Eli Jones Cox
Born near Fairmount, in 1853, Eli Jones Cox is a son of William and Elizabeth (Wilson) Cox, the parents natives of North Carolina. The Coxes trace their ancestry back to England and Scotland, having originally come to the new country with Friends who settled in Pennsylvania.
Eli J. Cox was educated in the common schools of Grant County and attended Normal School at Marion, Indiana. As a young man he taught school a short time and then traveled West, where he remained for one year. He later went to Florida, where he engaged in the business of growing, buying and shipping citrus fruits, becoming an active member of the Florida State Horticultural Society.
He has found time in his busy career to devote considerable attention to the study of astronomy, and is deeply interested in this science. He has kept abreast of the discoveries made from time to time, and with the theories of leading astronomers, never tiring of the study of the wonders of the heavens. He is a member of the Astronomical Society of Los Angles, California.
In politics Mr. Cox is a loyal Republican, and affiliates with the Friends Church. Mr. Cox, who owns a home in Fairmount with Mrs. Cox, spends his winters at this orange grove near Maitland, Florida. Mr. Cox as a small boy, was a pupil of Mrs. Mary (Taylor) Morrow when the latter taught school at Wesleyan Back Creek in the days when the teacher "boarded 'round."
Submitted by: Gina Reasoner