Ivy Henderson Cox was born December 29, 1825, in Dungannon, Scott County, Virginia. He was the son of James Longhollow Cox and Nancy Finney, originally of Russell County, Virginia.
Upon graduating from William and Mary College, Ivy Cox was ordained a minister. He then went to Texas, where he was eventually elected the presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal circuit. He married Mary Jane Cook of Alabama on July 5, 1852, in Fayette County, Texas. They had eight children, the first six born in Texas and the last two in California.
Notwithstanding that he was a family man approaching the age of forty, Ivy Cox felt it his duty to serve during the Civil War. Accordingly, he became a chaplain in the 8th Texas Infantry (Hobby’s Regiment), C.S.A. The regiment was charged with defending the seacoast installations at Galveston and Port Bolivar. Cox’s military career ended in May 1864 when he took an extended leave and did not return to his regiment.
After the war, the Coxes moved to California. By 1877, they were in Florence, Arizona. Shortly thereafter, they came to Phoenix. The federal census of 1880 records Cox as a lawyer but, because he was also a minister, he continued to officiate at weddings. Cox was said to be a pure soul, a lover of justice, but quite tolerant in public matters. He served on County Board of Supervisors from 1879 to 1880 and again in 1895. He also became a judge.
By the time they arrived in Phoenix, most of the Cox children had reached adulthood. Sons Melancthon and William went into the construction business, while Franklin Ivy became an attorney for the Southern Pacific Railroad. The five Cox daughters married into local families. Most of them were still living In the Ivy Cox household in 1880.
Judge Cox’s wife Mary Jane died 29 December 1886 and was buried in Loosley Cemetery. Sometime thereafter, Cox went to Quitman, Texas, to marry a woman named Ann, who survived him.
The last years of Judge Cox’s life were spent on the family ranch four miles north of Phoenix, where he engaged in growing fruit and keeping bees. Late in 1898, he was living at the residence of Joseph DuPree Reed. He died there on December 20, 1898, of congestion of the brain and paralysis. He was buried in Loosley Cemetery next to his first wife.
- by Donna L. Carr
