Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1900, volume 1).djvu/802

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COX

seven children. Up to ninety-seven, Mrs. Cox was unremittingly industrious. Until near the time of her death her faculties, with the exception of im- paired hearing, were in good preservation : she walked without a cane, and read small print with- out glasses. After she had reached the age of 100 she was proud to recall the fact that, when five years old, she had knitted socks for soldiers.


COX, Hannah, abolitionist, b. in Longwood, near Philadelphia, in 1796 ; d. there, 15 April, 1876. She joined the first movement in favor of emanci- pation, being a co-laborer with Benjamin Lundy, Garrison, Lucretia Mott, and John G. Whittier. For years she and her husband, who survived her in his 91st year, received fugitive slaves. Their golden wedding was celebrated in 1873, when poems were sent by Whittier and Bayard Taylor.


COX, Henry G., physician, b. in Bermuda about 1819 ; d. in New York city, 29 May, 1866. He re- ceived a thoi-ough English and classical education, and, soon after attaining his majority, was elected to the legislature of the Bermuda islands. At the age of twenty-six he came to New York to pursue the study of medicine, was graduated in 1849 at the College of physicians and surgeons, and was immediately appointed house physician at Bellevue hospital, and subsequently to a place on the medi- cal stafl: at Quarantine hospital, Staten Island. In 1860 he settled in private practice in the city, and received also the appointment of physician to the State hospital on Ward's island, an office that he held for many years. On the organization of the New York medical college in 1850, he was appoint- ed censor, and afterward to its professorship of theory and practice. Dr. Cox took an enthusiastic interest in the organization of the Nursery and child's hospital, incorporated in 1854, and to his watchfulness in its earlier years is due much of the usefulness of the institution. A few months be- fore his death the commissioners of hospitals ap- pointed him principal consulting physician.


COX, Henry Hamilton, author, b. in Ireland about 1750; d.'there in 1822. His name was origi- nally Henry Hamilton, and he is said to have served in the British army in India. He assumed the name of Cox on inheriting a landed estate from his grandfather. Sir Michael Cox. The estate was heavily encumbered, and he came to America with a view of living in obscurity until it could be cleared by the income arising from it. Pie settled in York county. Pa., and subsequently in Ches- ter county, assumed the garb and manners of a Quaker, and was admitted into their society. At times, however, his eccentric manner excited the suspicion that his new life was not the result of sincere conviction, and that something in his former life remained concealed. His estate became disen- cumbered in 1817, and he at once returned to Ire- land. AlthoiTgh he bore certificates from the Quaker society in Chester county to that of Dub- lin, it is said that on his voyage home he doffed his plain clothes and threw his broad-brimmed hat overboard. He was the original of " The Strange Friend," a story by Bayard Taylor, published in the " Atlantic Monthly." Soon after he arrived in Philadelphia he presented to the Library company of that city several bound volumes of manuscript correspondence between the military and civil de- partments of the British government during the reign of William and Mary. It was subsequently discovered by William Hepworth Dixon that these manuscripts filled a hiatus in a series of volumes belonging to the British government, which had been deposited in a public library in Dublin, and, upon application, the Library company restored them to their proper place. It was supposed that they had come into the possession of Mr. Cox through some of his ancestors, who had held public office. In America Mr. Cox was known as Henry Cox. He published " The Pennsylvania Georgics."


COX, Jacob Dolson, statesman, b. in Montreal, Canada, 27 Oct., 1828. His parents were natives of the United States, but at the time of his birth were temporarily sojourning in Canada. He spent his boyhood in New York, removed with his parents to Ohio in 1846, and was graduated at Oberlin in 1851. After leaving college he studied law, was admitted to the bar in 1853, and settled in Warren, Ohio. In 1859-'61 he was a member of the state senate, having been elected by the republicans. At the beginning of the civil war he held a state commission as brigadier-general of militia, and took an active part in raising troops. He entered the national army on 23 April, 1861, and three weeks later received the commission of brigadier-general and was assigned to the command of the “Brigade of the Kanawha” in western Virginia. On 29 July he drove out the Confederates under Gen. Wise, taking and repairing Gauley and other bridges, which had been partially destroyed. Gen. Cox remained in command of this department, with the exception of a short interval, until August, 1862, when he was assigned to the Army of Virginia under Gen. Pope. He served in the 9th corps at the Battle of South Mountain, 14 Sept., 1862, assuming command when Gen Reno fell, and also at Antietam, three days later. For his services in this campaign he was commissioned major-general. On April 16, 1863, Gen. Cox was put in command of the district of Ohio, and also of a division of the 23rd army corps. He served in the Atlanta campaign, and under Gen. Thomas in the campaigns of Franklin and Nashville. On 14 March, 1865, he fought the battle of Kingston, N.C., and then united his force with Gen. Sherman's army. At the close of the war he resigned his command, and entered into the practice of law in Cincinnati. He was governor of Ohio in 1866-'67, declined the office of commissioner of internal revenue tendered him by President Johnson in 1868, and was secretary of the interior in President Grant's first cabinet from March, 1869, till December, 1870, when, on account of disagreement with certain measures of the administration, he resigned. Returning to Cincinnati, he resumed his legal practice. In October, 1873, he was elected president of the Wabash railroad, and removed to Toledo to take charge of his new work. In 1876 the republicans elected him representative to congress, where he served from 15 Oct., 1877, till 3 March, 1879. The degree of LL.D. has been conferred upon him by the University of North Carolina, and also by Davison university, Ohio. He has published “Atlanta” and “The March to the Sea; Franklin and Nashville” (New York, 1882).


COX, James, artist, b. in England in 1751; d. in Philadelphia, Pa., in 1834. For many years he was the fashionable drawing-master in Philadelphia and did much to advance the fine arts. He made a remarkable collection of works on the fine arts, numbering over 5,000 volumes, which he sold, during the latter part of his life, to the Library company of Philadelphia, for an annuity of $400.


COX, James, soldier, b. in Monmouth, N. J., 14 June, 1753; d. there, 12 Sept., 1810. His early education was received in the public schools. At the age of twenty-four he commanded a company of militia, and afterward served at the battles of Germantown and Monmouth, attaining to the rank of brigadier-general. He was for many years a