Tag Archives: Cox

80th Indiana Infantry, Company C

11 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Civil War, Genealogy

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The Civil War began on April 12, 1861 at Fort Sumter, South Carolina.  Initially, seven southern states seceded from the United States to form the Confederate States of America.  This number grew to eleven before it was all said and done.  In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln raised the call to arms among the Union States, requesting 300,000 volunteers step up and help bring an end to the war.

The men of Southwestern Indiana heard the call and the 80th Indiana Infantry was formed.  The regiment consisted of 1,049 men from several southwestern counties in the state.  The men were grouped in to 10 companies identified by letters of the alphabet.  About 100 men from Edwardsport mustered together at Fort Gibson in Princeton on September 3, 1862 to form Company C.  The 80th spent their first year battling for Kentucky before moving on to Tennessee and the Siege of Atlanta.  They returned to battle in Tennessee, then were shipped to North Carolina to fight under General William T Sherman in early 1865.  They war ended in April 1865, along with the assassination of President Lincoln.  The 80th finished out their duties at Salisbury NC where they were mustered out in late June 1865.  In the end, the 80th lost 237 men to death, 49 to desertion and 3 were unaccounted for.  A more detailed account of their battles can be found in the Civil War Index and the website devoted to the 80th Indiana Volunteer Infantry.

William Lankford

William Lankford

Members of Company C were all from the Edwardsport area.  Three men in particular, John S. Cox, George W. Winkler, and Isaac DeMoss, were my 3rd great grandfathers.  All three mustered in on September 3, 1862.  Unfortunately, not all of them came home.  John died at New Haven, KY on January 14, 1863.  George and Isaac fared better, mustering out on June 22, 1865.  While all three entered service as privates, Isaac finished as a corporal.

Of course, these three were not the only ones in my family’s tree that served in Company C.  Isaac’s cousin Samuel Reeve entered as a Sergeant and had attained the rank of First Sergeant by the time he returned home in 1865.  George had two of his extended family fighting by his side.  William Lankford, George’s brother-in-law, mustered out as a Sergeant after the war while Robert Gilmore, who married one of William’s sisters, was discharged early on April 24, 1863.

Blanche Cox DeMoss Robertson

10 Monday Nov 2014

Posted by in Genealogy

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Yesterday, when I was reviewing my information on Blanche Cox DeMoss Robertson, my great-grandmother, there were some questions raised.

  1. My data said Blanche and Samuel I. DeMoss were married in Cape Girardeau, Missouri.  This concerned me because both were born in Knox County, and census records showed they settled in Knox and Greene Counties after they were married.
  2. Blanche’s obituary listed a sister named Jessie, however, I had not located her in the census records or vital records.  I wasn’t sure when she was born or which of her father’s marriages she was a product of.

Blanche was born 1894 to Frank and Arabelle (McCullough) Cox in Knox County.  She had an older brother Raymond and three sisters—May, Anna, and Jessie—according to her obituary.  As of the 1900 Knox County Census, Jessie had not yet been born and Arabelle was still alive.

The Cox family had always lived in Knox County, but I had a 1910 Census record showing them in Cape Girardeau.  Blanche wasn’t listed with the family in the 1910 census.  She was found in another household working as a live-in maid in Cape Girardeau.  The census also listed  a woman named Mollie as Frank’s wife and that they had only been married 3 years.  So, Arabelle was gone and Jessie couldn’t be located.

A copy of Blanche and Samuel’s marriage license was indeed found in the Missouri marriages database. It was obtained on December 22, 1911 and filed on December 26.  What I am curious about is how did this marriage come about?  Samuel was about 5 years older than Blanche and the Coxes had moved to Missouri a good 4-5 years earlier.  Blanche wasn’t even 18 at the time of the wedding, so how did they get together?  Was this an arranged marriage or was he coveting her when she was 12?  At any rate, Blanche and Samuel returned to the Knox/Greene County area and went on with their lives, having four children, one of which was my grandfather Samuel T. DeMoss.  Samuel Isaac died in 1945.  Blanche married Coen Robertson before my grandfather died in 1955.  She died in 1965.

Jessie’s whereabouts were still a mystery.  I stumbled across another researcher’s data on Ancestry.com which referred to the 1910 census where she was listed as an adopted daughter of Charles and Anna Rogers in Westphalia.  Her birth was circa 1904 which would make Arabelle her mother, and most likely Arabelle died in childbirth.  Since fathers did not raise their infants back then, Jessie was given to someone else to raise; that someone else being the Rogers’.  Today I discovered that Anna Rogers was Frank’s sister, so Jessie was raised by her aunt and uncle. Yet another aunt and uncle, August and Emerine Cox Begeman lived in the next house down the road.  By 1920, I had lost Jessie again.  She wasn’t with the Rogers’ who had moved to Greene County, her sister Blanche, or the Begemans.

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Westphalia is just down the road from Edwardsport  in Widner Township, Knox County.

John S. and Mary Cox

09 Sunday Nov 2014

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John S. and Mary (?) Cox are my 3rd-great grandparents.  John was born about 1819 in Kentucky.  According to another researcher, his parents might possibly be Gabriel Squire and Nancy (Gaston) Cox.  John and Mary were married sometime between 1846 and 1849 in Indiana.  Mary’s maiden name is unknown.  She had previously been married to an Azbell and had four children from that union.  In 1850 they were residing in Elmore Township, Daviess Co, IN and moved to Vigo Township, Knox County by 1860.  In 1862, John joined the 80th Regiment of the Indiana Infantry and fought the Civil War with his neighbors in Company C.  He was killed on January 14, 1863 at a battle in New Haven, KY.  He left behind four children of his own, including my 2nd-great grandfather, Frank Cox.

In 1870, Mary and her three youngest children are living with her son Thomas Azbell and his wife Nancy in Vigo Township.  By 1880, Mary cannot be located, but Frank is still living with Thomas.

Children of Mary Azbell

  • Sarah (1838-?)
  • Isabella (1841-?)
  • William (1843-after 1910) m. Sallie ?
  • Thomas (1846-after 1880) m. Nancy Chambers

Children of John S and Mary Cox

  • Emirine (1850-1934) m. August Begeman
  • Jemima (1852-?)
  • Frank (1855-1915) m. Arabella McCullough
  • Mary A (1858-?)

Samuel Thomas DeMoss

04 Tuesday Nov 2014

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Samuel-Lillian-DeMoss

Thursday of this week marks the anniversaries of the deaths of two men in my direct family tree.  Today I’ll talk about the older of the two–my grandfather Samuel Thomas DeMoss, Sr.

Samuel was the third child of Samuel I. and Blanche (Cox) DeMoss, born February 25, 1918 in probably Knox County, IN.  He had two older sisters, Doris and Frances, and a younger brother William.  The 1920 census has the family living in Taylor Township, Greene County and in Edwardsport in 1930.

Samuel married Lillian Edeine Fielden on April 23, 1937.  They are residing in Edwardsport in the 1940 census.  He is reported having finished 4 years of high school, and Lester Bemis is living with them.  Lester is incorrectly listed as his father-in-law, and I will explain this in more detail on November 25.  Samuel and Edeine went on to have seven children, four of which grew to maturity.  On November 6, 1955, Samuel succumbed to throat cancer, leaving behind a wife and four children.  He is buried in the Edwardsport Town Cemetery.

I don’t know a whole lot more about my grandfather.  My dad was only twelve when he died and no one really talked about him by the time my siblings and cousins were around.  I know that he was a farmer and that his neighbors pitched in to help get that last year’s crop in.  Oddly enough, while visiting my college roommate’s grandparents one afternoon, I discovered her grandfather had been one of those kind enough to help the family in their time of need.

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Taylor Township is in Greene County, IN between Odon and Bloomfield.  The junction of I-69 and US 231 is in Taylor Township.