ISRAEL H. COX

8.         Israel H.2 Cox (John1) was almost certainly the man who married Susana Peters on 8 March 1832 in Tippecanoe County, Indiana.  Susannah died on 31 May 1836 and is buried on Shadeland farm in Union township.  Israel married Sarah Rider on 17 March 1837 in Tippecanoe County.  Sarah was born about 1816, possibly in Delaware (1850 cen).  She survived Israel when he died between 17 Jan 1839, when they conveyed land, and 4 Mar 1839, the earliest date found in his probate papers.  Sarah married Henry M. Downs on 6 Mar 1841 in Tippecanoe County.

     Israel Cox was of Wayne County on 12 Jul 1821, when he bought a number of lots in Abington from his parents, John and Catherine Cox (B:429).  He joined in a family conveyance of many of those lots to Christian and John Brower on 29 Apr 1822, at which time he was of Union County (which had been created in 1821) (C:214).  Israel was of Rush County, Indiana on 4 Feb 1823, when he sold two of his Abington lots.

     Israel Cox sued Thomas Moffett for defamation before the Union County, Indiana Circuit Court on 23 Sep 1825.  Israel claimed that Moffett had defamed him on four occasions between 20 March and 10 May 1825, all to the effect that Israel had stolen $450 out of Moffett's house.  For example, Moffett told John Banks about the 10th of April that Israel had, about the previous 4th of December, stolen $450 in cash out of Moffett's drawer and laid it out for store goods in Richmond.  On the 8th of May, Moffett told John Cox that Israel was the very guilty rascal that had robbed Moffett's house of about 22 pounds in silver.  Finally, on the 10th of May, Moffett told one Isaac Cox, in the presence of others, that Israel had come to Moffett's house between sunset and dark, took off his shoes and entered the house, where he stole $450.50, all in Eagle half dollars, from Moffett's drawer.  Moffett further claimed that Israel had divided the money between John Cox, Moses Cox and Richard R. Cox and that the Coxes were all in company.  The matter came on for trial in March term 1826 and the jury found for Israel, although it awarded him $37.50, rather than the thousand dollars he had sought (Union Co. Order Book __:139-42).

Sandford C. Cox's Recollections of the Early Settlement of the Wabash Valley mentions the Cox brothers in connection with Black Hawk's War in 1832.  John Cox was lieutenant of the Lafayette Guards, organized when the war first broke out.  Id. at 89.  Sandford Cox says that the troops from Lafayette marched toward the frontier region and had stayed there several days without finding any Indians when they were ordered to return.  About 45 horsemen refused to go and formed an independent company, electing Samuel McGeorge captain.  They went as far as the O'Plein River but found no Indians and began to return. 

         The first night of the return march Captain Israel H. Cox and a man named Fox were detailed as sentinels and placed fifteen or twenty paces apart.  It began to rain about ten o'clock and Cox put his gun inside his overcoat to keep his powder dry.  Fox saw the movement and, thinking he was an Indian, shot him.  The bullet went through Cox's belt and hit his dagger, by which it was deflected downward through his thigh, striking the bone and breaking it.  The company surgeon managed to stop the bleeding but Cox was unable to travel with the company and so was "left behind in care of his two brothers, Joseph and James Cox" and two other men. His friends sent a wagon in which he was brought home.  "It was several months before he was able to walk without crutches, and [he] never entirely recovered from the lameness occasioned by the wound."  Id. at 91-92.

     Israel is first of record buying land in Tippecanoe County on 14 Nov 1833, when he and J.H. Ready bought, for $50, 25 acres in Sheffield township, including 11 lots in Dayton (formerly called Fairfield) and land north of the town plat (Tipp. Co. Deeds E:204).

The records of Tippecanoe County mention Israel a number of times in the last five years of his life.  On 31 Mar 1834, a grand jury indicted Israel (described as a "gentleman") for having purchased the previous June, while serving as a constable of Fairfield township, two judgments on the docket of John Lovejoy, a justice of the peace.  Israel pled guilty on 6 Oct 1834 and was fined $5 (Final Rec. Cir. Ct. 3:7).  On 16 Apr 1838, a grand jury again indicted Israel (this time described as a "labourer") for a transgression in public office, this time for failing to maintain two state roads after 1 Sep 1837, when he was the supervisor of roads for District #2 in Fairfield township.  It was alleged that the roads were "out of repair, ruinous, . . . filled with broken bridges, muddy, full of stumps, trees, logs and underbrush, so as to be inconvenient and dangerous."  Israel again pled guilty and was fined $10 (Final Rec. Cir. Ct. 5:103).

        On 19 Mar 1835, Israel is recorded as having bought two sizable tracts west of Lafayette and south of the Wabash from Sarah Nehemiah (H:16).  This may not have been a true sale as the consideration is described as $12.50, 200 acres is a lot more than was involved in any of Israel's other transactions and there is no record of his having sold the land in his lifetime.

     On 3 Jun 1836, Israel, his nephew Sandford Cox, and Elias Bedford platted their "Cox, Cox & Bedford's Addition" to Lafayette.  This land was in the southwest quarter of section 29, to the southwest of the town of Lafayette.  Part of the land, a half-interest in 10 acres, Israel and Sandford had bought from William Trimble on 15 Jul 1835 for $40 (F:440). 

Israel H. Cox bought an acre lot in Williamsport in Warren County, located on Third and North streets in the West addition, from Moses Cox on 17 Aug 1836. He also bought acre and a half inTippecane County from Isaac V. Harter on 30 Jan 1837 (I:445). 

     Israel either had to borrow money to enter into some of the transactions or he was soon over-extended.  He borrowed $120 from his brother Moses on 15 Aug 1836 and Moses immediately assigned the note to George Mars, who later sued Israel for repayment.  Israel mortgaged part of his land in Cox, Cox & Bedford's Addition to the State of Indiana for $300 on 1 Feb 1837 (I:468).  He mortgaged another tract to the State for $200 on 20 Jun 1837 (J:468).  He made $200 off the sale of one lot on 3 Aug 1838 (L:406).  Shortly before his death, Israel managed to pay the $300 mortgage, plus the judgment George Mars had obtained against him, with the $600 proceeds he obtained from selling part of his land to John Baer (O:17).  The $200 mortgage remained unpaid and the State foreclosed on that land after Israel's death.

             On 3 May 1838, Israel and his wife Sarah gave a mortgage on several tracts of land to Sandford C. Cox to secure him against having to pay 10 separate judgments against Israel, obtained between 20 March 1837 and April 1838, as to which Sandford was obligated as Israel's stay or docket bail.  The total involved was about $500.  The land conveyed included Israel's interest in the Cox, Cox and Bedford addition, an undivided one fourth interest in land in the same quarter section, and interests in three tracts of land in Williamsport, the county seat of Warren County.  On 1 September 1853, some 14 years after Israel's death, Sandford endorsed the recorded copy of this mortgage as satisfied in full.

             A letter from Joseph Cox to his son Sandford, dated 21 August 1840, asks Sandford to write and "let me know how Sarah Cox is doing, since Israel's death."  "Mrs. Cox" is listed in the Tippecanoe County census for 1840 (p. 368), with a household consisting of one male 30 to 40, one female 50 to 60, one female 20 to 30, 1 female 15 to 20, and two females under 5.  Two persons in the household were engaged in manufactures.  In 1850, Sarah (Rider)(Cox) Downs was living with her husband Henry, a farmer, in Wayne township, Tippecanoe county.  They then had two children, Henry (age 4, b. Ohio) and Nancy (age 2, b. Delaware).  Ann Cox is not listed in the household, although she then would have been 12 years old.

 Child of Israel and Sarah:

           i.       Ann3 Cox, b.  9 Jul 1838  Tippecanoe Co, Indiana [bet 25 Jun, when Sarah was confined to bed, and 9 July, when Israel wrote a letter reporting her birth]

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