Tag Archives: Mattox

Dunmore’s War: Documenting the Cox Family Legacy

16 Sunday Aug 2026

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DNA Updates

  • DH, a 4th cousin 1x removed descends from Isaac Catt. This was easy enough to fill in and add to the tree.
  • EV, a 3rd cousin 2x removed descends from Calvin Mattox. This cousin was also relatively easy to add to the tree.
  • T4 is a descendant of Reuben Staton. Since I haven’t really built that branch out much yet, I’ll tag it and leave it for later. A quick look and I’m not sure the suggested path is correct.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

20. Draper MSS, typed copy of 16S280-286 in the Filson Club. This reference was previously discussed on July 26th.

21. Reuben G Thwaites, ed, Documentary History of Dunmore’s War, 1774 (1905), pp 15, 16, 220, 233, 256, 258, 425. This book can be found on Internet Archive.

  • page 15 references Draper MSS, 2SS, book 5, pp 33-35. The passage, as recounted by Michael Cresap Jr, mentions Joseph Tomlinson and Nathaniel Tomlinson, as well as George Cox, son of Isaac Cox. The incident described occurred April 30, 1774 at Baker’s Tavern which was situated near Yellow Creek and the Ohio River. A group of Mingo Indians related to Chief Logan were ambushed by a larger group of white vigilantes and massacred. George Cox apparently left the scene prior to the massacre, however, Nathaniel Tomlinson did participate. The Tomlinsons are of interest; George Cox’s mother (Isaac’s wife and my 6th great grandmother) was Susannah Tomlinson.
  • page 16 references Draper MSS 2S, book 3, p. 34. This account of the incident provided by George Edington mentions that George Cox was part of Daniel Greathouse’s party, but does not go into detail regarding Cox’s role in the incident.
  • page 220 is a correspondence from Major Arthur Campbell to Colonel William Preston, describing an incident with the Indians which occurred on September 29, 1774. Major Campbell expressed concern about the low number of men willing to band together to protect the citizenry. Among those who were not responsive to the call of arms was a man named Cox. The book index attributes this reference to a Captain John Cox. (Draper, 3QQ109.)
  • page 233 is a follow up letter from Campbell to Preston dated October 6, 1774. Reference is made to a Lt. Cox, however again, it is not clear which Cox it identifies. The book index identifies this Cox as Gabriel. (Draper 3QQ116)
  • page 256 This page is undated correspondence from Colonel William Fleming to his brother-in-law William Bowyer recounting his injuries incurred at the Point Pleasant Battle. No specific mention of a Cox individual was made.
  • Page 258. Correspondence from Captain William Ingles to Colonel William Preston recounting the Point Pleasant Battle. Again, no specific mention of a Cox family member. (Draper 3QQ121)
  • Page 425. Mention of Lt Gabriel Cox, likely son of Isaac, as part of Dunmore’s Division in the April 1904 issue of West Virginia Historical Magazine.
    • Volume 4, number 2, published in April 1904, available digitally on FamilySearch. Page 159 – An excerpt of a deposition of Benjamin Tomlinson is recounted. The deposition was collected on April 17, 1797. Benjamin was asked who was in attendance at the treaty signing at the conclusion of Dunmore’s War. Lt. Gabriel Cox who now resided in Kentucky was named. This would be consistent with Isaac and Susannah’s son Gabriel. This article references A Biographical Sketch of the Life of the Late Captain Michael Cresap by John J Jacob, originally published in 1826 and reprinted in 1866, available on Internet Archive.

The following references to Cox family members were not included in Mrs. Adams’ citation:

  • Page 19 – George Cox is mentioned by the interviewee. His actions were not described, just merely that George was a large man. Large by 1774 standards likely meant over six feet tall and 200 pounds or more.
  • Page 229 – John Cox is mentioned in a missive from Campbell to Preston. This is likely Captain John Cox since it states he was leading a company of 24 men. It is not clear if this John was related to my Cox family or belongs to another. (Draper, 3QQ114)
  • Page 421 – Mentions that George Cox participated in the conflict under Lord Dunmore’s Division, however, no details were provided. (Draper 6ZZ79)

List of Revolutionary Soldiers in Virginia, Virginia State Library, Richmond (1912). I’m not sure how this reference relates to the Dunmore War since that conflict technically was not part of the Revolution. At any rate, the following Cox names are included in the list on page 115. References to the actual list on which these men appeared are provided and would likely need to be checked to confirm the correct man has been identified.

  • Benjamin Cox
  • David Cox
  • Lt. Gabriel Cox
  • George Cox
  • Isaac Cox
  • James Cox
  • John Cox
  • Joseph Cox

Error Resolution

Per Ancestry’s Tree CheckerThis WeekLast Week
Total Errors50325059
Potential Duplicates517512
No Documentation40934103
Other Errors422444
  • JR, A 6th cousin DNA match. While I don’t like using Public Records Index for references, I will do it from time to time if nothing else presents itself.
  • Daniel Maquinet, a 7th great-grandfather. Not a lot is available on this ancestor.
  • DD, a 5th cousin needing records. Found a Public Records Index identifying him.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,966 people
End of Week: 28,000 people
Change = +34 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue research on Isaac Cox, “The Immigrant” and his wife Susannah Tomlinson.
  • Review Coxes of Cox Creek
  • Run newspaper search, especially for articles recounting local history
  • Review the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky

Cox Family Research: Documenting Histories & Errors

02 Sunday Aug 2026

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DNA Updates

  • BC, through James Mattox and Elizabeth Moyer. This one wasn’t too hard to complete. I already had down to his grandmother documented. We connect through his dad and I wasn’t able to completely identify his mother.
  • SA, through Richard Puckett. I haven’t built out the Puckett tree so I will simply mark this one to do later.
  • LK, through Mathias Keller. This one was easy. Her father was already in my tree so it was only a matter of connecting her.

Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes

12. Archer B Julbert, Historic Highways of America, “Braddock’s Road” (1903), IV, pp. 87-89. This book is available on Hathitrust.org. In the passage for May 7th, 1755, it mentions that they camped at Mr. Cox’s (probably Friend Cox) which was located along the Potomac River. It also states they crossed another waterway multiple times between Mr. Enoch’s place and Mr. Cox’s place. This was likely the Little Cacapon River. The distance between the two men’s strongholds was about 12 miles of poorly developed road. Mr. Enoch is quite possibly the father of Sarah and Mary Enoch who married Isaac’s sons Gabriel and Isaac Jr, respectively.

13. J C Fitzpatrick, ed., The Diaries of George Washington (1925), I, pp 405, 406, 449. This book is available on Hathitrust.org. The referenced pages describe the route Washington traveled in October and November 1770 which included not one but two of the Cox Forts. On October 8, 1770, the first Cox Fort mentioned was situated at the mouth of the Cacapon River (page 405)–the same location that Washington surveyed some 20 years previously. On October 10th, reference is made to a previous fort the Coxes had erected. This fort was located near Patterson Creek (page 406). The return trip in late November came past Cox’s Fort at the Cacapon (page 409).

14. Deed Book, Hampshire County, West Virginia, II through VI. This footnote references a series of land transactions made by various members of the Cox family during the period of 1757-1778. Mrs. Adams mentioned that Volume I was not available when she performed her research. Apparently it has been found at some point as FamilySearch has it digitized, along with the other volumes. At any rate, no mention of the Cox family was found in Volume I. The only mention of the Cox family in Volumes V and VI (1778-1785) were in reference to previous ownership of the parcel; they were not party to the transaction at hand.

Because of the number of documents found, I asked CoPilot to compile the information into a table for easy reference. I’m also attempting to have CoPilot map each parcel, however, that is more complicated. Based on the information in the table, the family gradually left the area. Gabriel appears to be the first to sell and leave in 1767. Friend followed in 1772 and Isaac and his sons brought up the rear between 1775 and 1779 which is consistent with Mrs. Adams’ summation.

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5067 errors in the tree–512 possible duplicates, 4100 with no documents, 455 other errors. My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • BD, distant cousin needs sources. Unfortunately, no hints are populating for this living person. He was listed in his grandmother’s and his father’s obituary so those will have to do.
  • CS, another distant cousin needs sources. Since he is about the same age as my children, he was a little difficult to find. Thank goodness for small town newspapers that cover a ton of local events. He was named with his age as being a participant in a local parade. In my search, I was also able to find articles naming his two brothers as well.
  • JA, wife of a distant cousin needs sources. This one was easily sourced. She appears to be a cousin to my 2nd great-grandfather’s half-siblings.1

GED Miner Update

It’s been just over a month since I ran my tree through GED Miner. My tree score went up just a tad. I decided to work on tree errors and clean that up a bit.

  • There were four instances of a parent born after the child. Those were resolved by deleting the errant individuals.
  • There were nineteen age issues. Most of these were due to a transcription error when the documents were transcribed. A couple were connected to the wrong parents. A few were inlaws meant for pruning.
  • There are 312 people who are not attached to the tree. I’ll clean those out as I come across them. I found quite a few with the surname Taylor that were pruned.
  • There are 852 instances of duplicate birth or death events. I am going to tidy about 10 of these every day.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,998 people
End of Week: 27,952 people
Change = -46 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue research on Isaac Cox, “The Immigrant” and his wife Susannah Tomlinson.
  • Review Coxes of Cox Creek
  • Run newspaper search, especially for articles recounting local history
  • Review the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky
  1. Bennett, G.T., The Asbill Family History, 1955, pages 99, 173, Ancestry.com. ↩︎

Researching the Descendants of Emma Taylor: A Genealogy Journey

05 Sunday Jul 2026

Posted by in DNA Matches, Genealogy

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DNA Updates

  • This week my first DNA match is a distant cousin connecting through Joseph Cardinal, my 5th great-grandfather. She was pretty easy to track and connect. Ancestry was indicating that she was related through my dad’s side, though. Maybe there is a connection through a different branch with this cousin. Something to watch for, although none of the names rang a bell.
  • The second DNA match is another distant cousin connecting through Valentine Mattox, a 4th great-grandfather on my dad’s side of the family. Interestingly enough, it appears this cousin might also connect through my Puckett line. Normally I would set this one aside to flesh out later, but since there appears to be a double connection, I’m anxious to work it now. Filling in the Puckett line was straight forward, however, making the connections to Valentine Mattox will take some effort and I will save that for another day.

Unusual Place Name – Bucklucksy

In researching the Rennels family, they resided in Bucklucksy, Oklahoma for a period of time. I was curious how the name came to be. Since Google is my friend on most days, I asked and then I had CoPilot condense it down into a single paragraph.

Bucklucksy—originally named from the Choctaw phrase Bok Luksi, meaning “Creek with turtles”—was the first settlement at the crossroads of the California and Texas roads where J.J. McAlester opened a general store in 1869. The discovery of nearby coal and McAlester’s success in attracting the Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad in 1872 transformed the area, prompting the railroad and post office to adopt his name. Though Bucklucksy later became known simply as McAlester, parts of the old townsite now rest beneath Lake Eufaula, leaving only its story to surface.

Continuing Research on Benjamin Cox descendants: Emma Taylor Thomas

I am continuing my research on William Taylor’s descendants. This week’s research starts with a search for Emma Taylor Thomas’s daughters. Emma died in 1910 and is buried in Ottawa County, Oklahoma. Her obituary places the family near Needmore and there apparently was a measles outbreak at the time of her death.1 Information on her husband Joseph Thomas was hit or miss early in the search. A 1919 army transport manifest for their son George mentioned that Joseph was in Gore, Sequoyah County, Oklahoma. This is also the location where George was married later that year. George and his bride were enumerated in Wharton County, Texas in 1920. Laura and Zelora seemed to have vaporized during this time. Joe resurfaced in 1930 living with George and his family and they had returned to Oklahoma.

Emma and Joseph’s daughter Hazel was a little easier to track…she married and ended up with the rest of the family in California. Her obituary listed two sisters as living, however, they were not Laura and Zelora. Researching Edith and Anna, I found them and their father in Wharton County, Texas…next door to George. As it turns out, Anna married George’s brother-in-law in 1922 who was a widower with two children. They raised a sizeable family (Linthicum) which I likely will not finish assembling this week.

Eventually Joseph appeared in the 1910 census…in Delaware County, not Ottawa County. Afton, where Emma reportedly died, is near the county line so they very well could have been residing in Delaware County all along. Laura and Zelora are not named. Laura was fourteen so maybe, and that’s a big maybe, she had married by 1910. Zelora would have been about ten, so likely she had died. No mention of either girl was found in the family obituaries.

In a last ditched effort to find Laura and Zelora, I checked Mount Hope Cemetery on Find a Grave. I didn’t find them, but I did find an infant daughter of Joseph and Emma’s named Lenna. She was born on January 5, 1910 and lived about six weeks. There is also an unnamed infant son with no photo of the stone. The notes state he is a son of Joseph, but it is not clear where that information came from. From the information provided, these two could have been preemie twins.

Emma’s sister Millie Taylor reportedly had the measles in the summer of 1909 in Afton.2 Millie was working for a Mrs. Mason after she recovered from her illness.3 Another researcher had provided a death date for Millie so I followed up in the newspapers and confirmed it was the same person. She remained in the general area, married, and raised a substantial family. I will need to follow up with more research on her family (The Canadas).

  • Jesse Cox + Mary Waugh > John Cox + Mary Parks > Louisa Cox + David Taylor > William F Taylor + Mary Lucy Pearson
    • Taylor
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa
    • Rennels
      • Oklahoma: Pittsburg
      • California: Stanislaus, Butte
      • Oregon: Marion
    • Rogers
      • Oklahoma: Pittsburg
      • California: Stanislaus
    • Peeples
      • California: Butte, San Francisco
      • South Dakota
    • Mayer
      • California: San Francisco
    • Linthicum
      • Iowa: Polk
    • Mitchell
      • Missouri: Cole
    • Canada
      • Oklahoma: Ottawa
Map courtesy of Mapsius.com

Error Resolution

The last available update via Ancestry ProTools: I have 5074 errors in the tree–510 possible duplicates, 4108 with no documents, 456 other errors. My Ancestry error resolutions this week included:

  • A dangler not connected to anyone. She will be pruned.
  • A husband of a wife of a cousin. He will be pruned.
  • Husband of a distant cousin needs records. This took some effort. I did not have a first name for him and I did not have his mother-in-law’s name either. It took some process of elimination before I could identify and document this individual.

Goals and progress…
Beginning of Week: 27,684 people
End of Week: 27,910 people
Change = +226 persons
Tasks for coming week:

  • Continue research on Isaac Cox, “The Immigrant” and his wife Susannah Tomlinson.
  • Review Coxes of Cox Creek
  • Run newspaper search, especially for articles recounting local history
  • Review the Cox package of information from Sweden
  • Look for documents in Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Kentucky
  1. https://www.newspapers.com/image/606543616/?match=2&clipping_id=200814310 ↩︎
  2. https://www.newspapers.com/image/606541946/?match=1&terms=Millie%20Taylor ↩︎
  3. https://www.newspapers.com/image/606542838/?match=1&terms=Millie%20Taylor ↩︎

Elizabeth Moyer Mattox Coppock

27 Thursday Nov 2014

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Today’s conundrum is Elizabeth Moyer, another of my 3rd great grandmothers.  Elizabeth was born circa 1822 in Indiana to unknown parents.  According to census data, her father was born in Canada and her mother in Ohio.  She married James Mattox in 1837 in Vigo County, IN and they were living in Riley Township at the time of the 1850 Census.  They had seven children who lived to maturity:  Pelina, Susan, Alzina, Napoleon, Marshall, Calvin (my 2nd great grandfather), and Alonzo.  By 1860, the family had moved to Clay County, IN.  James died at some point after 1860, possibly in the war, and Elizabeth became the head of the household for several years.  In 1873, she married Benjamin Coppock and was listed in his household in the 1880 census, along with her son Alonzo.  This is probably how Calvin and Rebecca got together.  What happened to Elizabeth after 1880 is questionable.  Benjamin married Mary Merrill Cutshaw in July 1882, so obviously something happened to her.  I have two theories:

  • Benjamin and Elizabeth divorced.  Nothing was mentioned in Benjamin’s biography in the History of Clay County about Elizabeth being wife #2.  There weren’t any children born as a result of the marriage, so maybe she was just glossed over as unimportant by the author.  Or, maybe the marriage ended poorly and it was left out on purpose.  It’s hard to say since death records before 1882 are difficult to find and divorce records are even more scarce.  If they did divorce, did she assume the name Mattox once again?  There is a death record in Indiana for an Elizabeth Mattox in 1896 that seems to fit, however, without more information I cannot be sure it is my Elizabeth.  A trip to the Clay County Library needs to be added to my trip home in the spring to find the actual death record and ferret out a newspaper article to confirm the identity of Elizabeth.
  • Elizabeth died between 1880 and 1882.  This is the more likely possibility, but again, I have nothing to document this at this time.

James Mattox

26 Wednesday Nov 2014

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James Mattox is another of my 3rd great grandfathers.  He is the father of Calvin Mattox.  James was born circa 1815 in Tennessee.  His parents are unknown, but there are a couple possibilities out there.  The first, and most likely in my mind, is Valentine Mattox and possibly a daughter of James Cundiff.  Most of the facts presented in Mattox Family: 1755 through 1987 by Shirley (Mattox) Churchill seem to fit.  The only discrepancy I have at the moment is James’s place of birth.  The timeline Ms. Churchill presents for Valentine would have James born in Kentucky, not Tennessee.  The second possible set of parents would be William Mattox and Nancy Harrington, however, the researchers proposing this don’t have a reference listed that confirms this theory.

Assuming Valentine was James’s father, they lived in Ohio County, KY for several years, before moving to Indiana.  It is thought that James was in Clinton County, IN in 1830 living with his half-brother Church.  He then married Elizabeth Moyer in Vigo County in 1837 where they lived until the 1850s. Based on census records, they had five children that reached maturity: Alzina, Napoleon, Marshall, Calvin, and Alonzo.  Calvin’s middle name is Church which further supports the idea of Valentine being James’s father. In 1860, the family appears in Lewis Township of Clay County, IN.  After that, James disappears and Elizabeth is the head of the household in the 1870 Census.

Many researchers have James’s death listed in 1862.  Again, there are no sources listed to confirm this piece of information.  Considering that his disappearance coincides with the Civil War era, it’s a possibility that he was a casualty of the war.  A check of several military databases gives a number of James Mattoxes, but nothing concrete.  One promising lead was a James N Mattox who served in the 99th Infantry, Company K.  He died at the regiment hospital at Camp Sherman, MS in 1863, but a notation in the US Burial Register, Military Posts, and National Cemeteries, 1862-1960, indicated that James was only 18 at the time of death, not 48.  Until I can find something solid, his death will be listed as 1860-1870.

Lillian Edeine Fielden DeMoss

25 Tuesday Nov 2014

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Lillian Edeine Fielden, high school graduation.

Lillian Edeine Fielden, high school graduation.

Lillian Edeine Fielden, my paternal grandmother, was born on November 25, 1918 in Clay County, IN to Frank and Zeda (Mattox) Fielden.  In 1920, her mother died, and she went to live with her aunt and uncle, Lester and Iva (Mattox) Bemis.  This was a common occurrence at that time; widowed husbands rarely cared for their infant children alone.  They either remarried quickly or handed them off to another couple, usually within the family.

There were several other girl babies born into the Mattox family around the time Edeine was born that were close to her.  Katherine Fielden was born to Arlie and June Fielden the same year Edeine was born, making Katherine her aunt.  Her parents both died when she was young, and Katherine was raised by her older sister Pearl (Fielden) Mattox and her husband Curtis.  Pearl and Curtis also had a daughter Ruth the same year as Katherine and Edeine.  I’m not sure what happened to Katherine, but Edeine and Ruth remained close throughout their lives.

In high school Edeine played the violin and was a cheerleader.  Since my grandfather Sam DeMoss was on the basketball team, it’s likely this is how they met.  On April 23, 1937 they were married and lived on a farm in the Edwardsport area.  The 1940 census has Uncle Lester living with him, but he’s listed as Sam’s divorced father-in-law.  To the best of my knowledge, Lester and Iva were never divorced.  According to my Aunt Sandy, Iva worked in Terre Haute as a nurse and would be gone for extended periods of time.  She may have been gone at the time of the census collection that year.  Why Lester was listed as Sam’s father-in-law could be due to a misunderstanding on the census taker’s part, or maybe because Lester was the closest thing to a father Edeine had at the time.

Edeine and Sam had seven children altogether…Billy Bryce, John, Tom, Richard, Sandy, Jim, and David.  Unfortunately, Billy, Richard, and David all died at birth or as infants.  A few years later, in 1955, Edeine found herself a widow with four children to support.  She struggled, even with help from Sam’s mother Blanche and Lester and Iva.

Hoping to achieve some security for her family, Edeine married John R Heath in 1958.  John R. was a widower from Sanborn with three kids of his own…Dixie, Stan, and Cindy.  Dixie and Stan were about the age of John and Tom, but Cindy was only four or five at the time.  Unfortunately, the marriage was a disaster from day one.  Based on accounts from both Sandy and Cindy, John R. was a bitter man and didn’t treat anyone under his roof very well.  It was bad enough that my Uncle John was forced to move in with Grandma Blanche.  After a couple years, John R decided to kick Tom (my dad) out of the house and he took the rest of the family with him when he left.

Edeine managed to get a job at the hospital in Vincennes, and one by one her kids left the roost during the 1960s.  Tom and John were both in the service early in the decade.  John married Judy and gave my grandmother her first grandchild in Kristi.  Later in the decade, Tom and Sandy married as well while Jimmy joined the Army.  Also during the 1960’s Edeine remarried once again, this time to Bob Sutton.  By the beginning of 1971, Edeine now had six grandkids, all girls except for John’s son Scott.  Unfortunately, though, she lost her youngest son Jimmy to a car accident in Georgia that year.

Grandma and Bob lived in Edwardsport until the mid-1970s.  I remember Christmases in the living room with all the cousins…by now there were nine of us and still Scott was the only grandson.  On weekends we would drive up to spend the day visiting and Dad would haul our bikes so we could ride up and down the road in front of the farmhouse.  I believe there was even an outhouse standing out back.  There were also the trips to the house in the river bottoms in the summer.  Later in the 1970s, Grandma started working at the Senior Center, which was part of the YMCA, and she and Bob moved to Vincennes.  They had a house on 13th Street which was about five minutes from our house and we went over often.  The best part of going to Grandma’s, and I think all my cousins will agree, was the food.  She always fed us and the food was awesome.  Probably one of the favorites among us kids was her chocolate sheet cake.  In fact, I remember we would always beg her to make one if she didn’t have one already made.

Toward the end of the 1970s, Grandma developed a heart condition and in June 1979 she died, the result of a heart attack.

It’s obvious my grandmother was a resilient person.  Her life from the beginning was full of obstacles and challenges, but she managed to get through them and remain positive to the end.  A couple of sayings she would use time and again were “The meek shall inherit the Earth” and “Turn the other cheek”.   She wasn’t one for using anger to express herself; she was generous and kind to everyone.  I think it’s safe to say she was a positive influence on everyone whose lives she touched.  Happy Birthday, Grandma.  You will always live on in our hearts.

Rebecca Coppock Mattox

23 Sunday Nov 2014

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Rebecca Ann (Coppock) Mattox with Lula, Cliff, and Lilly (photo courtesy of Kathy Collins)

Rebecca Ann (Coppock) Mattox with Lula, Cliff, and Lilly, circa 1887 (photo courtesy of Kathy Collins)

Rebecca Coppock Mattox was my 2nd great grandmother.  According to her headstone and a biography on her father, she was born July 16, 1861 in Lewis Township, Clay County Indiana.  Her parents were Benjamin Coppock and Zeresh Puckett, and she had four siblings–Jemima Cooprider, Mary Worth, Ida May Worth, and Thomas B Coppock.

There is some discrepancy out there in the posted family trees as to Rebecca’s early identity–there seems to be two Rebecca Coppocks born around 1861 in Indiana.  According to Quaker Monthly Meeting minutes from Central Indiana, there was a Rebecca Alice Coppock born in 1862 near Indianapolis to a Robert Coppock and his wife.  This is not my 2nd great grandmother whose middle name was Ann.  Further confirmation of her parentage is given in Benjamin’s biography published in History of Clay County, IN by William Travis in 1909.

Rebecca married Calvin Mattox in 1877 and they had 8 children between them: Lulu, Clifford, Lillie, Earl, Susie, Ivan, Curtis, and Zeda.  Benjamin’s biography lists Zeda’s name as Zeresh.  This could simply be a mix-up on the part of the author since Rebecca’s mother’s name was Zeresh.

Rebecca lived the rest of her life out in Clay County.  She passed away on April 14, 1928 and is buried next to her husband Calvin at Sanders Cemetery.

Calvin Mattox

22 Saturday Nov 2014

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Calvin Mattox is my 2nd great grandfather (see Edeine Fielden Pedigree).  He was born in 1855 in Indiana and married Rebecca Coppock in 1877.  They had 8 children, the youngest being my great-grandmother Zeda Mattox Fielden.  They lived in Lewis Township in Clay County, which is just north of Jasonville, IN.

Headstone for Calvin Mattox, Sanders Cemetery, Clay County, IN.

Headstone for Calvin Mattox, Sanders Cemetery, Clay County, IN.

Back in 1999 when I was home visiting family, I met up with Kathy Collins.  Kathy is my second cousin once removed and also a direct descendant of Calvin and Rebecca.  She was kind enough to share her research on the family and show me around to a couple of the local cemeteries, including Sanders Cemetery which is in the middle of nowhere.  Sanders Cemetery is where Calvin and Rebecca are buried, and I took pictures of their headstones.  If you look closely, his date of death is December 23, 1899.  Okay, so what’s the problem, you ask?  In the 1900 Census for Clay County, which was taken in June 1900, Calvin is listed as the head of household.  But, Calvin is deceased.  So what is going on here?  I can think of two possible scenarios:

  1. The census taker was given incorrect information,
  2. The date on the headstone is incorrect.

Unfortunately, I haven’t yet located online archives of the newspapers in Clay County, and the Indiana Death Index comes up with a big zero for Calvin.  This will require a trip to the Clay County Library to sort out.

Frank Fielden

17 Monday Nov 2014

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Iva and Frank Fielden

Iva and Frank Fielden

Last week, my sister Brenda went on a tear and starting scanning and emailing me a bunch of old family pictures she’d dug out.  One of the pictures she sent me is the one on the left of Iva and Frank Fielden.  She then asks, “Who are they?”

Considering that I hadn’t spent much time on that part of the family in the past couple weeks, I couldn’t give her a solid answer.  I knew that Frank was our great-grandfather.  Iva, however, was causing me to draw a blank.  So, without further ado, here is my very meager attempt at a biography for Frank Fielden.

Frank was born January 29, 1898 in Kentucky to Arley and June (Bennett) Fielden.  At some point between 1898 and 1910, the family moved to Jasonville, Greene County, Indiana.  Frank married Zeda Mattox in Clay County, Indiana in the summer of 1917.  The following year, they had a daughter, Edeine.  According to Frank’s World War I draft card, and some census records, he supported his family as a coal miner.  On June 11, 1920 Zeda died, and Frank was left with a toddler to raise.  As was the norm back then, he handed her off to someone else to raise.  Edeine was raised by Zeda’s sister Iva and her husband Lester Bemis.  According to my aunt, Frank would visit Edeine, but she would cry when she saw him, so he moved out of the area.

In 1929, Frank married Julia Beatty and they lived in Hymera, Sullivan County, Indiana.  In 1933, they had a son George followed by Bobby two years later.  Julia died in March 1945.

Sometime between 1945 and 1958, Frank married Iva, pictured above.  The reason I give that date range is (a) after Julia died, and (b) my aunt remembers first meeting Frank between the years of 1958 and 1961, which is when the picture was probably taken.  The Frank in the picture looks to be in his 50’s or early 60’s which would confirm this.  At some point along the way, Frank moved to Pontiac, Michigan where he would live out his remaining days.  I vaguely remember meeting him once, probably at my grandmother’s funeral in 1979.  Frank died in 1982 at the age of 84.