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).