The first representative of the Cox family in this country came from England and settled on Long Island about 1680. He was a Quaker in religion, and possessed the sturdy and substantial qualities which have distinguished the family since the earliest records. The great-grandfather of our subject, who was probably born in 1700, spent the last years of his life on Long Island, and there left his nearest representatives, his sons and daughters, to succeed him. His son James, the grandfather of our subject, finally removed to Washington County, N. Y., and from there to Jefferson County in the same State, where he spent his last days. He reared a family of sons and daughters, among whom was William P., the father of our subject, who was born in Washington County in 1791, where he was reared to manhood and which he first left to become a soldier in the War of 1812. At the close of that conflict he located in Oneida County, where he carried on blacksmithing, and had a large contract for the building of locks in the Erie Canal. He remained in that vicinity until 1825, when, going into Genesee County, he purchased a tract of land five miles north of Batavia, from which the timber had not yet been cleared. He occupied this five years, cutting down a large portion of the forest about him, and then sold out and purchased a tract of partly improved land near the town of Hanover in Chautauqua County, where he lived until 1839. He then determined to emigrate westward, and gathering together his household effects, with his wife and ten children, started overland with a team to Erie. There his team and effects were loaded on a boat, by which means they reached Detroit, whence part of them traveled by teams to Chicago, and were there joined by the rest, who went by water. William Cox had previously entered a claim in what is now Winslow Township, and after reaching this made it his first business to put up a log cabin, into which, as soon as finished, the family removed. After living there ten years he removed to the village, where his death took place in 1866. The mother of our subject, who before her marriage was Miss Phila Goss, was also a native of the Empire State. She departed this life Oct. 25, 1871.

Henry C. Cox was a lad of twelve years when he came to this county with his parents, and remembers clearly the incidents connected with the journey and the after life of the family in a settlement affording new facilities for social intercourse or the transaction of business. In the meantime, his father was laboriously marketing the farm produce and hauling wheat to Milwaukee, which involved a journey of seven days, even in good weather. He remained with his parents until the spring of 1847, and at the coming on of the Mexican War, enlisted in a St. Louis battalion, with which he served nineteen months and until the difficulties between this country and Mexico had been settled. Soon afterward he started across the plains with an ox-team to California, reaching the Golden State after a journey of six months. He went into the mines and remained on the Pacific Slope until 1856, then setting his face eastward, recrossed the Mississippi and spent the following nine months at his father’s. In October, 1861, soon after the first call for troops to assist in the preservation of the Union, he enlisted in the 2d California Cavalry and served three years in the Department of the Pacific. After the surrender of Gen. Lee, he received his honorable discharge, being mustered out at Salt Lake City, Utah. Soon afterward he returned to this county and purchased 138 acres of land, which are now included in his present farm. He afterward added to his real-estate, and is now the owner of 200 acres, finely cultivated and supplied with good frame buildings. He was married, in 1865, to Miss Helen Baker, a native of Bradford County, Pa., and the household of two was soon enlarged by the birth of Fred in 1867, and Chester in 1869, who are now located in Winslow Township.

As a veteran of two wars and an emigrant to California during the gold excitement, where he was a witness of many thrilling scenes, the career of Mr. Cox has been a deeply interesting one, and furnishes a series of events which his descendants will look upon with interest long after he shall have been gathered to his fathers, and which may perhaps be noted with pride in the biographies of the future.

Contributed by Carol Parrish Portrait and Biographical Album of Stephenson County, Ill. (1888), p. 474-477