#12
Jasper Newton
1884-1974
Jasper Newton
Cox, the twelfth child of James William and Mary Elizabeth (Mitchell) Cox, was
born at Cromwell, May 10, 1884. His
maternal grandparents were Joseph Martin and Susannah Caroline (Acton ) Mitchell. He was the great-grandson of Bartemus and
Sarah (Robey) Acton and Robert Mitchell and Judith Benson.
When he was born
in 1884 to James and Mary Cox, his oldest brother, Joseph Thomas Cox was
already twenty-two. “Newt, as he was
called by the family was the youngest of the six sons of his parents.
He had six older sisters and two sisters younger than himself. He was born and grew up in and near Cromwell
and Select in Ohio County ,
Kentucky
His paternal
grandparents were Thomas Jefferson Cox and Susannah Miranda (Leach), natives of
Ohio County , Kentucky ,
and his great-grandparents were James Cox and Elizabeth (Leach) and William
B(rooks) Leach and Sarah Emily Barnes, all believed to be natives of Maryland .
Jasper Newton
Cox was twenty-four when he married Eva Caroline Smith at her parents’ home
near Select, Ohio County
1)
Gilbert Owen Cox, Jr., born October 10, 1909
2)
Eula Mae Smith, born April 26, 1912
3)
Retha Cox, born October 17, 1922
4)
Ruby Darrell, born May 9, 1926
Newton Cox, as
he was often addressed, had just been discharged from the regular U.S. Army a
year or so before his marriage. He
served two different tours in the Army – the first one just a few years after
the Spanish American War had ended in 1898 and the Treaty of Paris was signed
on December 10, 1898. At the time he served after the war, it was known as the
“Philippine Insurrection Period.” Some
historians refer to it as the war that lasted from 1899 to 1902 in the Philippines . My grandfather always referred to his service
as occurring in “the Insurrection Period after the war had ended.”
Many Regular
Army infantry, cavalry, and artillery units were sent overseas to the Philippines
after the war. My grandfather, as a
young, robust soldier, was eager to be sent overseas with his buddies. He signed up to go to the Philippines
more than once, but each time, other units were sent and he never did leave the
States. He enlisted twice, with his
first tour of duty in the artillery division – and the second and last tour
where he served as a guard at Fort Leavenworth Prison in Kansas , from which place he was honorably
discharged about 1906.
In the Hartford Republican newspaper, edition
of January 27, 1906, appeared a column
from the Smallhouse community, which mentioned:
“Mr. Newton and Miss Sarah Cox of
Pincheco, were guests of Orlando C. Cox and family recently.”
When he left the
coal mines, Newt, as he was called, bought a little farm near Cromwell and went
to farming. Two children were born to
them in Ohio County
About 1914, they
moved to Edgerly, Louisiana , where my
grandmother’s sister, Elizabeth “Lizzie” (Smith)
Sandefur and her husband, Everett ,
lived, with their little daughter, Joye.
My grandfather found work there and they lived in Louisiana for at least five or six
years.
On September 12,
1918, according to the World War I draft records, Jasper Newton Cox was 34
years old and had to register for the draft at the nearest Local Draft Board
for the Parish of Calcasieu, Louisiana.
The local board was located at Lake
Charles , Louisiana Lake
Charles , about six hours away, but even after surgery,
he never regained sight in his eye.
In 1920, they
moved to Texas
where two more daughters were born – Retha and Ruby Darrell Cox. My grandfather
worked for the Gulf Oil Company for a number of years, and later in the great
East Texas Oil Field at Kilgore, near Tyler ,
during the Great Depression era.
~.~
When I was
growing up, we nearly always lived near my father’s parents, and when I was a
teenager, my grandparents bought a house and thirty-four acres across the
highway from my parents. So my
grandfather Cox was always around and we grandchildren were with him
often. He was a very pleasant and
congenial man and whistled or sang when he was doing his chores. Sometimes he kind of whistled his favorite
and catchy little tunes through his teeth or hummed to himself. When we were little he would rock us and sing
“The Preacher and the Bear Song;” “Big Rock Candy Mountain;” “Little Girl Dressed in Blue;” and “A Tisket, A Tasket.”
Before
television, he never missed listening to the Grand Ole Opry on Saturday nights
on the radio, and later he watched it on TV.
His favorite song was probably “The
Great Speckled Bird” as only Roy
Acuff could sing it. He was a Mason, a
devout Christian, and could quote almost any verse in the Bible we could ask of
him. He read in his worn Bible every
day.
Later when he
was older and my cousin, Beverly Kay Green, came along, I watched him rock her
in his rocking chair and he sang, “On the
Shores of Lake Ponchartrain,”
“Mockingbird Hill” and “Swinging on a
Star” to her. He always liked music.
He was a gifted
and wonderful story-teller with an almost graphic memory. I particularly remember an evening in his
living room with all of his children there, including my parents, and several
grandchildren sitting on the floor. He
told us story after story from the “old days” in Kentucky when he was a boy. I distinctly remember that everyone was
completely enthralled and were so still and caught up in his stories that you
could have heard a pin drop. All the
cousins remember this particular day and those old long-ago tales of his youth,
growing up in Ohio County
In 1969, my
grandfather, born 1884, began dictating his life story to me which I took down
in shorthand and later transcribed into ten typed pages. Our interview was interrupted that morning as
we sat out on his screened-in back porch, when company drove up. Joye, her husband, Frank Moore, and “Auntie”
Sandefur from Palestine
came over that Saturday morning, and we never did finish the history of his
family.
I have always
regretted that I didn’t go back over there the next weekend, because I wanted
to get a few stories about all his brothers and sisters, and a little bit of
their family histories. But I have many
stories of his life in Ohio County ,
Kentucky Ohio County , before moving to Texas in 1920 when my father was about ten
years old.
An article from
the Tyler Morning Telegraph on
Saturday, September 8, 1973, noted their 65th wedding anniversary:
“TROUP COUPLE WILL MARK 65TH ANNIVERSARY SUNDAY”
Troup
– Mr. and Mrs. J. N. Cox of Troup will observe their 65th wedding
anniversary with members of their family Sunday.
Both
were born in Kentucky and have resided in Texas
have
lived near Troup for the past 23 years.
They
are the parents of four children: Mrs.
Darrell Appl of Tyler
Retha
Green of Corpus Christi , Mrs. Eula Mae Smith, of
Leoti , Kansas
and
Gilbert O. Cox, Troup.
Other
descendants include six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.”
~.~
My grandfather
was ninety years, four months and eleven days old when he died at his home at
New Summerfield, passing away peacefully in his sleep, on September 21,
1974. He and my grandmother had been
married sixty-six years at the date of his death. He was buried at the Rose
Hill Cemetery
in Tyler , Texas ,
where years before the family had purchased a family burial plot when his two
youngest daughters lived in Tyler .
His obituary in
the Tyler Morning Telegraph in
September 1974 is quoted below:
~.~
“J. N. COX”
New Summerfield – J. N. Cox, 90, of New
Summerfield, died Saturday morning at his residence following a brief illness.
Funeral services are set for Monday at 2
p.m. in the Lloyd James Funeral Home chapel with the Rev. Milton Gardner
officiating. Masonic graveside services
will follow at the Rose
Hill Cemetery
Mr. Cox was a native of Ohio County , Kentucky U.
S.
His survivors include his wife, Mrs. Eva C.
Cox of New Summerfield, a son, Gilbert Cox of New Summerfield; three daughters,
Mrs. Robert A. Smith of Leoti, Kansas, Mrs. Duane Marvin Green of Corpus
Christi, and Mrs. Darrell Appl of Tyler, six grandchildren, and nine
great-grandchildren, and several nieces and nephews.
Pallbearers will be Masons.”
~.~
Masonic Record
of
Jasper Newton Cox
“J. N. Cox was initiated Dec, 29, 1923, passed on February 3, 1923,
and raised on May 27, 1924 at Oglesby Lodge #947 – in Oglesby,
Texas.
He petitioned the Troup Lodge on November
30, 1956 from the Springfield Lodge #974 at Mexia, Texas. Said he had lived at his present address
(Summerfield) since December 1949.”
My grandfather
was a Mason for many years. Through his
membership with this fraternity, Darrell and I joined the Order of the Eastern
Star at Arp (Smith County ,
Texas
At the time he
petitioned the lodge to join the Masonic Fraternity he was thirty-nine years
old and was probably working at the Waco Lime and Products Company, along with
his brother-in-law, Everett Sandefur.
The family lived at Oglesby in Coryell County
In December 1923
as soon as he had learned his work, he was initiated as an Entered Apprentice
at Oglesby. In February, three months
later, he was passed into the Fellow Craft and the following May in 1924, he
was raised to the degree of Master Mason.
He kept his membership until he moved to Mexia in Limestone County
When he
petitioned Troup Lodge about nine miles from his residence at New Summerfield,
my grandfather was seventy-two and said he had lived at his present address
(Summerfield) since December 1949. That
is the approximate time he bought his farm across the highway from my parents,
who lived two miles out of New Summerfield on Troup Highway No. 110.
My grandfather
remained a member of the Troup Lodge until his death in 1974,
a period of twenty-eight years. All told, he had been a Mason for fifty-one
years. He was a faithful servant of the Master, daily walked with God, and
preached righteousness to his children.
“As ye would that men should do
unto you…” was the rule he applied to his own life and lived by. Jasper Newton Cox was laid to rest with
Masonic honors.
~.~
When my aunt
wrote the information for her father’s obituary, she did not realize that it
was not the Spanish American War that her father served in, but the period
after the war called “the Philippine Insurrection Period.”
~.~
My grandmother,
Eva Caroline (Smith) Cox, born at Select, continued to live in her home across
the highway from my parents until my father died on August 19, 1984. At that time she was ninety-five and went to
live with her youngest daughter, Darrell Appl, in Tyler .
She died December 6, 1988, three months short of her 100th
birthday. She had never been ill until
the last six months of her life. She was
buried beside her husband at Rose Hill Cemetery
in Tyler , Smith
County , Texas
As mentioned, I
have a typed ten-page story that my grandfather dictated to me of his life in Ohio County
Slowly, I am also working on another book
about my grandparents and my own parents, brothers and sisters. If I don’t do it, it will be lost forever,
and my children and grandchildren and future posterity won’t have the least
idea about their family heritage. I
think it is important for them to know and I am thankful that I started
collecting all this in 1962 – some forty-seven years ago, when my daughter
Jennifer was in the eighth grade. Her
teacher assigned a project of “Family Tree” to her students as a project. As
Jennifer started asking me questions, I realized suddenly that I knew nothing
about their early lives or about my great-grandparents, although I did remember
visiting my Great Grandmother Altman in Fort
Worth when I was about five years old
Submitted by Janice Cox Brown, Coppell, Texas
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