The Coxon Family

I have almost no history of the Coxon side of my family. Grampa Jim Coxon married Iva Howes and the Howes side of the family I have more on. I’ll get into that later.

Dad had just a few stories to tell about his mother but he didn’t talk about his father at all. Somewhere I picked up the idea that Grampa Coxon (or was it Great Grampa Coxon - I’m not sure now) and his brother came over to the states from England together and that the brother soon returned to England never to be heard from again. I don’t remember specifically where I heard this but it must have come from Dad. Finding The Letter amongst Dad's affects turned out to be a valuable clue to researching the Coxons.

The Letter

When I started looking into my Coxon family history I took note of this single surviving letter to my great grandfather, Christopher William Coxon (C. W. Coxon), from his brother in England, Charles Merriman Coxon (C. M. Coxon), that I found amongst Dad’s effects after he died. This short letter turned out to be a goldmine.

Uncle George and the Cigar Box Fiddle

While searching old newspapers for hints to my family history around Mt. Pleasant (aka Fog Hill), and looking for information about the Red Rock and Mt. Pleasant Telephone Co. I came across these cool stories, one about Amos Jackson, and another about my dad's kid brother George. I had never heard of Amos Jackson. And I never heard about Uncle George's fiddling either.

Red Rock and Mt. Pleasant Tel. Co.

Somehow I got the impression my grandfather, James Coxon, started the first telephone company in Red Rock. I can't remember now where I got that idea but I see no evidence of that in these few newspaper clippings I found on the subject.

The Poem

I found this delightful poem amongst Mom's papers. The development of the automobile at the turn of the 20th century brought with it a considerable problem with inadequate roads and by the 1930's Red Rock folks were fed up!