Cox, Eli



HISTORICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF ILLINOIS
& HISTORY OF MORGAN COUNTY
Munsell Publishing Company, Publishers, 1906.




COX, ELI - Rev. William Clark, whose father, Thomas Clark, located in what was then Morgan County, about five miles west of Virginia, when the son, William was ten years old, gives the following account of the first white settler within the present bounds of Cass County:

"The earliest white settler of Cass County, of whom we find any knowledge, was Mr. Eli Cox. He settled in the eastern part of what is now Cass County, in the year 1816. He staked out a claim, and after remaining on it for a time, left it; returned in 1819; built a cabin, and commenced permanent improvements, and lived there until his death, which occurred in 1860 or 1861. He was through life very eccentric in some particulars."

I new Mr. Clark well for more than a half century. His life was spent in the ministry of the Methodist Church. He was a well-informed and able preacher, and had the best opportunities for knowing Mr. Cox and facts concerning his life and character.


1906 Index

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