Page:History of Goodhue County, Minnesota.djvu/152

 108 HISTOEY OF GOODHUE COUNTY Red Wing. He married Ellen Graves, of St. Paul. November 7, 1908. For many years he has been treasurer of the State Asso- ciation for the Deaf. James Cox, a pioneer resident of this county, now many years deceased, is a native of Long Island, born April 30, 1812, son of Oliver and Zipporah Cox, natives of New England, who crossed the sound and settled on one of the productive Long Island farms in the early days. Here James was reared, living the life of the other boys of his period, and receiving such education as the schools of his neighborhood afforded. He went to Ohio as a young man. and engaged in the mercantile business, until failing health made it advisable for him to seek employment which would allow him to be out-of-doors more. At Burlington, Iowa, he conducted a real estate office, and here his health so greatly improved that he was enabled to open a hardware establishment in St. Paul. During the year 1856, when the wonderful possi- bilities of Goodhue county, then recently opened to settlement, were being discussed on every street corner in St. Paul, he be- came enthused with the prospects, and coming to Lean township, secured a farm and carried on agricultural operations for ten years. In 1865 he located in Red Wing, remaining until his death, January 6. 1888. He was a man of acute business judg- ment and staunch New England integrity, handicapped how- ever, through life, by a lack of robust health. The family still resides in the house lie occupied when first locating in Red Wing. This building is one of the earlier residences of the city, and within its Avails much of the early court business of the county was transacted. The old farm-house at Leon, with its surround- ing acres, also remains in the possession of the family even to the present day. Mt. Cox was married in 1842, at Piqua, Miami county. Ohio, to Anna E. Caldwell, daughter of Matthew and Harriet V. (Kemper) Caldwell, natives of Kanawha, W. Va., at that time a part of Virginia. The father was a large land owner and possessed the acres upon which the flourishing city of Piqua, Ohio, is now located. To Mr. and Mrs. Cox were born six chil- dren : Edwin was born at Piqua, served as corporal in Company F. First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, and was killed in the battle of Antietam; Oliver C. deceased; Alice C, born at Piqua, is also deceased; Eleanor Z., also born at Piqua, married Fred- erick ('. Boynton, head miller of the Cataract mills, and fourth owner of the Goodhue mills at Cannon Falls. Mr. and Mrs. Boynton have three children: Gertrude, now Mrs. G. C. Ansley, and has one child. Jeanette : James C, married Myrle Morowitz; Bessie is deceased. Harriet, the fourth child of Mr. and Mrs. Cox, was born at Burlington, Iowa, married H. T. Eames, lives at Fergus Falls. Minn., and has three children. Maude E. and