Jesse Cox was born in 1825 in Missouri and migrated with the Cox, Cantrell and other families to Fannin County, Texas, by 1847. Jesse may have enlisted to serve in the Mexican War in Captain Kinsey’s unit during the summer of 1847. He married Hester Ann Beckett in Fannin County in 1857 and the same families migrated again to land along the Nueces River in what would become Uvalde County by 1861. He knows Lafferty well enough by February 4, 1862, to enter into an agreement with him involving care of ranch, livestock and children. In 1870, Hester and Jesse are at Fort Duncan, Maverick County, Texas, with a child named Eliza Jane Cox. They are two households away from Mary Lafferty Emory (daughter of L.D. and Rachel) and daughter Sarah Emory/Emery/Embry. By 1900, Hester is a widow living in the household of William Carter in Edwards County, Texas.
After the Lafferty-Cox agreement was executed in February 1862 and the situation that prompted it played out, Jesse and Hester Cox must have remained in contact with and/or close to the Lafferty family. They are neighbors to Mary Lafferty Emory and her mother, Rachel. Their niece, Maggie Cox (daughter of Hugh Cox and Sarah Turnbough), will marry John Henry Lafferty.
Excerpt from
The Reminiscences of Major General Zenas R. Bliss, 1854-1876: From the Texas Frontier to the Civil War and Back Again.
By Thomas Ty Smith (Editor), Jerry Thompson (Editor), Robert Wooster (Editor), Ben E. Pingenot (Editor)
Published January 29, 2008
