Barbour County, West Virginia Biography of William A. COX This biography was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: The submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch. This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 304-305 WILLIAM A. COX. While his residence has not been con- secutive, William A. Cox was one of the first citizens of Junior in Barbour County, and has played a varied part in the affairs of that mining center. For the greater part of his life from boyhood until he retired he was engaged in mining and coal operations, and it was hard labor that won him substantial success. He was born in Monongalia County, West Virginia, April 30, 1859, son of William Purnel and Sara Jane (Myers) Cox. His father who was born in Fairmont, in November, 1837, and died in the same city March 19, 1902. He was a boy playmate of Governor Pierpont, the first governor of West Virginia. He could not serve in the Union Army on account of some physical disability. He was a coal miner, and in later years a teamster. He was a republican and a member of the Christian Church. His wife was born in Pennsylvania, but near Blacksville, West Virginia, in August 1839, daughter of William and Mary E. (Walker) Myers. Her grandfather came from Germany and founded the family in this country. Mrs. Sarah Jane Cox is now living at Parkersburg, in the home of her daughter, Mrs. Annie Fleming, and has attained the age of eighty-three. Her children were: William Azareal; Mary, who died at Parkersburg in 1917, wife of William Haught; Clara, who died unmarried; John M., of Jackson County; Mrs. Annie Fleming; Minnie, wife of Frank Morris, of Parks, Texas; Lloyd; and Ella, Mrs. Omer Dils; of Ravenswood, West Virginia. William A. Cox when a boy went with his parents to Germantown, Ohio, where his family had their home until 1867. Returning to West Virginia, they located at Pala- tine, now the First Ward of Fairmont. William A. Cox had little opportunity to attend school, and most of his reading and study were done by the light of the open fire in his home. At the age of fourteen he went into the mines with his father as a coal digger, later as mule-driver, and subsequently as boss driver. From Fairmont he went to Wilsonburg, where he dug coal four years, and in 1880 removed to George's Creek, Maryland, and dug coal in the Big Vein Mine there. In the fall of 1883 he opened a mine for the Atlantic and George's Creek Consolidated Company in Mineral County, and for this company was sub- sequently roadman and night boss. He returned to Fair- mont, and for a year was with the Aurora mines, and then returned to Elk Garden, to the Atlantic Mine. In 1892 he made two openings at Womelsdorf for the Womelsdorf Coal Company, and the following year established his fam- ily there. It was from Womelsdorf that he came to Junior in 1894. That place was still called Rowtown, and the name Junior was given the locality in honor of Junior Davis, a son of Senator Henry Gassoway Davis. Mr. Cox helped incorpo- rate Junior as a town, carried the chain when the town- site was surveyed, and he was chosen the first mayor of the new corporation. In the fall of 1894 he went to work in the local mine, later was promoted to mine foreman, and spent seven years with the Davis Coal Company. From here he removed to Lillian as superintendent of the Balti- more Smokeless Coal Company, and was promoted to general manager before he left the service of that company a few years later. This was his last active work as a coal man, though he has been more or less directly or indirectly interested in coal mining. For eighteen months he was a road sales- man ior the Friction Rail Brake Company of Charleston, and gave up that business to take up the study of chiro- practic at Belington, and practiced that profession at Middleport, Pomeroy and Racine, Ohio, and at Red Fork, West Virginia. For ten years Mr. Cox was in business at Greensburg, Pennsylvania, as proprietor of the Keystone Bottling Works. He made a success of the business, but probably expended more arduous labor in doing so than in any other occupation that engaged him. On leaving Greensburg in 1915 Mr. Cox returned to Junior, and took the first real vacation he had ever had. For about two years he lived at Parkersburg, assisting in the care of his aged mother, and did not leave her until her health was completely restored. Mr. Cox grew up in a republican household, but east his first presidential vote for James B. Weaver of Iowa, the populace and greenback candidate. He was reared a Methodist and leaned toward that faith, though his mother is a member of the Christian Church. Mr. Cox was made an Odd Fellow in Philos Lodge at Westernport, Mary- land, in 1881, is a past noble grand of the lodge and a past grand representative. He became a member of the Knights of Pythias at Piedmont, West Virginia, and is a past chancellor of that Lodge and has sat in Grand Lodge a number of times. In March, 1902, he instituted a Knights of Pythias Lodge at Junior, and was made its first chan- cellor. At Oakland, Maryland, November 23, 1882, William A. Cox married Miss Addie L. Fimple, daughter of John T. and Mary (Compton) Fimple, the latter a daughter of Henry Compton. The Fimples are a family of French ori- gin, and her grandfather, Job Fimple, was the first to come to West Virginia. John T. Fimple was a Union soldier in the Civil war, under Capt. T. Maulsby. Mrs. William A. Cox died September 23, 1893, mother of the following children: Mary J., wife of William Hunt, of Junior; W. Fred, who lives at Junior and married Amy Valentine; Grace, wife of William Miller, of Junior; Howard Dawson, of Junior; Myrtle, wife of Frank Pingley, of Lebanon Church, Virginia; and Charles, of Junior. Howard D. Cox is one of the prominent coal operators at Junior. He had a public school education, and at the age of fifteen went to work in the mines with his father. On leaving the mine work at Lillian he spent three years in the stone quarry business as an employe of R. G. Has- kins of Barbour County. For another three years he worked in the mines and paper mills at Luke, Maryland, and Junior, West Virginia. For the following year he was at Winter Haven, Polk County, Florida, in the service of his old employer, Haskins, who was promoting an orange grove. On returning North he became associated in 1911 with his father in the bottling business at Greensburg, but on April 1, 1915, returned to Junior and again took up mining for the Davis Colliery Company. In August, 1916, he was made machine man for the Gage Coal and Coke Company, and since December of the same year has been that company's mine foreman as successor of Opha G. Shomo, who lost his life by accident at the mine. Howard D. Cox was one of the active promoters of the Merchants and Miners Bank of Junior, has served it as director continuously and is its vice president. He also helped organize the Mildred Coal Company, was its first vice president and has been in charge of its operations. He has been a member of the Town Council of Junior and town recorder, and during the war was one of the leaders in the locality in promoting the sale of bonds and other securities. For almost a year he was acting postmaster of Junior. He is a republican, a member of the Metho- dist Episcopal Church, and fraternally he joined the Junior Lodge of Odd Fellows at the age of twenty-one, is a past noble grand, and in Masonry is a member of the Lodge at Belington, the Royal Arch Chapter at Philippi, and the Consistory at Wheeling. December 14, 1912, Howard D. Cox married Hattie Price, daughter of Israel and Harriet (Arbogast) Price. She was born on a farm in Randolph County, West Virginia, September 29, 1893. The oldest child of her parents is Sherman, who has rounded out ten years of service with the Regular Army and was with the American Contingent of troops in Russian Siberia. Francis, the next son, lives at Grafton. George is a resident of Junior. The two youngest are Mrs. Cox and Israel, twins. Israel was a soldier in the famous Rainbow Division in France, and was with the first troops to reach Coblenz with the Army of Occupation. Mr. and Mrs. Howard D. Cox have five children: Forest Hugh, Christine May, Dorothy Ellen, Mary Frances and William Arthur.