Ivy H. Cox (1825-1898) - Methodist Minister and Judge

 

PCA Archives

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

 

Rev. Hans Jurgen Ehlers (1826 -1902) - Presbyterian Minister

 

Bing AI

Hans Jurgen Ehlers was born around 1826 in the Duchy of Holstein.  It might have been the lure of gold that brought him to the United States, for he became a naturalized citizen on September 20, 1860, in Yreka, California. 

The 1870 federal census of Yreka shows him engaged in mining and living with a woman named Olive.  How Ehlers’ relationship with Olive ended is not known but, on November 30, 1879, he married Elizabeth Gorrsen in San Francisco. 

Initially, Ehlers was a Methodist, but eventually he became affiliated with the Presbyterian church.  Ehlers seems not to have been a particularly successful (or devoted?) minister of the Gospel, as he apparently held other jobs during his lifetime.

In 1880, Ehlers was recorded as preaching in Florence, Arizona.  By 1886, he was living in Yuma, Arizona, where he served for a time as a chaplain at the territorial penitentiary there.  

The Ehlers family moved to Phoenix in October, 1889.  In 1890, he was elected one of several school trustees in Maricopa County. 

On December 12, 1893, Ehlers filed final proof on a homestead.  On July 7, 1896, the Ehlerses’ seven-year-old son, Joseph William, accidentally shot himself with a rifle.   A doctor was summoned, but the boy died before he arrived.  Little Joseph was probably buried in City Loosley Cemetery, it being the closest.  Shortly thereafter, Ehlers and his wife quitclaimed their homestead to E. Irvine and moved into Phoenix.

The Ehlerses’ oldest son Henry was a rebellious youth.  By age 16, he had been involved in numerous petty thefts before being convicted of second-degree burglary.  On November 20, 1898, he was sentenced to two years in the territorial prison at Yuma.   Discharged at the end of his sentence, he evidently had not learned his lesson.  He and an accomplice were believed to have robbed the New River and Goddard stage stations only a short time later.   Ehlers then fled to California.  He is said to have committed suicide in 1902 after murdering his wife.

Rev. Ehlers was about 76 when he died in Phoenix of pneumonia.  He was buried in Rosedale Cemetery, although there is no grave marker.   No probate record has been found, so perhaps he had little to leave.  Not long thereafter, his widow Elizabeth took their remaining two children and relocated to California.

by Patricia G. and Donna Carr

 

 

#4 - Ivy H. Cox (1827 - 1898) - Minister, Judge, and More!

PCA Archive

Ivy H. Cox was born January 9, 1827, in Virginia. After graduating from William and Mary College, he was ordained a minister. He then went to Texas, where he was elected the presiding elder of the Methodist Episcopal circuit. He married Mary Jane Cook of Alabama. During the Civil War, Cox served as a chaplain in the 8^th Texas Infantry (Hobby’s Regiment). Around 1869 he moved to California. In 1877 he moved to Florence, Arizona, and shortly thereafter to Phoenix, where he turned to the practice of law and became a judge. His wife Mary Jane died December 29, 1886, and was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery. 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. He died December 20, 1898, and was buried in City/Loosley Cemetery next to his wife.