By: : Jonesborough Genealogical Society
The following is from an article in The Herald and Tribune, Wednesday, January 14, 1903.
Sudden death came to John D. Cox on Monday morning about 6 o’clock in the waiting room of the Southern Railway depot. He had walked to the depot accompanied by his son, John D. Cox. Death was due to heart failure. Mr. Cox was born on Boone’s Creek April 28, 1828, and was seventy-five years of age. He was the only survivor of a family of nine children. During the gold fever in 1849 he went to Sacramento Valley, California in company with several other citizens of this county, and returned to Jonesboro about 1853 and immediately entered the mercantile business. He was a devoted Union man.
In 1886 he organized the Jonesboro Banking and Trust Company, was the chief stockholder, and its president up to his death (there is much to know about his business career, but space doe not permit it here – W.A.B.). He married miss Virginia T. Bachman on January 2, 1878, daughter of Nicholas Bachman, a prominent citizen of Sullivan County. Mr. Cox was a member of the Second Presbyterian Church (joined April 6, 1856) of this place and was also a prominent member of the Masonic Order.
He leaves surviving him his wife and two children, Miss Ida Cox and John D. Cox, assistant cashier of the Banking and Trust Company.
The funeral services were held in the Second Presbyterian Church Tuesday afternoon, Rev. J.S. Eakin officiating. His remains were interred in Maple Lawn Cemetery by members of the Masonic Order.
In an issue dated Wednesday, August 24, 1904, Vol. IIIVI #21, appears the following news items:
J.D. Cox monument – The Morristown Marble Company is erecting the monument over the grave of the late J.D. Cox. The height is seventeen feet and the base is over six feet square. The whole monument weighs 10,000 pounds. The design was drawn mostly by John Cox. Located on the top of the knoll where Major Cox is buried it will show up finely.