SH, descended through Richard Puckett. I don’t have any of her line built out so I will set this one aside until I am working on the Pucketts.
RW, also descended through Richard Puckett. I don’t have any of their line built out so I will set this one aside as well.
AT, descended through Benjamin Cox and Sarah Piety. I do have her line proven through her grandmother so I will finish this one up.
Coxes of Cox Creek Footnotes
15. Historic Romney 1762-1937, published by the Town Council of Romney, West Virginia, pp. 30-31. This book was found on FamilySearch. The referenced passage provides background on the first school in the area which was referenced in the mid-1700s by George Washington. Because the children of Isaac, Gabriel and Friend appear to have been educated, it is possible they attended this subscription school known as the Romney Academy.
16. Journals of the House of Burgesses of Virginia, 1766-1769, pp. 87-88. This book can be found at Hathitrust. On March 20, 1767, the House recognized twelve men who served under Colonel Bouquet in an expedition against the Shawnee and Delaware Indians and granted them 40 pounds each. Isaac Cox, presumably the son of the older Isaac, was among this group.
17. Reuben G Thwaites, ed., Early Western Travels 1748-1846, “Journal of George Croghan, 1765” (1904), I, pp. 126-129. Volume I, which this footnote references, can be found on the Project Gutenberg Website, gutenberg.org. The referenced pages describe Croghan’s journey from May 15-19, 1765 down the Ohio River as he made his way ultimately to the Mississippi River. Landmarks have been marked on the map below, indicating his daily progress during this segment of the trip. Croghan’s descriptions of the landscape lend to the attractiveness of the area for farming and settlement. Land deeds for various Cox family members reference Buffalo Creek near present day Wellsburg, West Virginia.
Daily progress (May 15 to 19, 1765) of Croghan’s journey down the Ohio from Fort Pitt (aka Fort Duquesne). Aerial perspective mapped using Google Earth with Lake Erie situated approximately 100 miles due north of Little Beaver Creek. Approximate distance covered in these four days was 165 miles.
18. Land Draughts in the Surveyor General’s Office, Pennsylvania Archives, Harrisburg, Appendix, 3rd series, p. 41. Unfortunately, it is not clear if this exact document is available on the internet. I did, however, locate what I believe to be other documents which describe the land claimed and patented by Gabriel Cox (son of Isaac) near the Monongahela River in 1769 in what is now Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.12 There are actually two separate plots of land–Coxburg and Cox’s Addition. A historical marker has been placed near the site.3
19. Land Patent Book, Brooke County, West Virginia, I, p. 1. A transcribed copy of land deeds recorded in Ohio County, Virginia, that are actually located in present day Brooke County can be found on FamilySearch. Tucked in the front of this book is a transcription of the surveyor’s description of lands for George Cox (son of Isaac) and Friend Cox in what is now Wellsburg. The original surveyor’s description, with drawings, was found in the Surveyor’s Books for Ohio County, Virginia which is available on FamilySearch.4 Considering I have a love of maps, I asked CoPilot to plot these out for me on a current day map of the area. He (yes, my CoPilot is an obtuse man) was unable to fulfill my request. I then manually roughed in the parcels using Google My Maps and the descriptions from the surveyor book. These two men basically owned all of the land that is now Wellsburg, WV. Holy cow! They later sold this land to Charles Prather who named the town after his son-in-law Alexander Wells.
Land parcels belonging to George Cox (northern parcel) and Friend Cox (yellow and purple).
Error Resolution
Per Ancestry’s Tree Checker
This Week
Last Week
Total Errors
5059
5067
Potential Duplicates
512
512
No Documentation
4103
4100
Other Errors
444
455
The first individual to fix was “??”–no name, no documentation, and no relationships. Safe to say, this one should be deleted.
HS, a fifth cousin who needed some documentation. I was able to supply some for him and his siblings. An interesting newspaper article regarding an arrest came up as a hint with his name in an area where the family was known to live during that time, but I’m not positive it was him because the age was off by nearly a decade.
KF, a fourth cousin who also needed some documentation. I was able to supply a few documents for him.
Goals and progress… Beginning of Week: 27,952 people End of Week: 27,966 people Change = +14 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
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
Bennett, G.T., The Asbill Family History, 1955, pages 99, 173, Ancestry.com. ↩︎
Zeresh Puckett was born in Shelby County, Illinois on May 24, 1833, the daughter of Elihu Puckett and Rebecca Wilks. She had an older sister Jamima and two younger brothers, Lewis and George. Zeresh may also have had an older brother James Hughes from her mother’s first marriage. Zeresh is a Biblical name from the Old Testament.
In 1836, Elihu and Rebecca moved the family from Illinois to Clay County, Indiana in the area served by the Coffee Post Office in Lewis Township. In 1853, Zeresh married Benjamin Coppock and they settled into farming in Lewis Township. Zeresh helped support the family as a seamstress. Later, Benjamin was employed as a grocer.
The couple had five children during their marriage: Jemima, Rebecca, Mary, Ida, and Thomas. All lived long lives, reaching their seventies or beyond. Zeresh, unfortunately, did not see her children to adulthood. She died on February 27, 1873 at the age of thirty-nine.
Zeresh Puckett was my 3rd-great grandmother on my dad’s side
REFERENCES
United States Census: 1850, 1860, 1870
Find a Grave website
History of Clay County, Indiana, Volume II, William Travis, 1909.
On April 26, 1867 in Lewis Township, Clay County, Indiana, a daughter named Susan was born to George Puckett and Mary Edmonson Puckett. Susan had at least four siblings–Richard, Sarah, Zirish and Lucy. Not a lot is known about Susan’s early years. According to census records from 1880 she attended school. Her mother Mary passed away in 1898, and the following year at the age of 32 Susan married Joel Goble, a local farmer.
Susan and Joel remained in Lewis Township near the small town of Coalmont. In 1902, they were blessed with daughter Margaret. Four years later, a son named Fredrick was also born. For a time, both Joel’s and Susan’s fathers resided with them on their farm.
Through the years, Susan and Joel continued to work the farm. On March 14, 1948, Joel suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage and passed away. Less than a year later, on January 8, 1949, Susan passed away from the same cause of death. Both were laid to rest at the Little Flock Primitive Baptist Church Cemetery north of Coalmont.
Susan Puckett was my 2nd cousin 4x removed on my dad’s side.
REFERENCES
United States Census, 1880, 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930
Indiana Death Certificates
Find A Grave Website
Indiana Marriage Collection
Terre Haute Tribune, January 9, 1949 & March 15, 1948 via Newspapers.com
When I started working on tonight’s blog post, I was originally going to do a quick thing on the parents of Zeresh Puckett, my 3rd great grandmother who married Benjamin Coppock. Well, that ain’t happening, at least not tonight. The more I tried to make the pieces fit together, the more they fought back. I wasn’t convinced that Rebecca Hughes Puckett was Zeresh’s mother.
In the 1850 Census, you can find Elihu Puckett (Zeresh’s father) in Clay County, IN as follows:
If you aren’t familiar with census records, the immediate family is listed first in order by age, then extended family (siblings, inlaws, nieces/nephews, parents, etc) and other people like servants or boarders. Keep in mind that 1850 was the first year they listed each person individually in the census, but yet they didn’t collect enormous amounts of information. They didn’t start listing relationships to the head of the household until 1870 or 1880.
So, we have Elihu, his wife Rebecca, Zeresh, and Lewis which are all expected. But then we have all these other people and no idea how they fit in the grand scheme of things. My first inclination was that Elias Pucket is a much younger brother of Elihu. Elihu’s mother died during the 1840s so that seemed logical and I set him aside. The three Sanders kids were probably orphans of some sort so I didn’t worry too much about them, either. That left George. Let’s just say that George is an enigma and here’s why.
Puckett-Swickard Family Bible, courtesy of legacykwst on ancestry.com
There is some question as to what Rebecca Puckett’s maiden name was. Among the researchers who have posted their trees, there are about half a dozen different last names out there, including Hughes and Sanders. At first I considered that Zeresh and Lewis were Elihu’s from a different wife, but the closeness in ages for George and Lewis bothered me. I started looking at what other researchers had for sources and found a Puckett Family Bible posted by a user named “legacykwst”. Rebecca was listed as Rebecca Puckett and no marriage date was listed in the bible for her and Elihu. They were listed with four children, including a George Puckett. So what is George’s real last name, Hughes or Puckett?
So I looked at some of the other documents that legacykwst had uploaded, and there were several pertaining to George trying to get disability as a result of the Civil War. One in particular was a deposition of Aquillar Field in 1884. When Aquilla was asked what his relationship to George was, he responded, “My first wife is his mother.” So, after checking a few things about Aquilla, I discovered he had been married at least twice–first to a Becky Hughes in 1840 in Vigo County and then to a Nancy Holliday in 1864. Then I checked to see who was listed with him in the 1850 census and there was a Martha, age 30, and three youngsters with the last name of Field, probably Aquilla’s kids. By 1860 it was just him several children…no Becky, no Martha. So what happened to Becky?
After locating a biography on Lewis Field, one of Aquilla’s sons, in the History of Clay Co, IN by William Travis, I discovered that Aquilla’s first wife’s name was Martha Hughes, not Becky. Maybe Becky was a nickname. At any rate, I would suspect that George’s biological mother was Martha who had him out of wedlock at the age of 15 or 16. Since that was a big no-no in 1836, she gave the baby to her older sister Rebecca to raise.
Lewis Field’s biography also mentions that Martha was born in Ohio, but documentation states that Rebecca was born in Kentucky. Not a total stretch by any means, especially if they lived down along the Ohio River. Also, some of the correspondence in legacykwst‘s possession mentions that the Field kids are cousins. This helps to confirm that Martha and Rebecca were siblings. Their father was John Hughes, who was a pioneer in Honey Creek Township in Vigo County.
So, with all that said, I think it is safe to say that Rebecca is Zeresh’s mother and her maiden name is Hughes. She was born in 1800 in Kentucky. She married Elihu Puckett and they lived in Shelby County, Illinois until 1836 when they relocated to Clay County. They had three children–Jamima, Zeresh, and Lewis. They also helped to raise a nephew, George Hughes, and other orphans in the area. Rebecca died in 1862.
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.
On April 26, 1867 in Lewis Township, Clay County, Indiana, a daughter named Susan was born to George Puckett and Mary Edmonson Puckett. Susan had at least four siblings–Richard, Sarah, Zirish and Lucy. Not a lot is known about Susan’s early years. According to census records from 1880 she attended school. Her mother Mary passed away in 1898, and the following year at the age of 32 Susan married Joel Goble, a local farmer.
Digging Up My Roots 