Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 805
JACOB COX

Jacob COX, a resident of section 12, St. John's Township, came to Harrison County in the fall of 1854, and may well be called a pioneer of the van-guard. He located on the site of his present home, where he took a claim of one hundred and sixty acres, on which he erected a log cabin 14x16 feet, provided with a board floor, but covered with "shakes" for roofing. He lived in this cabin a few years and then erected a frame house, which burned in January, 1862. He built another the same month, the same being a part of his present residence, the new part being erected in 1883, and consists of an upright one story and a half high, together with a commodious wing. Our subject's present farm comprises three hundred and sixty acres in one square body.

Mr. COX was born in Montgomery County August 26, 1820, and is the son of Abraham and Lydia (REED) COX. The father was a native of Tennessee and the mother of Virginia. When he was five years of age his parents moved from Ohio to Indiana and located in Putnam County where his father followed farming, his trade however being that of a hatter. The father died in Indiana in about 1848, and the mother in 1838, and when seventeen years of age our subject commenced the labors of life for himself. He worked out by the year, receiving $100 for his services; continuing at this sort of labor for about three years, and followed laboring by the day and month for four years, rented land for three years when purchased an eighty-acre timber tract in Clay County, Ind., and resided there for five years, and cleared twenty-five acres from out of the big forest, then he sold and fitted out a two-horse wagon and started for Pottawattamie County, Iowa, arriving October 2, 1852, having been six weeks on the road. He remained in Potawattamie County long enough to raise one crop then moved to Harrison County.

Our subject married Sarah FOX, in June, 1842, she was a native of Indiana and died in June, 1853, leaving a family of five children�William H., born January 16, 1843; he was a soldier in the Civil War and died of disease there contracted, September 7, 1863; James P., born May 30, 1845, lives in St. John's Township; Nancy, born November 11, 1847, married William SMITH and lives in Allen Township; Catherine, born January 25, 1851, wife of Mr. OWEN, living in Woodbine, and Caroline died aged one year.

For his second wife he married Hannah FRAZIER, November 28, 1865. She was a native of Putnam County, Ind., born August 28, 1838, and was the daughter of John and Elizabeth FRAZIER; she was the sixth child of a family of seven sons and seven daughters, eight of whom grew to manhood and womanhood.

Our subject and his second wife are the parents of ten children, seven of whom still survive�Minerva C., born August 9, 1857, is the wife of John A. BROWN; John Isaac, born January 1, 1859, married and lives in St. John's Township; Sarah Elizabeth, born March 15, 1861, married I. E. HOUGHTON, and lives in Portsmouth, Shelby County; Alexander R., born April 4, 1863, is a conductor on the Sioux City & Omaha Railway; Harvey H., born March 20, 1865, married and lives on the same premises with his father; Charles, born July 20, 1867, married and lives in Allen Township; Oscar, born October 30, 1869, died November 19, 1869; Ara A., born November 6, 1871, and died September 25, 1876; William Fonrose, born February 28, 1876, still at home.

Mrs. Hannah (FRAZIER) COX came to Harrison Count with her parents in May, 1855. Her father was of Scotch and her mother of English descent. The former died May 21, 1868, and the latter September 12, 1867.

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