William Andrew Cox
William Andrew Cox, a prominent agriculturist of Wells Township, whose farm of 160 acres is located near New Alexandria, has been a lifelong resident of Jefferson County. Ohio, and was born January 29, 1862, at New Alexandria, O., and is a son of William and Hannah J. (Watkins) Cox.
William Cox was born in Maryland, and was three years old when his father, Jacob Cox, brought the family overland to Fayette County, Pennsylvania, where he settled in the timberland. William was reared in Fayette County and when a young man teamed over the mountains from Baltimore to Wheeling, W. Va. He was first united in marriage with Margaret Rush, who died leaving three children, namely: Michael; Amos, deceased; and Mary, who is the wife of George Chaffan. William Cox later married Hannah J. Watkins, of Athens, O., and to them were born: Ada, who married John Miller; William A., subject of this record; and Sherman, deceased. William Cox subsequently moved to Jefferson County and located at New Alexandria, where he followed carpentering for some years. His later life was spent on a farm in Wells Township, his death occuring there in 1890, at the age of seventy-three years. His widow died at the age of seventy-one years.
William Andrew Cox spent his early boyhood in New Alexandria and was fifteen years of age when his parents moved to the farm in Wells Township. He remained on the home farm until the time of his marriage, September 6, 1891, with Ida R. Warren, who is a daughter of George M. and Nancy (Porter) Warren, who are old settlers of Jefferson County. Mr. Cox has always followed farming in a general way and his farm was originally a part of the Dawson estate. Mr. Cox is a Prohibitionist politically and fraternally is a member of the Wildwood Lodge I. O. O. F., New Alexandria. His religious connection is with the Methodist Protestant Church at New Alexandria.
20th Century History of Steubenville and Jefferson County, Ohio, by Joseph B. Doyle. Richmond-Arnold Publishing Co., Chicago, 1910