Cox, Thomas

COX

Posted By: Ken Wright (email)
Date: 3/24/2008 at 12:26:19

Iowa: Its history and its foremost citizens
Johnson Brigham, 1918

There was no more picturesque figure in the First Iowa House than Thomas Cox, of Jackson County, Kentuckian by birth, a giant in stature, erect and portly, with a splendid head surmounted by a wealth of black hair. He was reputed to be a skillful and daring horseman “accustomed, when nearly sixty years old, to vault into the saddle with his hands upon the horse’s withers, without touching the stirrups.” Cox was twice reelected to the House and in 1840 chosen speaker. In 1844, he was elected to the Council and, after a prolonged contest, was elected president of that body. Cox was one of the few old men in the public life of his time. He was past fifty when he entered the Territorial Legislature. He had served in the War of 1812 and, when the Black Hawk war broke out, Governor Reynolds tendered him the colonelcy of a regiment. Though he declined the honor, he afterward enrolled as a private in a company organized for scout service. Prior to his coming to Iowa, he had served as a senator in the First Illinois Legislature, and as register of the United States Land Office in the Springfield district. Experienced in legislation, genial by nature, and physically of commanding presence, Thomas Cox was in his day a famous presiding officer. Just as the thoughts of his democratic friends were turning toward him as their candidate for governor of the prospective State of Iowa the sad news came that he was dead, an attack of pneumonia having ended his career.

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