Nathan W. Cox is my 3rd great grandfather. He was born on October 20, 1804, in Randolph County, NC to Jacob and Hannah Moffitt Cox. (This Nathan is sometimes confused with a cousin named Nathan, son of Jonathan Cox and a different Sarah.)
He married Sarah Cox on November 29, 1827, in Holly, North Carolina. Nathan and Sarah were cousins, and it was common among Quakers for cousins to be married. As my father told me, the marrying pool in those days just wasn’t very big. They had ten children: Stephen (1828), Rachel (1830), Calvin (1831), Eliza Ann (1833), John Milton (1834), Martha Jane (1837), Sarah Emeline (1839), Nathan R. (1840), Eli (1842), and Harmon (1843). A first child died as an infant, and Rachel died at age eight from burns after pulling hot water from a stove. Nathan was only four when he died.
Nathan’s large tract of land had been in the Cox family since his grandfather Harmon and great grandfather William secured land grants in the 1750s and 1760s. He was a farmer and entrepreneur. The farm included cotton and grain crops, orchards, and livestock. Nathan had a blacksmith shop, gristmill, and timbered the land. He also had an apple orchard of around 500 trees and made cider, vinegar, and brandy. Nathan regularly traveled to Fayetteville with a wagon full of goods.
Family historian Emily Johnson recalls a story of Nathan traveling on horseback to Indiana to buy land. Since he was carrying a large amount of cash, he also carried a pistol for protection. The Quaker Meeting learned of his gun possession and disowned him for a period of time.
Sometime around 1830 or a little after, Nathan and Sarah took in an orphan named Braxton Craven. The family called him “Brack,” and he worked the farm with with the Cox sons. Craven goes on to become an educator and founder of “Normal College” in Trinity, renamed later as Trinity College. Trinity College eventually relocates to Durham, NC and becomes Duke University in 1892.
Craven’s biography, Life of Braxton Craven, states oldest son Stephen was “about two years older” than Braxton, but his date of birth is recorded as 1822, six years prior to Stephen’s birth. There are other inconsistencies in the book, such as the early Cox and Moffitt Quakers coming to Randolph in 1688 (it was the 1750s) and settling near “volcanic” (little) Pilot Mountain. The degree of brandy and whiskey production also seems a little odd for a family of Quakers that helped establish the Holly Springs Friends Meeting. Daddy used to say, however, the Coxes were devout Quakers during war time, and ran a still during peace time.
Regarding Stephen, he is recorded in census records as “insane” or “idiot” beginning with the 1860 census. My father told me he had been kicked in the head by a horse, so maybe this explains why the Craven biographer references Stephen attending school with Braxton.
Eliza Ann and Martha Jane married brothers, Jesse and James Davis, from a Pleasant Garden Quaker family. Jesse and died in 1860, and Martha Jane died in 1865. Children with the surname Davis show up Nathan’s household in 1870, and noted in settlement of the estate.
Nathan died on August 30, 1877 at the age of 72 and is buried at the Mill Creek Friends Cemetery. Sarah died 15 years later on July 16, 1892. She is head of a household in the 1880 census with a grandson and niece living with her. Unfortunately most of the 1890 census was lost in a Washington, DC fire and can’t be used to establish Sarah’s residency.
Nathan’s estate files (requires a FamilySearch.org account) confirm the diversity of his business enterprises. Dividing the estate was complicated by attempts to settle loans or advances made by Nathan to his children, inclusion of grandchildren, and responsibility for Stephen.
Sources of note:
Forebears and Kinfolks 