Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 436
HENRY B. COX

Henry B. COX, whose beautiful farm home, is situated just on the Eastern borders of the city of Missouri Valley, came to Harrison County in 1854, hence may well be styled a pioneer. He was born in Putnam Count, Ind., August 17, 1826. He is the son of Abraham and Lydia (REEL) COX. His father was born in Tennessee, and his mother in Virginia. They were married in Montgomery County, Ohio, and both passed from the scene of this life at their home in Indiana. The mother died September 24, 1842, and the father survived until December 16, 1849. They reared a family of nine children, of whom our subject was the seventh; all are living but two and four are living in Harrison County, Iowa, while three reside in Indiana. They trace their ancestry back to Germany, both grandfathers speaking the German language, but were American born.

Our subject's father followed farming, and Henry B. received his early education in the Hoosier State in a subscription school, and he, like his forefathers, has chosen to be a teller of the soil, always having followed agricultural pursuits. In 1851 our subject might have been seen peering from out a prairie schooner, wending his way toward Pottawattamie County, Iowa, where he remained three years and then removed to Harrison county, settling upon the farm he now resides upon in St. John's Township. Politically, Mr. Cox is a stanch supporter of the Republican party, and has been selected to numerous local offices since his residence in the county, including Justice of he Peace and member of the Board of Supervisors, having been re-elected to both positions, and was President of the Harrison County Agricultural Society for a number of years.

Our subject was united in marriage, March 30, 1851, to Caroline REEL, and one week after their marriage ceremony had been performed, these two young people possessing strong arms and loving hears started West beneath the folds of a covered wagon. The years may come and go, and this pioneer may add to his landed possession but happier and more hopeful years will never come to him than those of his early married life, when in the vigor of his young manhood, he traced his way ver unabridged and angry streams, through unsettled States and counties, and like the Star of Empire, headed toward the setting sun. Not that all was one paradise, where thornless roses were ever in bloom, for there were seasons of distress. The memorable winter of 1856-57 with its mountain-like snow drifts, scarcity of food and general suffering, together with the dark days of the Civil War, and the subsequent plague years of flood and grasshoppers which devastated parts of the Missouri Slope, all required the hardihood and courage that none but a genuine pioneer could well endure.

Mr. and Mrs. COX were the parents of five children: John L., married and living at home, is a graduate of West Point, and served in the Regular army one year; Annete is married to Edward ATHEY, and now lives in Jackson Township; Mary, wife of John a. GEORGE, a resident of Missouri Valley; William Riley and Henry Hudson are at home.

Mrs. Caroline (REED) COX was the daughter of Andrew and Nancy (MURPHY) REEL, natives of Ohio, who died in Putnam County, Ind. For thirty-six years this noble woman, our subject's wife, walked by his side as his faithful companion, and reared a family, the members of which are an ornament to society, and do honor to her name. Finally the summons came, and all that was mortal of Mrs. COX was deposited in Rosehill Cemetery, at Missouri Valley. The date of her death was October 14, 1887.

October 24, 1888, our subject married the widow of William REEL, whose husband died in Clay County, Ind. Her maiden name was Maggie FORNEY, the daughter of Joshua and Julia Ann (RHODES) FORNEY. She is a native of Putnam County, Ind.

Mr. COX has always been a hard working and industrious man, and fortunately possesses a faculty for accumulating property, as is evinced by his present landed estate, which comprises fourteen hundred acres of Harrison County's productive soil. Six hundred acres of this is now under a high state of cultivation, while the balance is in timber and pastureland. His homestead, near the bustling little city of Missouri Valley, possesses many charming attractions, including the well kept grounds and well ordered surroundings, showing him to be a man of method and taste. Indeed it is looked upon by the passer b y, as among the most valuable homes in the valley.

It is not the object of this volume to laud and exalt one man's characteristics, achievements and possessions above another's, yet in this case the writer cannot refrain from paying a passing tribute toward the life work of this, one of Harrison County's earliest pioneers, for in it there is a lesson to be learned by the readers, though it be in the coming generations, when the leaves of this volume shall have turned yellow with age; it is this: that the secret of this man's more than average successful life, is found in the fact of his having started out early in life with a determination to accomplish something by following the line of legitimate labor. Again he came from a long line of sturdy ancestors, his grandfather having served in the Revolutionary War, and his father in the War of 1812, and they doubtless transmitted many of the sterling qualities to our subject, for it will be remembered that genuine pioneers are born, not made.

The cause of nine failures out of ten in the world, occurs in vacillating and flying from one object to another, in the place of choosing a life-work, locating the field upon which life's battle is to be fought, and then "fighting it out on that line," as GRANT did his campaigns.

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