Calvin Cox and Sarah “Sallie” Moffitt Cox are my 2nd great-grandparents. The family tree pictured above illustrates how the reunions of early childhood were organized around descendants of Calvin, Sallie, and Calvin’s second wife Rebecca Smith Cox.
Calvin was born September 28, 1831, at the Cox family home and farm just south of Ramseur in Randolph County, NC. He was one of nine children, and the second oldest boy, born to Nathan and Sarah Cox.
Calvin and Sallie were married by Randolph County Justice of the Peace Isaac Foust on December 16, 1854. (This was a Saturday, and makes me wonder if they were married at Mr. Foust’s beautiful house in Ramseur.) Sallie was a descendant of the William Moffitt family that migrated to North Carolina from the Delaware Valley in the 1750s with Quaker families, including Calvin’s ancestor William Cox. The Moffitts and Coxes intermarried over several generations, so Calvin and Sallie were cousins and would have known each other growing up.
Calvin and Sallie had seven children: Rebecca Jane (1856-1862), Nathan Emery (1858-1926), Sarah Adeline (1860-1821), Stephen Clark (1861-1938), Tempa Carolina (1864-1935), William Orlendo (1867-1920), and Iva Ellen (1875-1945). (Calvin had 3 more children with his second wife, Rebecca.)
In 1861 after succession from the Union, North Carolina ordered the first draft of men ages 18-35. Calvin was among several dozen drafted in Randolph County. Most of the men were from farming families that did not own slaves and had little interest in fighting for the plantation aristocracy of the South. Calvin also descended from Quakers who opposed slavery and war. Perhaps with the help of his father, Calvin paid the “substitute fee” prescribed by Confederate conscription law to remain at home with his wife and children. Two years later Calvin had to pay the fee a second time despite his claim of previous payment. This was not an infrequent occurrence as the war dragged on.
A writer covering Calvin’s 80th birthday described him as “coming from the best old Quaker families Randolph County possesses.” The family farm was large and successful, and Calvin continued in the footsteps of his father. In addition to farming, he was also a tanner, making leather goods including providing leather to the Confederate army during the Civil War. Calvin did not serve in the army due to the family’s adherence to the Quaker faith. Instead, according to family lore, Calvin had to pay $500 in silver and/or gold for not serving.
Sallie was born on April 1, 1834, the second child of Stephen and Rebecca (Cox) Moffitt. Sallie’s ancestors were among the Quaker families migrating from the Delaware Valley area to the Carolinas around 1750. The families were so close that Sallie’s father named Calvin as executor of his will:
And lastly, I do hereby constitute and appoint my trusty friend Calvin Cox my lawful Executor to all intent and purpose to Execute this my last will and testament according to the there intent and meaning of the same and every part and clause thereof hereby revoking and declaring utterly void all other wills and testaments by me heretofore made. In witness whereof I the said Stephen Moffitt do hereunto set my hand and seal. This Thirtyeth day of July AD 1865. Stephen Moffitt (SEAL)
Mr. Moffitt died a few days later.
Calvin lived another 20 years after Sallie’s death on April 4, 1894. For the most part, their children (and the children he had with Rebecca) remained in the area after becoming adults. At his 80th birthday celebration in 1911, the children, grandchildren, cousins, and friends gathered at his home where this group picture was taken:
The October 11, 1911 edition of The Randolph Bulletin ran the following article on the event:
Calvin died on March 7, 1914, and is buried at Parks Crossroad Church a few miles from where he lived all of his life. Sallie and Rebecca are buried beside him.
Around 1950, descendants of Calvin and Sallie, as well as Calvin and Rebecca, started an annual reunion held at Calvin’s former home. The reunion eventually moved to Parks Crossroad Church. The article below describes the 1961 reunion, but I’m pretty sure it was Calvin’s father, Nathan, who was disowned by the Friends Meeting for carrying a gun on a trip to Indiana.
By the 1970s, this reunion gave way to other gatherings such as the (Stephen) Clark Cox reunion (one of Calvin and Sallie’s children, and by great grandfather).
Sources of note:
- My cousins, Emily Cox Johnson and Gwen Cox Carmac
- Newspapers.com
Forebears and Kinfolks 