FLEMING TRIGG COX

Submitted by Eileen Cox Goldborer

Family tradition says that the Fleming Trigg Cox family was traveling through Texas with the intention of going to California when a wagon broke down on the South Nolan Creek. Fleming decided not to go on. Bell County was about to be split off from Milam County and the state intended to open cheap land for settlement. The lure of this inexpensive land weighed against the dangerous journey to California probably influenced the decision to remain.

Fleming, 38, when he moved to Texas, was born November 24, 1811, in Whitley County, Kentucky, the son of Samuel and Jane McClure Cox. Fleming, at 19, married Mary Ganevera Leight, age 15, (b. Nov. 16, 1815) about November 1830. In 1939 the couple moved with relatives to Johnson County, Missouri, then about 1845, to Harrison County, Missouri. They remained there until after a daughter’s birth in February 1850.

Fleming’s intention appears to have been to join his brother, Andrew McClure Cox, and Benjamin Cox, a second cousin who had lived in Navarro County, Texas, since 1845. These relatives were already waiting in Austin. From Austin a wagon train going west would have headed toward El Paso which was one of the areas where Fleming had served with Rall’s Regiment of the Missouri Mounted Infantry during the Mexican War years of 1847 - 48.

Fleming’s family remained on South Nolan Creek settling about a mile west of present-day Nolanville. In 1851 Fleming was joined by the aforementioned Benjamin Cox (b. 1791). Later that year more Cox families arrived, including Fleming’s sister, Martha, and her husband, Soloman B. Cox, from Harrison County, Missouri. With them cam Soloman’s parents, Joseph (b. 1789 VA.) (brother of Benjamin Cox) and Amy Cox, and the families of Soloman’s brother, John W. Cox and their sister, Malinda (Mrs. Isaac) Shriver, all from Livingston County, Missouri. Joseph and Benjamin’s widowed sister, Michel Wilkerson, and her children also cam about this time. In 1855, Ben Cox and his wife, Elizabeth (formerly widow of Dempsey Sutton) were joined by several of her children’s families. They included the families of Anderson Sutton (from Izard County, Arkansas) and Revenna Sutton Middleton Craghead. Several of Benjamin’s sons seem to have come about this time, but soon moved further west into the Lampasas and Coyrell County area.

The hardships of pioneer life in Bell County included Indian raids during the early 1870s. George W. Tyler, in his History of Bell County, states, “In the fall of 1853, Indians made a raid down Nolan Creek and stole a lot of horses. The heaviest losers being the Coxes and the Suttons.” In 1859 increased Indian raids led local men to form a ranger unit to provide protection and recover stolen stock. Benjamin and Soloman B. Cox joined that unit.

During those early years of Bell County settlement, Fleming Cox, his son-in-law, W. B. Cross, and James Sutton all served as “overseers” to clear land for roads.

In 1860 Fleming’s sister, Sarah, and her husband, Jarvis Cox, another cousin, also settled in Bell County. The family of Stephen, younger brother of Joseph and Benjamin, followed in 1862.

In April 1861, the Civil War began. In October 1861, Fleming’s son, Andrew P. Cox, married, then immediately left to join his brother, Samuel, his cousins, John W. and William Cox, his brothers-in-law, W. B. and James M. Cross, Jr. and neighbors, Jesse and Anderson Sutton in the 18th Texas Cavalry to fight for the Confederacy.

In the decade following the Civil War, there was a movement of younger Cox and related families into Lampassas, Coryell, Brown and Comanche Counties. However, pioneers, Joseph (d. 1869), Benjamin (d. ca. 1872), and Fleming Trigg Cox (d. 1890) remained in Bell County.

In 1860 a cemetery had been started on land owned by Fleming. Today it is called Pleasant Hill Cemetery. At least four generations of Coxes, neighbors and related families are now buried there.

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Sources:

Year: 1830; Census Place: Whitley, Kentucky; Series: M19; Roll: 42; Page: 283; Family History Library Film: 0007821 — Flemmon Call: Males 15-19: 1; Females 15-19: 1;

Year: 1840; Census Place: Warrensburg, Johnson, Missouri; Roll: 224; Page: 126; Image: 258; Family History Library Film: 0014856 — Males under 5: 1; Males 5-9: 2; Males 20-29: 1: Females 5-9: 1; Females 20-29: 1; Persons employed in Agriculture: 2

Year: 1850; Census Place: Bell, Texas: Name: Fleming Cox; Schedule Type: Agriculture: Line Number: 32

Year: 1855; 1856; 1857; 1858; Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910; Bell County, Texas, USA; Name: Fleming Cox; FHL Film Number: 2282093

Year: 1856; Texas General Land Office. Abstracts of all original Texas Land Titles comprising Grants and Locations. Austin, TX, USA. — Milam District, Bell County: Grantee: Fleming T. Cox; Patent Date: 18 Dec 1856; Acres: 320

Year: 1860; Census Place: Bell, Texas; Roll: M653_1288; Page: 335; Image: 197; Family History Library Film: 805288 — Fleming T. Cox, 48; Mary Cox, 44; Martha Cox, 16; Hannah Cox, 14; Mary Cox, 10; John Cox, 8; George N. Cox, 6; Sarah Cox, 3; Naomi Cox, 8/12; Andy P. Cox, 22

Year: 1868; Texas, County Tax Rolls, 1846-1910: Bell County, Texas, USA; Name: Fleming Cox; FHL Film Number: 2282903

Year: 1870; Census Place: Beat 5, Bell, Texas; Roll: M593_1575; Page: 106A; Image: 118880; Family History Library Film: 553074 — F. S. Cox, 55; Mary Cox, 54; John Cox, 17; George Cox, 15; Sarah Cox, 13; Naoma Cox, 11

Year: 1880; Census Place: Precinct 7, Bell, Texas; Roll: 1290; Family History Film: 1255290; Page: 430C; Enumeration District: 007 — Flemming Cox , 68; Mary G. Cox, 64; Neoma J. Cox, 20

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Photo:
'I have a wonderful group picture made in the early 1900s of Mary G. Leigh Cox and the seven children who were living at that time; four sons and three daughters,' wrote Emma Normand.
Source: Hussey Manuscript
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