DANIEL M. COX

COX, BARKER

Posted By: Alice Wayne Daniels (email)
Date: 7/23/2004 at 20:14:17

BIOGRAPHICAL AND GENEALOGICAL HISTORY, PG 28-30
1903 APPANOOSE AND MONROE COUNTIES, IOWA HISTORY BOOK

DANIEL M. COX

Coming from old Virginia before the war, “skirmishing” for existence in various places, and finally coming to Iowa for what proved to be a permanent residence, the gentleman
whose name is above given has had his full share of the ups and downs of life. As long
as he had good health, Mr. Cox gave no odds to anybody, as he was industrious and could
hold his own with the best of them. but he met with a severe accident a few years ago,
which totally disabled him for manual labor and placed him in the invalid corps. Though
thus deprived of his usual means of livelihood, Mr. Cox set his brain to work, and by use
of his ingenious inventive faculties evolved a number of useful machines which promise
in time to yield rich results. Such a man as this is well worthy of notice and a place in
any history devoted to the representative men of his section, and no apology is needed for
the following outline of his life.

Daniel M. Cox is a son of Carlos and Maria L. Cox, both natives of one of the most
noted of the old colonial counties of Virginia. Carlos was a farmer and struggled with a
large family to make both ends meet on the none too productive soil of his native section,
but finally decided to try his fortune in the west, and left the land of his nativity in
October, 1850. In course of time he landed in Iowa at a little town then known as
Orleans. In 1873 he removed to Kansas, where he died a year later, and his surviving
widow resides with a son at Moulton. They had ten children, who are thus recorded in
order of births on the pages of the family register; Elizabeth, James, Fanny, Daniel,
Carlos, Maria, Henry, Lucy, Charles and Louis.

Daniel M. Cox, who is shown by the above list to be fourth in the family, was born in
Northumberland county, Virginia, August 20, 1838, and remained at home until twelve
years old. In 1850 he accompanied his parents to Alton, Illinois, and a year later to
Fayette, Illinois, where they remained until the fall of 1864, when he joined his parents in
their emigration to Iowa, and settled in Appanoose county. He branched out there with
his usual energy and did fairly well until 1899, when his hip was so badly injured by a fall
as to make him a confirmed invalid. While lying in bed Mr. Cox began to revolve in his
mind a device which promised to be popular in such a rich farming state as Iowa, and his
child of his brain eventually emerged in the shape of a combination hay and stock rack.
He took out a patent on this invention, and since then has made several improvements on
the device, which it is his intention to also have patented. Still another useful machine
was evolved by Mr. Cox in his weary hours of invalidism, the same being a sectional
sliding gate, supported by rollers, which is pronounced quite practical by those who have
examined the device.

In 1867 Mr. Cox was married to Miss Sarah A., daughter of Dr. Arnold Barker, of
Monterey, Iowa, who is a lady of notable traits of character in more ways than one. She
was a school teacher in early life and in 1865 had charge of what was known as the old
Meadow schoolhouse in Wells township. In the same year she came prominently into
public notice by her courage in leading the Prohibition forces against an obnoxious saloon
in Monterey kept by one James Cross. This dive was being run in open defiance of the
law, and after patience had ceased to be a virtue, the women, led by Mrs. Cox, took
matters into their own hands and wiped the place out of existence. They were arrested,
but not prosecuted, as both law and order and public sentiment were on their side. Mrs.
Cox is a member of the Presbyterian church at Moulton and took an active part in the
religious work until an attack of rheumatism made her an invalid as well as her husband.
Mr. Cox is a Republican in his political predilections, but has not been a place seeker, and
the only office he has held in the county is that of school director, of which he has been
the incumbent for several years.