Milton T. Cox
In Section thirty of Fairmount Township is located a small rural farmstead of eighteen acres, which might well be considered a model of its kind, and one of the most profitable and best managed small farms in Grant County. It is the home of Milton T. Cox and family. Mr. Cox was born in the vicinity of Fairmount, December 20, 1854, of an old family whose members will be noted in the following paragraph. Mr. Cox has always lived within a few miles of his birthplace, which was in Liberty Township, and has devoted himself to general farming, but with special attention to fruit growing. The Cox farm ahs almost every variety of fruit that can be grown in this section. There are no haphazard methods employed on the Cox place, and every bit of ground is put to some profitable use. Mr. Cox has a considerable part of his farm in orchards, and has done much in the way of growing small fruits. Throughout this section of the county, the Cox farm is known as Fruitland. In the midst of the perfect bower of trees which surround it, stands a fine modern dwelling of a quiet drab color, and containing eight rooms. Mr. Cox built this home in 1903. As a man who has succeeded well in his chosen industry, Mr. Cox is of the opinion that fruit growing is very profitable when properly handled, and is an industry which has been much neglected and should receive more attention in this favored climatic region of Indiana.
The grandparents of Milton T. Cox were Joshua and Rachael Cox, both natives of Randolph County, North Carolina, and Quakers in religion. They reared their family in the same faith. In 1830, the grandparents accomplished the long journey westward to Indiana, and settled in Morgan County, where they improved some land from the wilderness in the vicinity of Monrovia. There Joshua Cox died a few years later when in middle life. His widow survived him some ten years, and died at the hold homestead about 1846.
In the meantime, their son William, father of Milton T. Cox, had grownup and settled in Grant county. William Cox was born in North Carolina in 1824, and was six years of age when the family moved to Morgan County, Indiana. He was twenty-two years of age when his mother died, and had recently married. "There were no railroads between grant County and Morgan County at that time, and the only means of travel were by horseback. When the new came of the impending death of his mother, he and his young wife mounted on the back of their only horse, and rode as rapidly as possible to the old home in Morgan County, hoping to see her before her death. The distance was nearly ninety miles and, owing to the slow progress of their horse, they arrived after the burial. William Cox had been reared in Morgan County, and when about twenty years of age came to Grant County to visit his uncle and aunt. Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Reeder, well known old pioneers of this section. While in their home he was introduced by his uncle to Betsey or Elizabeth Wilson. Miss Wilson was the belle of that neighborhood, and while she had numerous suitors among the country youth of Grant County, she soon acknowledged her attraction and choice of the stranger, William Cox. The latter went home to Morgan County but did not remain long and soon came to Grant County to claim Miss Wilson as his wife. Elizabeth Wilson was born in North Carolina in 1826, a daughter of John Wilson, who brought his family north to Indiana, and located in Fairmount Township in 1836. There John Wilson and wife lived the rest of their lives, and died when quite old.
After their marriage William Cox and wife started life as farmers in a log cabin home in Liberty Township. Their equipment was exceedingly limited, and, as already stated, they had only a single horses to perform the labors of cultivation. their lonely cabin was situated on the edge of and Indian reservation, sparsely settled by white people, and it requires little imagination to understand how completely both the young girl and her husband were shut out from all social privileges and advantages. They were surrounded by the wilderness and wild animals still roamed at large, their horse, being frequently frightened at night by the screams of a panther which skulked about the home. A few years later he bought and improved a farm in Fairmount Township, which he sold, then bought another homestead in Liberty Township, and there continued his labors until he had made a splendid farm, well up to the standards of Grant County a that time. He was the owner of one hundred acres, and the untied industry of himself and wife brought it to rank among the best country estates in the township. In 1873 William Cox built a fine brick house, considered at that time one of the best in the county. there they lived the remainder of their peaceful lives, and is death occurred January 25, 1901, while she survived only a few months and passed away June 12th of the same year. Both were members of the Quaker Church, but were not married in the church, as required by the church rules, the ceremony being performed by his uncle, Spencer Reeder, who was a Justice of the Peace. They refused to express sorrow for the act and were disowned by the Society and subsequ4ently he and his wife became charter members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church at Upper Back Creek. They both gave their allegiance to that faith throughout the remainder of their lives.
Milton T. Cox was reared and educated in a substantial way, had the environment of a good home and upright parents, and started out in life as a farmer and fruit grower. On November 24, 1881, in Fairmount Indiana, June 9, 1862. She moved with her parents, Robert and Rachael (Vestal) Petty, to Madison County, Indiana, in 1870. In 1876 the family came to Grant county, locating on a farm near Little Ridge, in Liberty Township. Her father, though not a land owner, was a very successful farmer. Her father died at the home of a daughter in Indianapolis, May 14, 1900, while the mother passed away January 8, 1898, at Summitville, in Madison County, Indiana. For a number of years they had worshipped in the United Brethren church, but heir last years were spent as Methodists.
The children of Milton T. Cox and wife are mentioned as follows:
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Muriel Joy, born March 2, 1885, was educated at Fairmount, and is the wife of Ernest T. Pearson of Indianapolis, and they have one son, Leonard E., born January 19, 1905.
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Eva Delight, born March 23, 1885, married Thomas Jenkins of Indianapolis, and their two living children are: Ronda, born December 5, 1907, and Ruth, born November 3, 1909.
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Garfield Vestal, the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Cox, was born May 4, 1893, and though but twenty years of age has made a splendid record for himself. Educated in the Fairmount High School and Academy, he received the highest grade issued by that institution, and is now a student in the Earlham College. Garfield Cox has prepared the article on forestry, published in this history of Grant county. From early boyhood his interests and tastes have gone to trees, and he has won laurels in State work on forestry. He is also an orator of no mean ability, and while a sophomore in Fairmount Academy won the oratorical contest among the Friends Academies of the States of Indiana and Illinois.
Mr. and Mrs. Cox are both members of the Wesleyan Methodist Church.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.