Tennessee Governor John Isaac Cox & The Civil War

Joined
Dec 31, 2010
Location
Kingsport, Tennessee
When it comes to DNA and genealogy research, I admit my ignorance. I've done the DNA thing, but understand very little about it. Recently a distant Cox cousin, (maternal side), informed me DNA results showed we were related to the Governor. The connection would be a lot farther back than my humble attempts at genealogy, so I'll take his word for it. Highlights of the Governor's political career come from his Wikipedia page. Wither I'm related or not, I thought the account was interesting, hope everyone feels the same. I want to thank @Zella for assistance with Henry Cox's service record. Merry Christmas to all, and have a Blessed 2020!

Glenn

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East Tennessean John Issac Cox. Tennessee's 29th Governor

On July 19, 1909, Martha Lavina Smith Cox of Blountville, Sullivan County in upper East Tennessee became one of many widows of Confederate Veterans in the Volunteer State who had in the past and would for many years in the future, apply to the State for a widow's pension. This application, however, was a bit different in that Martha's oldest son had recently served as the 29th Governor of Tennessee.

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John Isaac Cox was born November 23, 1855, in Sullivan County, Tennessee. His father, Henry W. Cox had married Martha Smith in June 1852. 34-year-old Henry enlisted on Sept.25, 1862 at Blountville, Tennesee into Jonathan Bachman's Company G 60th Tennessee Infantry Confederate volunteers, leaving behind Martha, who was carrying their fourth child, 16-year-old Sarah, 14-year-old John, and 11-year-old Mary. The 60th was immediately placed in General John Crawford Vaughn's Brigade along with the 61st and 62nd Tennessee and dispatched to the Department of Mississippi and Eastern Louisiana arriving at Jackson, Mississippi late in November 1862. There, they became part of the Confederate force defending Vicksburg until being surrendered to Union forces commanded by U.S. Grant and paroled on July 4, 1863.
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Captain John Waverly Bachman Co.G 60th TN with his grandsons, veterans of WWI.
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Actual muster-roll of Company G including Henry's name

The change in climate and location worked against a number of the East Tennesseans. Many became seriously ill and several died. Henry's service record indicates he was hospitalized almost from the time he arrived at Vicksburg through the surrender. Shortly after, He was transferred to the 14th Tennessee in R.E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia "by order of General Bragg" without any accompanying information. On November 12, 1863, Henry was admitted to Chimborazo Hospital in Richmond with "chronic diarrhea". He died there on the 26th.

To help his family, young John worked for several years as a farm laborer before becoming a rural mail carrier at the age of 16. Two years later, he was appointed Road Commissioner of Sullivan County. He served as a justice of the peace in the late 1870s. John was educated at field schools in Sullivan County and attended Jefferson Academy in Blountville for at least one term. He began reading law with Judge William V. Deaderick (his future father-in-law) in 1880 and was admitted to the bar shortly afterward. He practiced in Blountville for several years before being elected Judge of Sullivan County in 1886. In 1889, Cox moved to Bristol, where he served as a district attorney. He was elected to the state House of Representatives in 1892 but served only one term.

In early 1905, following his reelection to a third state senate term, Cox was elevated to Speaker of that body, which in Tennessee is the governor's designated successor. On March 9, U.S. Senator William B. Bate died in office, prompting a scramble among potential candidates for his vacant Senate seat. Former Governor Robert Love Taylor had for years tried unsuccessfully to get elected to the Senate, and considered himself next in line should one of the two seats become vacant. Governor James B. Frazier, however, also wanted the seat and quickly convened a special session of the General Assembly to have himself elected before Taylor could return from a speaking tour. On March 21, Frazier resigned and headed to Washington, D.C., to take his seat in the Senate, and Cox, as the constitutional successor, was sworn in as governor.

Cox continued Frazier's policies and made few administrative changes. He implemented quarantines in an effort to eradicate yellow fever, which had long plagued the swampy western part of the state, and called up the state guard to protect strikebreakers at a coal mine in Tracy City during a miners' strike in 1905. He also dealt with rampant prison rioting and increased pensions for Confederate veterans and spouses. In April 1905, a few weeks after Cox took office, the current Flag of Tennessee, designed by Colonel LeRoy Reeves of Johnson City, was adopted.

Cox remained in the state senate until 1911. He served another term as a state representative from 1913 until 1915 and was the postmaster of Bristol from 1914 to 1922. He afterward retired to his farm in the Holston Hills section of Bristol but continued stumping for Democratic Party politicians. In the 1930s, he campaigned for President Franklin D. Roosevelt and supported the creation of the Tennessee Valley Authority.

Cox died on September 5, 1946, at George Ben Johnston Hospital in Abingdon, Virginia, following a long struggle with kidney illness. His was 90 years and 9 months old, becoming the longest-lived governor in Tennessee history (Tom Rye also lived to 90, but was shy by 6 months of tying Cox). In April 2018, Winfield Dunn (b. July 1927) broke Cox's longevity record and as of July 2019, has surpassed his 92nd birthday to become the longest-lived governor in Tennessee history.
 
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