Coffee County AlArchives Biographies.....Cox, Charles M. December 1831 - living in 1893
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Ann Anderson alabammygrammy@aol.com May 16, 2004, 12:25 am

Author: Brant & Fuller (1893)
   CHARLES M. Cox, planter and proprietor of the Elba hotel, was born in Upson
county, Ga., in December, 1831, son of Charles and Mary (O'Neal) Cox, born in
North Carolina in 1792, and in Putnam county, Ga., in 1800 respectively. Charles
Cox came with his parents to Georgia when he was four years old. He received a
fine English and classical education and became a civil engineer. He surveyed
nearly all of southern Alabama under the auspices of the government of the
United States. He married in 1817 and the next year moved to Alabama, settling
near Columbia, Henry county, and in 1821 moved to where Clayton now stands in
Barbour county, while the Indians were still there. He surveyed and laid out the
town, and in 1830 returned to Georgia, and there taught school twelve years. In
1848 he removed to Russell county, Ala., engaging in farming and milling for
eight years. He then removed to Coosa county, where he followed the same
occupation till his death, which occurred in 1872. He was a man of great
ability, energy and perseverance. He was tax assessor and collector of Pike
county. He served in the war of 1812 and also in the Indian war. He was very
active in public affairs, was a great politician and was widely known. His widow
died in 1878. His father, William Cox, was a native of North Carolina, served in
the Revolutionary war during the last four years, when he was only a boy, and
died in Clayton, Ala., about 1842. The father of William Cox was a Welshman, and
his mother an English lady. Edmond O'Neal, the maternal grandfather of Charles
M. Cox, was a native of Virginia and removed from that state to Georgia,
followed the occupation of a farmer and died there. He served in the war of the
Revolution while quite young and was hanged by the tories several times to make
him divulge some secret which they supposed him to possess. His parents were of
Irish extraction, but were born in New York and it is believed died in Virginia.
Mr. C. M. Cox was the seventh of a family of three sons and five daughters, he
and his sister being all that are now living. He received a liberal education at
West Point, at Crawford; Ala., and then at La Grange, Ga. He began life for
himself at twenty years of age by farming and has raised a large crop every year
since that time. In 1851 he came to Coffee county and opened up a farm, and also
established a grist milling business. In 1853 he built the hotel he now
occupies. In 1855 he married Luticia, daughter of Charles Stephen and Elizabeth
Lee, natives of Georgia; but they removed to Chambers county, then to Macon
county, and in 1852 to Caffee county, where they both died. Mrs. Cox was born in
Chambers county and is the mother of nine children, all of whom survive, viz.:
John M.; Edmond William; Charles Stephen; Pierce C.; Mary E, wife of Albert J.
Porter; Lena Davis and Rena Lee, twins; Anna Kyle and Luticia. In February,
1861, Charles M. Cox joined company D, Eighteenth Alabama infantry, as captain
of the company, which was organized at Auburn, and spent the first year on the
coast at Camp Memminger, and at the end of the first year re-enlisted and joined
the Tennessee army. His first battle was at Shiloh, after which he started for
Kentucky and was afterward sent to Mobile and spent several months at Camp
Beulah. He was however in the battles around Chattanooga, and. in the Atlanta
campaign, and after the fall of Atlanta he resigned on account of illness and
came home. He was never absent from a battle in which his regiment was engaged,
yet he was neither wounded nor captured. After the close of hostilities he
returned to Coosa county and was engaged in farming until 1887, when he returned
to Elba and has since conducted the hotel at that place. He owns about 500 acres
of land and has 100 under cultivation. He is a member of the Elba lodge, No.
170; F. & A. M. He has a very retentive memory; has had a great deal of
experience; is an entertaining conversationalist; is hospitable and courteous.
He has never aspired to political honors but performs his duty in the selection
of men to fill the offices in his county and in his state.



Additional Comments:
from "Memorial Record of Alabama", Vol. I, p. 663-664


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