James Pitman or Pittman Cox (January 9, 1804 – March 28, 1866) was a tanner, farmer, sheriff and judge from

Grant County Grant County may refer to: Places ;Australia * County of Grant, Victoria ;United States *Grant County, Arkansas *Grant County, Indiana *Grant County, Kansas *Grant County, Kentucky *Grant County, Minnesota *Grant County, Nebraska *Grant Co ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

Background

Cox was born in

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

in 1802. He was orphaned at the age of eight, and was raised by a

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to a historically Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations known formally as the Religious Society of Friends. Members of these movements ("theFriends") are generally united by a belie ...

family. He received a rudimentary education, then was apprenticed to a tanner. Dissatisfied with tanning, in 1824 he migrated to

Wisconsin Territory The Territory of Wisconsin was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 3, 1836, until May 29, 1848, when an eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Wisconsin. Belmont was ...

, settling in an area then part of Iowa County, but which would later become

, and in 1832 was a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the

Black Hawk War The Black Hawk War was a conflict between the United States and Native Americans led by Black Hawk, a Sauk leader. The war erupted after Black Hawk and a group of Sauks, Meskwakis (Fox), and Kickapoos, known as the "British Band", crosse ...

. He married Caroline Dawson, a native of

Shawneetown, Illinois Shawneetown is a city in Gallatin County, Illinois, United States. The population was 1,239 at the 2010 census, down from 1,410 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Gallatin County. Geography Shawneetown is located southeast of the cent ...

, with whom he would eventually have nine children; they finally settled on a farm in a settlement near Potosi in Grant County, where in April 1839 he filed a

plat In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

with an extensive plan for a city to be called

Osceola Osceola (1804 – January 30, 1838, Asi-yahola in Muscogee language, Creek), named Billy Powell at birth in Alabama, became an influential leader of the Seminole people in Florida. His mother was Muscogee, and his great-grandfather was a S ...

, which never materialized. A

ferry A ferry is a ship, watercraft or amphibious vehicle used to carry passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo, across a body of water. A passenger ferry with many stops, such as in Venice, Italy, is sometimes called a water bus or water taxi ...

landing was established at Osceola, and Cox and his partner Justus Parsons were granted authority to run a ferry to cross the

Grant River The Grant River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map , accessed May 13, 2011 tributary of the upper Mississippi River in southwestern Wisconsin in the United States. It flows for ...

and then the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

to a place called Parsons Landing in what would soon be declared

Iowa Territory The Territory of Iowa was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from July 4, 1838, until December 28, 1846, when the southeastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Iowa. The remaind ...

, which ferry would run for some years to come.

Public affairs

He served as

sheriff A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...

for a jurisdiction encompassing what would later become Grant, Iowa and

Crawford Crawford may refer to: Places Canada * Crawford Bay Airport, British Columbia * Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Ontario United Kingdom * Crawford, Lancashire, a small village near Rainford, Merseyside, England * Crawford, South Lanarkshire, a ...

counties A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

. He served as a probate judge for the county (originally an appointive position). He represented the then Iowa County in the House of Representatives of the

1st Wisconsin Territorial Assembly The First Legislative Assembly of the Wisconsin Territory convened from , to , and from , to , in regular session. The Assembly also convened in special session from , to . The first session was held at Belmont, Iowa County (in present-day Lafa ...

from 1836-1838 as a Whig. In 1842 he was a Whig nominee for the Territory's Council (equivalent to a state senate), but lost the race. In 1842, 1846 and 1848, he was elected as a Whig to the

county commission A county commission (or a board of county commissioners) is a group of elected officials (county commissioners) collectively charged with administering the county government in some states of the United States; such commissions usually comprise ...

, and served as its chairman in 1842 and 1848. In early 1848, he was nominated for the new

Wisconsin State Assembly The Wisconsin State Assembly is the lower house of the Wisconsin Legislature. Together with the smaller Wisconsin Senate, the two constitute the legislative branch of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Representatives are elected for two-year terms, ...

's 4th Grant County district, which included the districts of

Hurricane A tropical cyclone is a rapidly rotating storm system characterized by a low-pressure center, a closed low-level atmospheric circulation, strong winds, and a spiral arrangement of thunderstorms that produce heavy rain and squalls. Depend ...

, New Lisbon, Pleasant Valley, Potosi and

Waterloo Waterloo most commonly refers to: * Battle of Waterloo, a battle on 18 June 1815 in which Napoleon met his final defeat * Waterloo, Belgium, where the battle took place. Waterloo may also refer to: Other places Antarctica *King George Island (S ...

, losing to

Democrat Democrat, Democrats, or Democratic may refer to: Politics *A proponent of democracy, or democratic government; a form of government involving rule by the people. *A member of a Democratic Party: **Democratic Party (United States) (D) **Democratic ...

Arthur W. Worth Arthur W. Worth was a member of the Wisconsin State Assembly during the 1848 session. Worth represented Grant County, Wisconsin. Other positions he held include Treasurer of Lancaster, Wisconsin. He was a Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Democrat. ...

Later years

He had acquired 400 acres of government land in the area of Lancester in Grant County, and returned to farming. In 1853, he presided over the first successful

county fair An agricultural show is a public event exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. The largest comprise a livestock show (a judged event or display in which breeding stock is exhibit ...

in the county, and took prizes himself in such categories as "best four-year-old

stallion A stallion is a male horse that has not been gelded (castrated). Stallions follow the conformation and phenotype of their breed, but within that standard, the presence of hormones such as testosterone may give stallions a thicker, "cresty" nec ...

" and "best three-year-old

mare A mare is an adult female horse or other equine. In most cases, a mare is a female horse over the age of three, and a filly is a female horse three and younger. In Thoroughbred horse racing, a mare is defined as a female horse more than four ...

." He joined the new

Republican Party Republican Party is a name used by many political parties around the world, though the term most commonly refers to the United States' Republican Party. Republican Party may also refer to: Africa *Republican Party (Liberia) * Republican Part ...

soon after it was formed in Wisconsin, and labored to organize it there. He died at his home in Lancaster on March 28, 1866. Caroline Dawson Cox died in 1901.''Commemorative Biographical Record of the Counties of Rock, Green, Grant, Iowa and Lafayette, Wisconsin: Containing Biographical Sketches of Prominent and Representative Citizens, and of Many of the Early Settled Families'' Chicago: J. H. Beers & Co., 1901; pp. 614-615 They are both buried in Hillside Cemetery in Lancaster.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cox, James P. 1804 births 1866 deaths 19th-century American politicians Members of the Wisconsin Territorial Legislature People from Grant County, Wisconsin People from Iowa County, Wisconsin Politicians from Philadelphia Tanners Wisconsin Republicans Wisconsin Whigs County supervisors in Wisconsin