William Valentine Cox
Beautiful Greenwood Place in section thirty-one Fairmount Township and twenty acres across the rang line in section thirty-six of Liberty Township is the home of William Valentine Cox. This is one of the small, but in many ways, most attractive and valuable place in the farming area of Grant County. A farmer all his life, Mr. Cox has devoted his energies rather to the intensive cultivation of his land than tot he wholesale and somewhat wasteful methods of old-fashioned agriculture. His specialty is the production of fruits, and the results he obtains from his small place are certainly gratifying. Practically every foot of the forty acres in Greenwood Place is employed for profitable use. The crops are apples, pears, plums, cherries and other varieties of fruits and his long experience as a fruit grower gives his judgment an authority which is safe to follow. Every acre of his land has been brought to a point of fertility where it produces at full capacity. Eighty or ninety bushels of corn to the acre are not an usual yield on the Cox place, while in his special crop of tomatoes he grows from twelve to fifteen tons of that fruit tot he acre. His oats will average more than fifty-five bushels to the acre, and a part of his farm is also down in alfalfa. The prevailing color of all the buildings on the place is white, and the white farm house and barns with silo, in the midst of the green of the surrounding trees, makes a very effective rural picture. His silo has a capacity of fifty-five tons, and indicates another progressive feature of his farming methods, since he allows nothing to go to waste, and employs the best methods for keeping up the fertility of his land.
William Valentine Cox was born in Liberty Township of Grant County, forty-six years ago. His parents were William and Elizabeth (Wilson) Cox, and old and prominent family whose members and connections have long been identified with Grant County, and detailed information concerning the genealogy and careers of the family since it was established in this county will be found on other pages of this volume, particularly in the sketch of Nathan D. Cox.
William V. Cox grew up and received his education in the district schools. Farming has been his activity since boyhood and he ahs owned and occupied his present place since 1891, a period of twenty-two years. Rm. Cox was married in Fairmount City to Miss Idella Rush, who was born in Fairmount two months later in the same year in which her husband's birth occurred. He early training was received in the Fairmount City Schools. She was a daughter of a Joseph and Ursulla (Tharp) Rush. Her father was born in Randolph County, North Carolina, and her grandfather, Azel Rush, came north to grant County, Indiana, when Joseph was a boy. Here he grew up and during early manhood he married Mrs. Ursulla McFarland, whose maiden name was Tharp. Her first husband was Uriah McFarland, a soldier of the Union, who in one engagement was unhorsed, and from the effects of the wound received at that time never recovered. Joseph Rush died about 1871, and his widow subsequently married James Tuttle, who is also deceased, while she lives a hale and hearty old lady at her home in Fairmount. She and her three husbands were active members of the Wesleyan Methodist faith. Mrs. Cox was the only child of her father, and was still young when his death occurred. No children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Cox, but they reared a foster-daughter, Muriel, who was carefully trained in their home and had her education in the local schools. She was graduated from the Fairmount High School in 1910, and has given special attention to the study of music, in which she is unusually talented. Mrs. Cox died October 6th, 1913. She was long a member of Black Creek Wesleyan Church, and her husband still retains his membership in that church. Formerly a Republican in politics, Mr. Cox in later years has given his allegiance to the Prohibition party, voting the ticket straight an doing what he can for the cause.
Centennial History of Grant County Indiana 1812-1912. The Lewis Publishing Co., 1914.