John Cox Family Organization Page

February, 2010 Vol 1. No 1

Dear Cox Family Members,

We are excited for the publica-

tion of our first newsletter. Many

thanks go to Yvonne Peterson and

Janice Cox Tomkinson for making

this a reality. Our Mission State-

ment is: To Remember and Honor

our Cox Ancestors, and to Unify

their posterity. Please forward this

newsletter to your family mem-

bers, either by snail mail or by e-

mail. If you have any more e-

mail or snail mail addresses to add

to our directory, please contact

Janice Tompkinson at : dadscou-

garkitten@gmail.com

You can find out more infor-

mation about the Cox organization

at coxgen.org. We welcome any

histories or pictures of John Cox

Sr. and John Cox. Jr. and their pos-

terity. Please send them to Charles

Cornia at:cornia40@comcast.net

Or, you can email them directly to

Reed Scothern at the website.

We also welcome any geneal-

ogy information you are willing to

share with us. Please send geneal-

ogy files to Janet Porter at:

janetsp@hotmail.com. Janet has

verified all of her Cox genealogy,

so if you want a copy of her infor-

mation, please contact her.

We welcome anyone who

would like to help with the reunion

this August. We also welcome

anyone who would like to help

with any of our committees. You

can find them on the website.

We are grateful to our Cox

progenitors for the sacrifices they

have made that have benefited us

in our generation. Please help us

On August 14,

2009, the John

Cox Family

Organization

helped host a

family Reun-

ion for the

James Bowns

family. We

met in Evans-

ton, Wyoming,

and enjoyed

meeting many

Cox and

Bowns rela-

tives. Walter

Bain and his family hosted the re-

union. Janet Stacey Porter gave us

a short history of the Bowns fam-

ily. She also shared her genealogy

information with the group. After

lunch, we visited the Almy Ceme-

tery courtesy of Roseanne and

keep their memories and their faith

alive in the hearts of your families.

Sincerely,

Julie, Pat, Janet, and the Cox

Family Organization Board

Bowns Reunion in Woodruff

Was Held in August 2009

Kelly Johnson, and the James

Bowns Museum, courtesy of John

Bowns and family. This is a pic-

ture of James Bown's original bed,

still part of the Bowns museum.

Welcome Cox Cousins

John Cox Family Organization Page 2

Posterity of John Cox Sr. and Ann Baker

John Cox Sr. Born 1813 Ann Baker Born 1811

William Cox Born 1834 Died 1845

John Cox Jr. Born 1836 Annie Stiff/Neville

Edwin Cox Born 1838 Harriet Barrows

George Cox Born 1840

Elizabeth Mary Cox Born 1842 Died 1850

Barbara Ann Cox Born 1844 George Johnson

Jabez Henry Cox Born 1847 Died 1847

Sarah Cox Born 1851 George Henry Knowlden

Posterity of John Cox Jr. and Annie Stiff/Neville

John Cox Jr. Born 1836 Annie Stiff/Neville Born 1839

John Hyrum Cox Born 1859 Died 1866

Elizabeth Ann Cox Born 1861 William Henry Lee

William James Cox Born 1863 Minne May Bowns

Heber Charles Cox Born 1866 Teenie Bowns

Anne Cox Born 1867 Thomas Josiah Tingey

George Edwin Cox Born 1869 Denice Manguma

Ellen Josephine Cox Born 1871 Byron Aubary Sessions

Mary Louise Cox Born 1874 David Cope Dean

Minnie Amelia Cox Born 1876 James Richard Stuart

Agnes Ada Cox Born 1879 Scott Aytch Sessions

Julia Rachel Cox Born 1881 Died 1888

John Alma Cox Born 1883 Laura Godby

Posterity of John Cox Jr. and Ellen Eliza Akers

John Cox Jr. Born 1836 Ellen Eliza Akers Born 1867

Charles William Cox Born 1887 Emily Elizabeth Dickson

Wilford Woodruff Cox Born 1890 Died 1906

Rachel Fannie Cox Born 1891 Ernest Melvin Crouch

Leonard Henry Cox Born 1893 Maude Dean

Sarah Edith Cox Born 1894 James Henry Buck

Barbara Cox Born 1896 Paul Clifford

Irvin James Cox Born 1898 Elsie Lord

Arthur Jabez Cox Born 1899 Anna Elsie Cornia

Newell Cox Born 1901 Died 1901

Oneita Rhoda Cox Born 1902 Hans Victor Hansen

John Owen Cox Born 1904 Hannah Cornia

Vernon Leroy Cox Born 1906 Bella Morrow

Thelma May Cox Born 1910 Francis Lowry Wadsworth

More information on the posterity of John Cox is available at the Website Coxgen.org

Posterity of John Cox, 1813

John Cox Family Organization Page 3

scape of green rolling hills and occasional wooded

areas. Nearby Wield Woods have been noted from

earliest times, first for deer hunts for nobles and rich

landowners, (never for common people) and later,

when the deer were gone, for fox hunts. Situated on

the top of the Hampshire hills, Wield offers a view of

nearby towns and farms never to be forgotten. Most

people would never think of leaving Wield for Wood-

ruff, Utah, but John and Annie Cox and William and

Rachel Stiff did.

The history of our family in Wield may help ex-

plain how it happened.

In 1819 John’s grandfather and grandmother Wil-

liam and Ann (Cox) Broad moved their family of two

children to Wield. They were originally from a town

named Pewsey, Wiltshire, about fifty miles west and

north. There was no work for him in Wield, other than

farm work

for one of

the seven

large land-

owners at 9

shillings

per week,

but Wil-

liam Broad

had other

family

members in

Wield and

apparently

came to

live near them. He died 43 years later at Wield at the

age of 93, and was buried in St. James Churchyard 13

February 1862.

Between 1820 and 1831 there

were five more children born to William

and Ann Broad, all siblings of John Cox

Senior who had been born before the

marriage. Often a couple didn’t marry

until after there was a child or two,

sometimes because work was difficult to

find and the man didn’t feel capable of

supporting a family. Therefore, the

woman stayed with her parents until he

found work and they could afford to

marry. Perhaps that is the reason William

John Cox, Jr and Wield, England By Janet Porter

For John Cox Junior the tiny village of Wield in

Hamp-

shire,

Eng-

land

was

home.

He was

born

there in

the

spring

of 1836

just as

the

blue-

bells were blooming and the sheep were lambing.

Grass around the parish church of St. James at the top

of the hill was spring green the day his parents took

John to be christened on May 12, 1836. The church

appears today much as it looked then. The bell rings

for weddings and for funerals. For centuries it has

been the center of life in the highlands of Hampshire.

The village of Wield is more than a thousand years

old, having been recorded in the Doomsday Book of

1066. By 1150 there was a church there, dedicated to

St. James the Apostle. It was constructed of flint

stone and covered with plaster. Originally the pres-

ently tiled roof was thatched. Many of the original

medieval details, including wall paintings on plaster,

and other artwork are still visible inside, although

there have been several reconstructions through the

years. In the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries the

small church was

enlarged with an addition

and a tower. In 1810 the

Norman tower beside the

present church was

judged to be unsafe and

was taken down. A small

bell tower was built on

top of the roof and a

porch removed from the

entrance.

Hampshire, England is

noted as an idyllic land-

Oxdrove Way, Upper Wield, © Copyright Brian

Robert Marshall and licensed for reuse under this

Creative Commons License

St. James Church, Wield, © Copyright Michael

Ford, Creative Commons License

Original St. James Church, © Copyright Brian

Robert Marshal, Creative Commons License

John Cox Family Organization Page 4

Broad

came to

Wield—

because he

knew there

would be

work. We

know John

continued

to be in the

household

and they

all grew up in Wield, which became the family home.

When his sister Elizabeth Broad was married in Sep-

tember of 1839, John Cox was the witness whose sig-

nature stands on the marriage record. On 29 March

1834 John married Ann Baker whose family had been

in Wield

for genera-

tions. She

had been

christened

there 8

June 1811,

the daugh-

ter of

George and

Barbara

(Porter)

Baker.

When

William

Broad

brought his family to Wield the combined population

was about 200 in both Upper Wield where the parish

church stood on the top of the hill and in Lower Wield

a mile or two down the hill, which means 20-30 fami-

lies lived along the road. In 1841 the population had

increased to 278, no doubt partly due to the influx of

Broads. In 1851 there were 307 people there. By the

time William died he was known to be of Lower

Wield, which was only a mile away from the little vil-

(Continued from page 3)

lage of Bradley where the Stiffs lived. If the Broad/

Cox family was mainly in Lower Wield, their interac-

tion with a family in Bradley is logical. John Cox Jun-

ior married Annie (christened Hannah Stiff) in the

Bradley Parish Church 22 August 1858.

By then their lives had already begun to change. In

1851 John Senior and Ann Cox, and William and Ra-

chel Stiff and their families heard the message of the

missionaries

of the Church

of Jesus Christ

of Latter-day

Saints. Non-

conformity to

the established

Church of

England in

Wield had tra-

ditionally been

punished with

a bombard-

ment of rotten

eggs, and the

Mormon Eld-

ers were no different. Neighbors suddenly didn’t trust

their old friends. When the Coxs and the Stiffs

marched to the pond in Wield Wood to be baptized by

immersion,

heads

turned and

tongues

wagged.

There was

no going

back. The

new Mor-

mons had

to choose

between

peace with

their

(Continued on page 5)

John Cox, William Stiff and Families

Leave Wield, England for Woodruff

Wield Wood Farm © Copyright Graham Horn,

licensed under the Creative Commons License.

Ashley Farm, © Copyright Graham Clutton,

Creative Commons License

Village of Bradley © Copyright Graham

Clutton and licensed for reuse under this

Creative Commons License

Cottages at Lower Wield © Copyright Graham

Clutton, Creative Commons Licence.

John Cox Family Organization Page 5

We are excited to announce

that the John Cox Family Reunion

will be held at Barnes Park (200 N.

900 W. ) in Kaysville on Saturday,

August 14th at 6:00 p.m.

Bring your own dinner, and

utensils.

Bring your parents, children,

grandchildren, nieces, nephews,

aunts, uncles, cousins-but not dogs

or cats.

Bring any histories or momen-

tos that you wish to share with our

family.

We will send you a reminder in

July.

neighbors and peace with

their God.

John Junior, Edwin,

and Sarah Cox and the

Stiff family chose to leave

Wield. They all emigrated

with the church to America

where they lived in Wood-

ruff, Almy and Salt Lake

City, never to enjoy the

sights and sounds of Wield

again. However, John Senior de-

cided not to leave his home. In the

1859 tax list, he is listed in Upper

Wield, across the street from the

St. James Church and close to his

Baker relatives. By then his wife

had died and he was left with two

children under twenty. Eventually

he left Wield, found a job with the

railroad, and died in an accident in

(Continued from page 4)

Wield to Woodruff

Woodruff Church, 1870's

Teddington, Middlesex, England

on 9 July 1869.

For John Cox Junior, from

Wield to Woodruff was a big

jump. Perhaps it helps to under-

stand why the old church at Wood-

ruff looked a lot like the St. James

Church in Wield. Hampshire Eng-

land was a hard place to forget.

Cox Family Organization

Contact Information Listed The Cox Family Organization is a tax exempt organization. We

would love any contributions that could help us defray mailing and other

costs. You can make a deposit to America First Credit Union under the

Cox and Bowns Family Organization or checks can be made out to the

Cox and Bowns Family Organization and sent to either of the following:

Julie Eckman

701 W. 2350 No.

West Bountiful, UT 84087

Please indicate if you would like a receipt mailed back to you.

We are offering a picture CD of the photos that are from Janet Stacey

Porter's history book. These were also offered at the last Cox Reunion in

Kaysville in 2008. Some are unidentified, would you like to help us solve

those mysteries? We are asking a minimum of $5.00, but would welcome

any amount you could contribute. To order, contact Julie Eckman.

Thanks for the encouragement and support!

2010 Reunion

Set For August

14 in Kaysville

Pat Cox Bellamy

110 No. 700 East

Centerville, UT 84014

Cox Family

History Found

At Coxgen.org

Much information about the

John Cox family history can be

found at the website Coxgen.org.

This site is maintained by Reed

Scothern, whose wife is a descen-

dant of John Cox, Jr through his

daughter Minnie Amelia.

The site is set up to provide

information on John Cox and his

descendants. Included in the site

are a gedcom which can be

downloaded, a picture genealogy,

researchers, and newsletters. There

is also a link to submit information

for those who may have something

to contribute.

Under the “Personal Histories”

link are the histories of John Cox

Sr, John Cox Jr and both his

wives, and William James Cox.