Amos Cox
AMOS COX, son of Jonathan Upham Cox, was born 26 Mar 1821, in Owego, New York. In his boyhood he drove an ox team to Fort Leavenworth, where he had work. In Nauvoo he worked as a chore boy in the family of Joseph Smith.
On the way west he joined the Mormon Battalion and continued his way to the Pacific. He left his wife with 4 children when he went, and she buried one of the children in his absence. Uncle Chauncy Whiting took her to his home in Silver Creek, and cared for her until her husband returned. He was wounded in Arizona while with the Battalion.
He settled in Manti, then returned to Iowa. There he taught school, ran a stage, was mail carrier, was captain of militia, ran a hotel in Sidney, lived among the Indians, then moved to Shenandoah. Most of his life was hardship and losses that would have soured most men not molded on his high plain of character, but he was not one to murmur.
He was one of the oldest Masons of his community; his Order buried him.
He married Philena Morley 20 June 1841, in Hancock County, Illinois. They had 5 children. He was a quiet, modest man, with no enemy in the world, and his thoughtfulness for others made him universally loved in his community.