FOX, M. D.

FOX, BULLOCK, BENNETT, WOOD

Posted By: Nettie Mae
Date: 1/18/2003 at 15:09:36

SOURCE: "Biographical history of Crawford, Ida and Sac Counties, Iowa" Lewis Pub. Co., Chicago, 1893

M. D. FOX is ranked with the earliest pioneers of Clinton township, Sac county, Iowa,
and to him belongs the distinction of having named the township. It is therefore
appropriate that some personal mention be made of him in this work.

M. D. Fox was born in Trumbull county, Ohio, May 7, 842. The Foxes trace their
ancestry back to George Fox, a Quaker, who came from England to America during
Colonial times and settled in Pennsylvania. Samuel Fox, the father of M. D., was born in
New Hampshire in 1794, and was a soldier in the war of 1812. He married Dorothea
Bullock, also a native of New Hampshire, and a descendant of English ancestry. Her
father was a soldier in the war of 1812 and was killed in that struggle. They had fourteen
children, five sons and nine daughters. The mother died in Lee county, Illinois, aged
forty-four, and the father departed this life in 1875. He was a farmer, a Democrat, and a
Methodist.

When the subject of our sketch was a lad the family moved to Michigan, and after
living there five or six years took up their abode in Lee county, Illinois. He was reared on
a farm and received his education in the common schools and the Lee Center Seminary.
In 1868 he enlisted in the Eleventh Iowa Infantry, and served until 1865. He was in the
battles of Atlanta and Jonesborough, and at the latter place received a flesh wound. His
brother, William H., now a resident of Sawyer, Michigan, was a soldier in the Twelfth
Illinois Infantry.

After the war the subject of our sketch settled in Clinton county, Iowa, near Lyons.
Still later he moved to a place near DeWitt in Clinton county, and in 1874 came from
there to Sac county. Upon his arrival here, he purchased 160 acres of wild land in Clinton
township, which he has improved and to which he has added forty acres more. He has it
well fenced, under a good state of cultivation and substantial buildings upon it. The
residence, a story and a half frame, is 16x24 feet, with an L, 16x24 feet, and an addition,
12x14 feet. The grove and orchard comprise ten acres.

In May, 1867, Mr. Fox was married, in Clinton county, Iowa, to Lydia F. Bennett,
who was born in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, daughter of William H. and Mary Ann
(Wood) Bennett. She was reared and educated at her native place and was a successful
teacher previous to her marriage. Her father died in Davenport, Iowa, at the age of sixty-
two years, and her mother passed away in Colorado at the age of seventy-one. They had
six children, one son and five daughters. Mr. and Mrs. Fox have six children, as follows:
Flora A., Channcey B., Jessie M., Fanny L., Harry B. and Howard M.

Politically Mr. Fox affiliates with the Republican party. He has most acceptably
filled several of the township offices. He served as Justice of the Peace fifteen years, was
Trustee several years, and also served on the School board. He is a member of Colonel
Goodrich Post, No. 117, G. A. R., Odebolt, and is at present Vice-President of the Sac
County Soldiers' Relief Commission. Mrs. Fox is President of the Woman's relief Corps.
Both he and his wife are worthy members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and she is a
teacher in the Sabbath-school.

Such is a brief sketch of one of the honored pioneers of Sac county.