FREDERICK COX

    Frederick Cox is first of all a typical Sacramento businessman with the abundant energy and enterprise of the class that has laid the solid foundation of one of the leading cities on the Pacific coast.  He has been connected with the business interests of California for more than forty-five years. His life has been one of great activity, directed by an ambition to succeed on the lines of usefulness and an unconquerable spirit of determination.  While eminently conservative, he is therefore always safe.  Once he decides upon a course of action he enters upon it with an enthusiasm that conquers opposition, and overcomes obstacles that leads to a triumphant accomplishment of his purpose.  Through all his business life he has been the soul of honor, counting honesty and integrity as the best capital that a man can possess.

    Frederick Cox is a native of England, his birth having occurred in Somersetshire, in 1828.  His father was John Cox, who also was born in Somersetshire and died at the age of sixty-two years.  His mother bore the maiden name of Thomazin Luxton, and was a native of Devonshire, England.  In their family were four children, two of whom are now living, Frederick and a sister who makes her home in England. The subject of this review pursued his early education in the land of his birth, but when still very young, came to the new world, and after spending six months in New York state, removed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin.  There the father occupied a position as a bookkeeper and buyer for a firm carrying on a wholesale and retail meat business, and in his youth his son became familiar with the butchering business.

    When gold was discovered in California and the tide of emigration turned strongly toward the Pacific coast, it was his desire to make his way to the golden state, but lack of funds prevented his doing so at that time.  In 1850, however, he joined a party who were preparing to make the long and wearisome journey across the plains.  Crossing the Missouri river near the present site of Omaha, they obtained their guide books, which had been published by the Mormons and which indicated the route and camping grounds.  These were found to be very reliable, and following directions they at length arrived safely at Salt Lake City.  At that point they procured another guide book which gave them directions from there on to California; but this publication led them into many difficulties.  However they pressed on, reaching Ringgold, El Dorado county, California, at the end of that year.  Not long after reaching Salt Lake City, it was found that Mr. Cox was the only member of the party who had any funds left, so that from that time until they reached their destination, he paid all the bills.  Pitching their tent in the middle of a little mining camp, the entire capital of the company, seven dollars, was invested in beef steak, molasses and flour. After regaling themselves with this sumptuous fare, Mr. Cox made his first attempt at oratory and in a most forceful and polite manner addressed his comrades as follows, saying that it was now "everyone for himself."

     In the fall of 1850, Mr. Cox formed the acquaintance of Lloyd Tevis, a member of the firm Haggin & Tevis, who were engaged in trading in horses and buying stock from the immigrants.  Mr. Cox secured employment of a butcher in Ringgold, for whom he worked two months, receiving five hundred dollars for his services during that time.  His employer wishing to leave the country, purchased the business which he conducted for nine months, when he sold out and went to Carson river valley in Nevada.  There he engaged in stock-dealing enterprises, which have grown to such extensive proportions that he is now known as one of the leading and best known stock-raisers of the state.  In Nevada he purchased horses and cattle from immigrants, fattened them on the rich meadow lands of the valley, and sold them in California at a good profit.  In the spring of 1852 he removed to Shingle Springs, El Dorado county, where he purchased a meat market, and while there entered into partnership with Crawford W. Clarke, a connection that has since been continued, covering a period of forty-seven years.  During this time nothing has occurred to disturb the harmonious relations between them and the partnership has proved of mutual pleasure and profit.  From the beginning success attended their efforts and at the end of two years they sold their business in Shingle Springs at a good profit and took a six months trip to the eastern states.

     In the fall of 1854 they returned and opened a market in Grass Valley, Nevada county, where they also extended the field of their operations by buying and selling cattle.  The latter branch of their business became so extensive that they sold the market and removed to the Sacramento valley, where they have since controlled one of the most extensive cattle ranches of the Pacific coast. As this region of the country became more thickly settled it was impossible to secure tracts of land large enough to serve grazing ground and this led to the purchase of extensive cattle ranges in the counties of Sutter, Kern, and San Luis Obispo, and eastern Oregon, which they still hold.  In control of one of the mammoth cattle industries of the state they have secured therefrom a handsome income which has numbered them among the wealthy citizens of the county. Mr. Cox has also been connected with other business interests of Sacramento, holding the presidency of the California State Bank.

      In November, 1857, was celebrated the marriage of Mr. Cox and Miss Jennie A. Holdridge, of El Dorado county, and to them have been born two sons and three daughters, of whom one son and two daughters are living.  One daughter died in infancy and a son at the age of seven years.  Crawford John is married and has three children; Mrs. Jennie A. Peltier has two children; Fredda is at home with her parents.  The family are communicants of the Episcopal church.  They have a beautiful residence in Sacramento and the circle of their friends is very extensive.

      Mr. Cox has long taken a deep interest in political affairs and has been more or less actively connected with the party's work.  He votes with the Democracy and in 1882 was elected state senator, serving two regular and two extra sessions of the legislature.  In 1886 he declined a re-nomination.  By appointment of the governor he has served for seventeen years as a member of the state board of agriculture and in this capacity has largely advanced the interests of the farming classes of California.  Applying honest principles in the affairs of life, he has won the confidence of the business community and in a high degree of the public at large.

 

 

Source: “A Volume Of Memoirs And Genealogy of Representative Citizens Of Northern California” Standard Genealogical Publishing Co. Chicago. 1901. Pages 204-206.

 

 

Submitted by: Betty Tartas.