thomas Jefferson grew to young manhood on his father’s 200-acre farm near Muddy Creek, where he labored alongside his father, helping to fell the trees and clear a few acres of land each year.  When the stumps were dug out and burned, they plowed the soil with animal power, using crude farm implements brought from their old home.  He learned from his father at an early age how to tend and harvest their crops.  Like the other pioneers, the Cox men grew the same crops they had grown in their native states.  The biggest crops were corn, wheat, flax, oats, tobacco, potatoes and other grains.  No doubt the Cox children grew up learning to assume responsibility for certain daily chores that had to be carried out around the farm and homestead.  Theirs was a simple agrarian way of life.  Sons and daughters were taught by both parents that hard work was good for the soul.

            Church, camp meetings, weddings, and corn shuckings were the important social events in the lives of the pioneers.  Camp meetings were of the brush arbor type and were well attended by all denominations.  Whole families arrived at these meetings by the wagonloads full, pulled by a team of horses or mules.  Others walked or rode horseback for miles.  Those who traveled from a distance arrived the night before the meeting started.  They camped out and cooked meals over a campfire, sleeping in their wagons out under the stars or on quilt pallets rolled out on the ground.  Some camp or brush arbor meetings lasted several days or even as long as a week, especially when a popular preacher was doing the preaching.

            It is believed that Goshen Church, the first Methodist church established in Ohio County and reported to be hewn of logs, was founded by the early pioneers about 1804 in the Goshen community.  It was located not far from Beaver Dam, north of what is now the Beaver Dam and Centertown road.  The cemetery, with graves dating back to the late 1700s, was near the site of the first church built on land owned by William L. Barnard.  The earliest membership roll thus far discovered for the Goshen Church congregation is for the year 1823.  Most of the first members were among the early pioneers who made the journey from Maryland.  Many were from Montgomery County or from nearby adjoining counties and included the families of Barnes, Addington, Hocker, Phipps, Miller, Barnard, Cox, Davis, Williams, Gray and Atherton.

            Coxes listed on the 1823 Goshen Methodist Church rolls were Nelly, James, Betsy, Nelly, Jeremiah, Margaret, Philena, Jefferson, Nancy and Leonard.  The Davis families were closely associated with the Coxes and were also listed among the 1823 members of the Goshen Church.  Prior to 1823, on November 23, 1815, William Cox had married Harriet Davis.  Four years later, in 1819, Jeremiah Cox married Dorcas Davis.  Among the Davis members enrolled at Goshen, were Hannah, Nelson, Jane, Garrett, Melinda, Wesley and Nelly.  Thomas Jefferson was twelve years old when his name was entered on the 1823 Goshen Church membership rolls.  Later, his two sisters, Nancy and Susan, married two Davis boys, Wesley and Alfred.

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            When he was eighteen, Thomas Jefferson Cox applied for a marriage license on December 22, 1829, to marry Miranda Leach.  Her parents were nearby neighbors.  According to the marriage bond, John Crow, an attorney, served as the bondsman for Thomas Jefferson, and was probably a good friend or neighbor.  In that day and time, the law required a marriage bond, a copy of which was obtained from the Ohio County court house.  Essentially, it affirmed there was no moral or legal reason why the couple could not be married (and affirmed the groom would not change his mind).  It reads as follows:

            KNOW ALL MEN BY THESE PRESENTS, THAT WE, Thomas J. Cox and John Crow, are held and firmly bound unto the Commonwealth of Kentucky, in the just and full sum of L50, current money – and for the payment whereof we bind ourselves, our heirs, &c. jointly, severally and firmly by these presents; signed with our hands, sealed with our seals, and dated this 22^nd day of December 1829.

            The condition of the above obligation is such, that if there be lawful cause to obstruct the Marriage of the above Thomas J. Cox and Miss Miranda Leach, then the above obligation to be void, else remaining in full force and virtue. 

                                                            Signed:            Thomas J. Cox

Attest:                                                                          John Crow

  Ch. Henderson

            Thomas Jefferson’s bride, Susannah Miranda Leach, was twenty-two at the time of her marriage, but because Thomas was two months short of being nineteen years old (and therefore under the required age of twenty-one years for a man to marry), his parent’s written consent was necessary before he could obtain a marriage license.  The license was worded thus:

                        No. 67 2 – KENTUCKY

                        I, Charles Henderson, Clerk of the County Court of Ohio County, do certify that a bond and security has been taken in my office for a License to issue for the Marriage of Mr. Thomas J. Cox and Miss Miranda Leach.

                                                                                                                       

                        And we, William Leach and James Cox of said county, their parents, has given their consent in writing.

                                                                                                                                   

                        These are therefore to authorize and require you to join in the holy state of matrimony, the said Mr. Thomas J. Cox and Miss Miranda Leach agreeable to the terms and customs of the Church of which you are a member, and for so doing this shall be your sufficient warrant.

                                                                                                                       

                        Given under my hand this 22^nd day of December 1829.

                        Given to the Minister of the Gospel or Magistrate, duly licensed to celebrate the rites of Matrimony.

                                                                                                Ch. Henderson.

                                    Accompanying the license and bond was a small handwritten piece of yellowed paper discovered many years later by the writer’s great-aunt, Gladys Altman, in the “loose papers” stored in the basement of the Ohio County courthouse, giving written permission of the parents:

                                                            This is to certify that I am willing for my son Thomas

                                                            J. Cox to get married to Miranda Leach.

                                                            Signed:  James Cox, Elizabeth Cox, and Susan Cox.

            It is possible that Susan Cox, the younger sister of Thomas Jefferson Cox, wrote out this consent note for her parents and she therefore signed her name also.

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            Miranda was the daughter of William B(rooks?) Leach and Sarah E. Barnes.  Her parents had moved to Ohio County from Montgomery County, Maryland and settled there shortly after the county was formed.

            Miranda’s brothers named in her father’s will, written October 9, 1834 were:  Joseph, John, Talbott, and William Leach.  William B. Leach named his daughters as:  Polly Peak, Nancy Leach, Sally Iler, Ellen Leach, and Marinda (Miranda) Cox.  A stepdaughter, Susan Howard, was also named.  Sons Joseph Leach and John Leach were named as executors of their father’s will.  Oliver C. Pate, Nathaniel Howard, and James Wise were witnesses.  On January 26, 1844, William B. Leach changed his mind and added a codicil to his will, with Stephen Stateler and George W. Austin as witnesses.  The will of William B. Leach was probated nine years later, March 7, 1853.  His son, John Leach qualified as his executor, and entered into a bond of $200, with Alfred Taylor and Martin Coleman as his sureties.

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            On Christmas Eve, December 24, 1829, Thomas Jefferson Cox married Susanna Miranda Leach.  As with other young couples starting out in that era, Thomas and Miranda endured all the hardships common to pioneer life.  They lived, loved and labored together for thirty years.  During these years, Thomas and Miranda had at least four known children to bless their home:

1.  Elizabeth Mary Cox, born about 1832.  On December 25, 1850, Thomas Jefferson Cox gave his consent for her marriage to Allen P. Pool.  They married January 27, 1851.  Allen P. Pool is believed to have died before 1860. They had at least two children, Elvenure, and a son L. S. Pool, born in 1856, who died August 12, 1857 of typhoid fever.  Later, Elizabeth Mary’s father deeded her a lot in Pincheco in December 1864, listing her name as “my daughter, E. M. Pool.”  She is next found as Eliza M. Pool, 36, listed in the 1870 census, with daughter Elvenure I. Pool, age 15.  In 1880 Elizabeth M. Pool, age 47, appears with her daughter, Elvenure I. Maddox, 26, and her husband, James M. Maddox, 29, living in Cromwell.  Elizabeth Mary is not seen after the 1880 census, and no other information is available about her at the time of this writing.

2.  James William Cox, born February 24, 1838, was probably named for his two grandfathers, James Cox and William B. Leach.  He married first, Mary Elizabeth Mitchell, August 4, 1860.  This couple became the parents of fourteen children – six sons and eight daughters.  (Their life and times will be a future story).

3.   Leonard Thomas Cox, born May 3, 1843, was first married to Emma E. Iler by whom he had three daughters; by his second wife, Frances E. London, he had five children.  Four sons died young.  Only a daughter lived to maturity.  He married third, Mattie B. Layton.  They had no children.  Leonard eventually became a doctor and for many years lived at Rosine, Ohio County, and later in Daviess County, where he died.

4.    John T. B. Cox, born about 1848, according to death records of Ohio County, died of fever at age five in 1853.

            The four children listed above are all that have been accounted for in the records at this revision of this story in 2003.  Because of the gap in years between the births of these children, other children were probably born who died in infancy or early childhood.  In that day and time, most women had children approximately every two years, all born at home.

            Women of that long ago time lived in the constant dread and fear of death in childbirth, or losing their baby during its infancy to the many diseases that were common.  It is reported that infant mortality was so high that mothers who brought their babies through their second summers felt they had achieved a major accomplishment.  All parents had to cope with the same problems of rampant fevers and epidemics – scarlet fever, diphtheria, smallpox, measles, whooping cough, croup and other respiratory diseases.  Like most young couples of that day, Thomas and Miranda met life with courage and determination, despite the tragedies and sorrows they experienced.

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            Education was important to Thomas and Miranda and they saw to it that their children had the opportunity to attend the common schools of that day.  Common schools were “neighborhood schools” established by local leaders who believed in acquiring an education.  They enlisted support of the parents, and teachers were hired by the term on a subscription basis to instruct the children in between crops.  Early schools were first held in someone’s home and later in rural one-room log schoolhouses with one teacher for all grades and all ages.  School furnishings were plain and simple.  These old-time common schools provided many Kentuckians of that early day with practical values and experience in the “three R’s.

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With a growing family to provide for from their early years, and with no resources except what could be wrung from Mother Earth by strong and willing hands, Thomas and Miranda fared as well as anyone else, better than some.  It is certain, though, that along life’s way, they faced and struggled to overcome many of life’s burdens through self-denial and self-sacrifice.  Eventually their hard work paid off and they used what they had saved to buy their own farm, not far from Cromwell and the Green River in the southeastern part of the county. 

Cromwell, located on the left bank of the Green River, was one of the more important river towns in the county and was a considerable trading and shipping point.  Prior to 1852, Cromwell was formerly called Porter’s Landing.  In 1850 it had a population of 207 souls.  In all of Ohio County, the population in 1850 was only 9,749.

Althea Cox, daughter of James and Elizabeth Cox, and sister to Thomas Jefferson, married Philip Cox, son of William and Harriet (Davis) Cox on September 24, 1838.  Both were about nineteen.  The minister performing the ceremony was George Render, and Thomas J. served as Philip’s bondsman. 

On June 20, 1839, Thomas J. Cox and his father, James Cox, signed as witnesses to the Last Will and Testament of Nicholas Hocker, a neighbor.  The Hockers were among the early settlers in Ohio County, and Thomas and his father had known him for many years.  Nicholas married Eleaner Pender just a few short years after James and Elizabeth married.  A few months after making his will, Nicholas Hocker died.  His will was probated in the September Court, 1839.

The day is not certain, but sometime in July or August 1839, the father of Thomas Jefferson died an untimely death, at about fifty-four years of age.  The cause of his death is unknown, but he may have met with an accident or perhaps he died from a heart attack or stroke.  He left no will and Thomas J. was appointed as Administrator of his father’s estate. 

On January 14, 1840, in Book H, Page 231, of the Ohio County records, the children of James Cox, along with their mother, Elizabeth, are shown granting a power of attorney to Quintus C. Shanks, an attorney, to sell the 200-acre Cox farm and residence “of the late James Cox, deceased.”  This instrument was signed by:  Thomas J. Cox and Miranda Cox; Wesley and Nancy (Cox) Davis; Alfred and Susan (Cox) Davis; George W. Wallace and Lucinda Wallace; Allen P. Pool and his wife, Elizabeth (Cox) Pool; Philip Cox and his wife, Althea Cox; and Elizabeth (Leach) Cox, the widow of James Cox.  In that year, James and Elizabeth had been married thirty-four years.

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            On August 3, 1849, Thomas J. Cox purchased 266 acres from Virgil and Sarah A. Porter of Butler County, Kentucky for the sum of $430.  According to the deed records of Ohio County, the land was located on Green River and Indian Camp Creek on the big road leading from Hartford to Morgantown and embracing part of Rogersville.

            A year later, Thomas Jefferson is shown with his wife and children on the 1850 census, living on their farm in Ohio County.  Thomas is listed on the census as Jefferson Cox, so it is possible that he was commonly called by his middle name.  His age was listed as 39, and Miranda was listed as 43.  Listed also were their four children:  Elizabeth 17, born about 1832; James 12, born 1838; Leonard 7, born 1843, and John 3, born 1847.  Miranda’s eighty-five year old father, William B. Leach was also living with the Cox family.  Some believe Miranda’s mother, Sarah Emily (Barnes) Leach, died about 1812, however, as far as is known, this has not been proven.  Her place of burial is unknown.

            Also found in the 1850 census living a few miles from Jefferson Cox was his sister and her husband, Althea and Philip Cox.  Both Althea and Philip were listed as age 31, with their children:  Mary, age 10; Nelson, age 7, and Nancy, age 7, (twins); Washington. age 5; Martin, age 1, and baby Marinda, who was one month old.  Living with the Philip Cox family was John Cox, age 20.  Since Philip was a Cox also, it is possible that John Cox was a younger brother, however, this has not been proven.

            Allen Pool, age 38, and Elizabeth (Cox) Pool, age 28 (sister of Thomas J.) are shown with their family in the 1850 Ohio County census, living in District 1.  They are listed with five children:  James, age 12; Margaret, age 10; Nancy, age 8; Mary, age 6, and Sarah, age 3.  It is believed this family later moved out of the county before 1860 to join other Cox family members who had already moved to Jackson County, Illinois.

            According to the records, the youngest son of Jefferson and Miranda Cox, little John T. B. Cox, “died of fever” at age five on November 4, 1853.  With hearts full of sorrow, they buried him at East Providence Cemetery, not far from where they lived. 

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 Elizabeth Mary Cox, the daughter of Jefferson and Miranda, married Allen W. P. Pool, January 27, 1851.  The marriage records from the county clerk’s office of Ohio County lists the consent for their wedding, given by her father, the wording of which says in one part:

“Mr.  Charles Henderson, this is to let you know that I consent to

the marriage of my daughter, Elizabeth Mary, to Allen P. Pool,

written with my own hand December 25, 1851.  Thomas J. Cox”

Since the young couple did not marry until January 27, 1851, the date he wrote probably should have been December 25, 1850.  The bond was taken out January 27, 1851 and the minister’s return shows they were married the same day.  The fact that Thomas J. Cox was required to give his consent probably indicates that Elizabeth Mary was not yet eighteen, the legal age required for a female to marry in Kentucky.  Perhaps the date of their marriage was delayed due to bad weather or sickness in the family.

Allen W. P. Pool appears to be the son of Logustine P. Pool, found in the 1850 Breckenridge County, Kentucky census.  Allen was listed as thirty-four, born North Carolina. Records are sparse for this couple but it appears they had at least two children, a daughter, Elvenure I. Pool, born in July 1853, and a son, L. S. Pool, born 1856, who died August 12, 1857, of typhoid fever.  As far as is presently known, only Elvenure lived to maturity. 

Cox deed records recorded in 1864 list a deed from Thomas J. Cox and Cinderella Cox to their daughter, E. M. Pool, wherein she was given a “lot or parcel of land” containing one acre and six poles of land.  The legal description gives a bit more insight into this gift, which appears to be a part of the farm of Thomas J. Cox, since it points to his “corner” in the land boundary:

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“This indenture made and entered into this 5^th day of December in the year

of our Lord 1864 between Thomas J. Cox and Cinderella Cox, his wife, of

Ohio County and state of Kentucky of the first part and E. M. Pool, his daughter

of the county and state aforesaid of the part of the second part, witnesseth: 

“That we the party of the first part for and in consideration of one dollar to us

in hand paid by the party of the second part, and for other good and sufficient considerations and in consideration of blood relation the receipt of whereof is hereby acknowledged have this day bargained and sold and by these presents grant, bargain sell allow convey and confirm unto her the said E. M. Pool the following disencumbered lot or parcel of land lying and being in Ohio County

and state of Kentucky, and being in the town of Pincheco, bounded as follows:

                        “Beginning at a stone for a corner in my line on the big road,

Thence N 71W 8 poles & 3 feet & 9 inches to a stake corner

of Wm. Valentines where we have planted a stone for a

corner; Thence with a line of Wm. Valentines where we have

Planted a stone for a corner; thence S71E 5 poles to a stone

for corner; Thence with a straight line to the Beginning,

Containing one acre and six poles, more or less.”

“To have and to Hold this said lot or parcel of land to her the said Pool and

her heirs forever to her only proper use and behalf with all its appurtenances

and improvements thereunto belonging and we the party of the first part do covenant and agree that we will warrant and forever defend to her the said

Pool, the title of the above described lot or parcel of land from the claim or

claims of all and every person or persons whatsoever.

In testimony whereof we have hereunto set our hands and seals, the year and date above written.”

                                                                                    Thomas J. Cox

                                                                                    Cinderella Cox

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No record was discovered in Ohio County in the 1860 census, or in any of the surrounding county censuses, for Elizabeth Mary’s family.  But in 1870, she is listed as Eliza M. Pool, thirty-six, widow, with daughter Elvenure, fifteen, living in the Cromwell precinct.  Eliza is shown with real estate, valued at $150, probably the same lot or parcel of land deeded to her by her father, Thomas Jefferson Cox in 1864.  No personal property value is given.  This census was enumerated by Benjamin Duvall on June 14, 1870. 

In the 1880 Ohio County census, Elizabeth M. Pool, forty-seven, is listed in the household of her daughter, Elvenure I. Maddox, twenty-six, who by that date had married James H. Maddox, twenty-nine, born Indiana.  Children listed in the home, all born in Kentucky, were:  Henry Allen, 7; Albert R., 5; Estill M., 2: and Etta R. Maddox, age 4 months.  The census was enumerated by B.  N. Patterson on the 11^th day of June 1880 in the Cromwell voting precinct. 

No further record has been found pertaining to Elizabeth Mary Pool and she may have died sometime between 1880 and 1895.  Tax records may give a clue to the year. James H. Maddox left Ohio County about 1894 and moved his family to Greene County, Indiana, where James worked as a coal miner. All their children except the last one, Oscar L., born about 1895, were born in Ohio County.  Oscar was born in Indiana.  Several of the Maddox children were later found in Greene County census records between 1900 and 1930.   In the 1900 census, Elvenure said she had been married twenty-nine years and had borne eleven children, eight of whom lived to maturity.  James was not shown in the 1900 census.

1)      Henry Allen Maddox, born April 1873, Ohio Co. married Mary Ella (?).

2)      Albert R. Maddox, born January 1875, Ohio County.

3)      Estill M. Maddox, born 1878, Ohio County, married Clara (?).

4)      Etta R. Maddox, born April 1880, Ohio County.

5)      Mary Maddox, born about 1881, Ohio County, married Mr. Lyon.

6)      Infant Maddox., born 1883, died young.

7)      Infant Maddox, born about 1885, died young.

8)      Infant Maddox, born about 1887, died young.

9)      Charles Maddox, born April 1890 in Ohio County.

10)  Leona Bertha, born Nov 1893, Ohio Co., married David Beverige about 1811.

11)  Oscar L. Maddox, born April 1895, Greene County, Indiana.

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            On March 5, 1859, according to Deed Book Q, pages 628-629 at the Ohio County courthouse, Thomas J. Cox and Miranda B. Cox, his wife, are shown selling six acres of their farmland to Jesse H. Smith for the sum of $139.43.  The description on this deed listed the location as being a “parcel of land situated and being in Ohio County and State of Kentucky and on the waters of the west fork of Indian Camp Creek and being a part of the land bought of V. M. Porter.”  The deed cites the legal description as follows:

Beginning at a stone in J. Norman’s line near the west fork of Indian Camp Creek, thence South 60 West ten poles to a sugar tree, another corner of J. Normans,

Thence North 30 East Ninety Six poles to two Black Oaks corner to George Taylor;

Thence North 56 West 10 poles to a black oak bush and elm in George Taylor’s line;

Thence South 30 West Ninety eight poles to the Beginning, containing Six acres of land, more or less.

Three months later on June 7, 1859, Susannah Miranda B. (Leach) Cox died at age fifty-two, leaving her husband of thirty years and children, ranging in age from twenty-seven to seventeen.  She was buried in East Providence Cemetery on Prentiss Road, Ohio County, beside her little son, John T. B. Cox.

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            On January 12, 1860, Thomas Jefferson Cox was married for a second time to Cinderella (Rogers) Wilson, the daughter of Jonathan Rogers and Elizabeth Ray, who had married in Washington County, Kentucky on January 31, 1803. 

Cinderella was the eighth child in a family of ten children, born September 5, 1817.  She was the widow of Simon Wilson, whom she had married October 11, 1838.  Simon and Cinderella had five children:  James Rogers; Joseph Ellis; Eliza, Mary Ann, and Jonathan Berry Wilson.  Simon Wilson died before 1860.

Most likely Jefferson Cox had known Cinderella for many years.  A friend, Thomas Bratcher, served as surety on the marriage bond for Thomas Jefferson Cox.  The couple married at the home of Cinderella in Morgantown, Butler County, just across the southern boundary line of Ohio County.  Morgantown was only twelve miles from Cromwell.  Their marriage is recorded in Marriage Book 2, Page 383, Butler County.  As shown by the marriage certificate, their friends J. L. and J. P. Austin witnessed the ceremony when they were married by R. A. Read.

            Living in the community of Cromwell in household number 668/667 of the 1860 Federal Census of Ohio County, Kentucky, Jefferson Cox is shown that summer as age 49, along with his second wife, Cinderella, age 42.  Also living in their household were Eliza E. Wilson, age 18, and Mary A. Wilson, age 16, both of whom were Cinderella’s daughters by her first husband, Simon Wilson.  James Stewart, age 27, also lived with the family.  His occupation was listed as “farmer” as was that of Jefferson Cox.  Jefferson listed the value of his real estate at $2,600 and his personal property at $202.

            Thomas Jefferson was also a member of the Green River Baptist Church, and in January 1871, eleven years after their marriage, they both lettered out to become members of the Slaty Creek Church in January 1871.  They returned to the church by letter in 1883.  When Cinderella died in August 1905, she was the last of the Green River Baptist Charter Members to die.  She was interred in the Green River Cemetery.

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            The following fall on Election Day (the 6^th of November, 1860), Jefferson Cox and his son James William Cox probably rode their horses to the polling place to cast their votes in the nineteenth presidential election.  Candidates were Abraham Lincoln, John C. Breckenridge, Stephen Douglas, John Bell and others.  How the Cox men voted that day is unknown.  However, as soon as the election results were known, many Southern state governments began meeting to secede from the United States and form their own government.  Before Lincoln’s inauguration, South Carolina withdrew from the Union.  He was still new in office when militia guns thundered upon the Federal garrison at Fort Sumter.  After reaching that point, there was no turning back.

           

            For a while in 1861 after the conflict began, Kentucky attempted to remain neutral, but this proved impossible.  In September 1861, General U. S. Grant moved into Kentucky to establish posts and soon several camps were installed within the borders of Kentucky to begin the recruitment and training of troops.  The Home Guards were organized in nearly every county, including Ohio County, and became an important and successful means of service, especially around the Cromwell area.  It is said that some of the best recruits who later enlisted in the volunteer units and the 17^th Kentucky Infantry boasted that their best and most loyal soldiers were recruited from the “Cromwell” which was a part of the Ohio County Home Guards.  Thomas Jefferson Cox’s name is also shown on a list of the Home Guard from Cromwell, Kentucky.

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            On the eve of the Civil War, James William Cox, the oldest son of Thomas and Miranda, had left his father’s house to seek his own way and was living in Fordsville.  At that time Fordsville, twenty-nine miles northeast of Hartford, was a thriving community of about 600.  Because his parents had seen to it that James and his brother, Leonard Thomas, as well as his sister, Elizabeth, attended the neighborhood common schools, James William took advantage of the education he had received and became a school teacher.  In his early years, he taught at several different communities.

            James had been slightly crippled from birth and walked with a limp.  Because of this affliction he did not have to serve in the war.  While other men in west central Kentucky were flocking to join the ranks of the regiments being raised, James at age twenty-two had already been a teacher in the county before deciding to open his own blacksmith shop in Fordsville. Through it he paid his due to the war effort.  Partly because of the war, business was good and he hired his friend, George Ezell, age nineteen, to help him in his shop.  Within a few months he was able to accumulate real estate valued at $50 and personal property that he listed on the 1860 census at $100.00.  James W. Cox was the first name listed on the 1860 Ohio County Federal census.  Next-door neighbors were James M. and Elvira Gentry.

            Eight months after his father remarried in January, James William Cox married Elizabeth Mitchell from the Dundee community on August 4, 1860.  He was twenty-two and she was sixteen.  (I have often wondered if she was or had been a former student of his whom he met while teaching school).  Mary Elizabeth’s parents were Joseph Martin Mitchell and Susanna C. (Acton) Mitchell.  James and Mary Elizabeth had fourteen children; Joseph Thomas; Susanah Miranda; Delana Jane; John William; Mary Ellen; Gabriel Netter; Emma Catherine; Cinderella; Martha Evelyn; Orlando Clay; Ira Clinton; Jasper Newton (the writer’s grandfather); Bertha Belle; and Sarah Mae Cox.  James William Cox lived out his life in Ohio County and died at the age of ninety-three.  (The story of James and Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Cox will follow this account of his parents at some future date).

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            Leonard Thomas Cox, born May 3, 1843, the second son of Thomas and Miranda, was a member of the Cromwell Home Guard and later volunteered for Civil War service in Company H, Seventeenth Kentucky Infantry.  He remained in service until his regiment was mustered out three years and four months later.  According to Leonard T. Cox, while he was still in the army, he cast his first vote for Abraham Lincoln against George McClellan when Lincoln ran for a second term as President of the United States in 1864.  He took great pride in relating the story about casting his first vote at age twenty-one while serving his country as a Union soldier.

            Almost six weeks after Lincoln’s inauguration on March 4, 1865, the President was assassinated at Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth, April 14. He died the next day.

This news must have stunned the young soldier Leonard Thomas Cox as it did much of the country.  In all the young nation’s eighty-nine year history, no other event had ever sent such shock waves, as news of Lincoln’s assassination rolled across the country.

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            Like his brother, Leonard Cox and his bride chose Christmas Eve for their wedding day.  On December 24, 1865, he married Emma E. Iler, the daughter of Henry L. Iler.  They had three children:  Ola P., who married L. C. Leach; Mary M., who married M. L. Heavrin; and Ada Cox, who married Cicero Maxwell Heavrin.

            About 1870, Leonard moved his family to Rosine and became the first merchant of that community, specializing for thirteen years in the drug business there.  While a resident of Rosine, he also served as a police magistrate and was active in the Masonic Lodge and a member of the IOOF.  Shortly after moving to Rosine, his wife Emma gave birth to their fourth child.  What should have been a happy event turned very sad when both Emma and her infant child died on September 21, 1871.  She and her newborn babe are buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery on the Rosine-Mt. Pleasant Road, about two miles south of Rosine.

            After Emma’s death in the fall of 1871, Leonard Thomas Cox found a wife and a mother for his three motherless young daughters.  He married Frances “Fannie” E. London the following spring on March 4, 1872.  They had five children of their own:  Arthur L., born 1873; Elmer Osker, born 1874; Bertie, born 1881; Emmett, and Carrie E.  The first three sons died when they were less than two years of age.  Emmett died May 7, 1897, at age eighteen.  Carrie E. Cox later married Lyman B. Rosenfield and they had one daughter, Carolyn.  Fannie Cox, second wife of Leonard T., died September 8, 1885, and she and three of their sons are also buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Ohio County.

            While still operating his drug business in Rosine, Leonard Thomas Cox became interested in the study of medicine.  He attended lectures at the Medical University of Louisville during 1883 and 1884.  Later, he became a physician and served the Rosine community for a number of years.

            After his second wife died, he married Mattie B. Layton.  They had no children.  Leonard Thomas Cox eventually opened a drug business at Stanley, nine miles northeast of Owensboro in Daviess County, where he lived for several years.  His name was listed in an 1878 business advertisement in the Souvineer (sic) edition of the Owensboro Examiner.  Dr. Leonard Thomas Cox died at age sixty-three in Daviess County, June 21, 1906 and is buried in the Elmwood Cemetery at Owensboro.

            Mattie B. (Layton) Cox, the third wife of Dr. Leonard Thomas Cox, after his death lived for many years with the family of Cicero Maxwell and Ada (Cox) Heavrin.  Mattie is also buried at Owensboro in Elmwood Cemetery.  Earl Maxwell Heavrin, son of C. M. and Ada, remembered her as the only grandmother he ever knew.

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            On December 5, 1864, Thomas J. and Cinderella Cox conveyed to his daughter, Elizabeth Mary Pool, one acre and six poles of land in the town of Pincheco, adjacent to land owned by William Valentine.  Allen Pool was not found in the 1860 census and he may have died before 1860.  Possibly he caught typhoid fever from his young son, L. S. who died in 1857.  In 1870, living in Pincheco, near Cromwell, Eliza M. Pool, thirty-six, is listed with her daughter, Elvenure, age fifteen, living on the same lot given to her by her father in 1864.  As already mentioned, Elizabeth Mary may have died sometime after 1880, but before 1895.

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            When the census taker came by on a June summer day in 1870, he probably made his rounds on a horse, or perhaps he traveled by horse and buggy for comfort.  In that year, the age of Thomas Jefferson Cox was given as 59, and his wife Cinderella as 52, along with Eliza E. Cox, age 28, and Orlando C., age 9.  Also living with the Cox family were James E. Wilson, 31; Newton E. Wilson, 14; Mary J., 6; and Allie P. Wilson, age 1.  Probably this is the son and grandchildren of Cinderella.  Most likely the older boys helped out on the farm.

            Living nearby was Thomas and Miranda’s oldest son, James W., with his wife Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Cox and their five young children:  Joseph Thomas, Susanna Miranda, Dalana Jane, John William, and Mary Ellen. 

            It is unknown by the writer exactly how Eliza E. and Orlando C. Cox fit into the family, but evidently they were “kinfolks.”  Seven years prior to the 1870 census on March 2, 1863, Thomas Jefferson applied for and was granted guardianship of Orlando C. Cox.  Sureties listed on the guardianship application were John W. Hocker and Jacob H. Leach.  Most likely this child’s father was killed during the Civil War.

            That same day, March 2, 1863, Thomas Jefferson Cox was listed as surety along with K. W. Keeton when Jacob H. Leach applied for guardianship of Jonathan B. G. Wilson, probably related to Cinderella Cox.  Many guardianships were listed on the books of Ohio County during the war years.

            By the time the family is listed in the 1880 census, Thomas is shown as seventy and Cinderella as sixty-three.  Alice L. Wilson, a granddaughter, age twelve, is living with them along with Sept A. Mitchell, age forty-nine, and his wife, Catherine, age forty-three.  Thomas is listed as a farmer, while Sept Mitchell’s occupation is listed as a carpenter.  It was not uncommon in that day to have several different family members living in one household.

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Cinderella (Wilson) Cox lived thirteen years after the death of Thomas Jefferson Cox. She died at age eighty-eight in August 1905, the last of the Charter Members of the Green River Church to die.   She was buried in the Green River Cemetery. 

            Thomas Jefferson Cox lived to the ripe old age of eighty-one, having spent all his life in the county of his birth.  He died in the fall of 1892 on September 15, not too far from where he was born in Ohio County, and was laid to rest beside Susannah Miranda, the mother of his four children, in East Providence Cemetery.

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By Janice Cox Brown, 2317 Dietz Lane, Tyler, Texas 75701,

Great-great granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson and Susannah Miranda (Leach) Cox.

3^rd Revision, November 2008 with corrections on March 1, 2009.