GEORGE W. COX, M. D., a practicing physician and surgeon of Murphysboro,
and a member of the Board of Pension Examiners, was born in Kentucky,
December 26, 1846. His father was also born in that state, but the
grandparents came from Virginia and North Carolina respectively. From
Kentucky the father removed to Illinois when a young man, subsequently
returning to his native state. In 1848, however, he located permanently in
Somerset Township, Jackson County, Ill., where in the midst of the forest he
hewed out a farm of two hundred acres. He was a successful farmer, and a man
of enterprise and industry. He is now living a retired life in Murphysboro,
at the age of seventy. At one time he served as County Treasurer, and was
Assessor of Jackson County for four years. He belongs to the Methodist
Episcopal Church South. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Elizabeth A.
Pool, was born in North Carolina, of English descent, and when a maiden of
eight years went to Kentucky, where she was reared. Unto Mr. and Mrs. Cox
were born nine children, six of whom are yet living, namely: Dr. George W.;
Viola, wife of Ezekiel Clark, of Murphysboro; Nettie, wife of Daniel
Elliott, of Arkansas; Belle, wife of William Phelps, of this place; Dr.
Logan Cox, who is a practicing physician of Kansas; and Hamilton, who is
living in Murphysboro.
We now take up the personal history of our
subject, who is so widely and favorably known in this community that he
needs no special introduction to our readers. He was here reared upon his
father's farm, attended the common schools, later spent one year in the
Southern Illinois Normal University at Carbondale, and afterward was for two
years a student in Washington Seminary of Richview, Ill. This completed his
literary education. He then embarked in teaching at the age of twenty-one,
and for twenty-seven months he taught school in Randolph, Jefferson and
Washington Counties.
During vacations, our subject studied medicine
under Dr. Downey, of Richview, Ill., for three years, and in the winter of
1874-75 attended a course of lectures at Rush Medical College, of Chicago.
He then engaged in practice for three years near Mt. Vernon, Ill., after
which he entered the Ohio Medical College, of Cincinnati, from which he was
graduated in the spring of 1878, with the degree of M. D. Immediately
afterward he opened an office in Murphysboro, and continued to practice
until the fall of 1887, when he entered Jefferson Medical College, of
Philadelphia, Pa. He was graduated therefrom the following spring, having
taken a post-graduate course. He studied skin diseases in the Philadelphia
hospital and was graduated under Prof. J. V. Shumaker. He was also a student
at Bellevue Medical College and Hospital, New York, in 1892. He makes a
specialty of surgery, and is surgeon for the Big Muddy Coal and Iron
Company.
In 1880 the Doctor married Miss Millie Jones, by whom he
had one son, Arthur Cox. Subsequently in 1888, he was married in
Philadelphia, to Miss Eva Taylor, a native of the Empire State. Mrs. Cox is
a member of the Methodist Church, and is a lady possessed of many
excellencies of character, which have won her high regard in this community.
In 1880 Dr. Cox was elected Coroner on the Democratic ticket, and
for two terms he was County Physician. He belongs to the Southern Illinois
Medical Association, is an active member of the State Medical Association,
and holds membership with the Alumni Association of the Ohio Medical
College. He has served as examiner for different insurance companies, and is
also Treasurer of the Board of Pension Examiners. The Doctor has spared
neither pains nor expense in perfecting himself for his profession and has
justly won a high reputation among his professional brethren, while from the
public he receives a liberal patronage. Socially, he early joined the Odd
Fellows' society, and he is also connected with the Ancient Order of United
Workmen.
Extracted 31 Jul 2020 by Norma Hass from 1894 Portrait and Biographical Record of Randolph, Jackson, Perry, and Monroe Counties, Illinois, pages 663-664.