Chasing the Elusive: The Curious Case of Elizabeth Newton Cox

Every so often I tinker with some of my more elusive members of my family tree.... I call these kind of searches "Chasing the Elusive" and decided I would blog about them in case anyone might have pieces for me.

One such curious family member for me is a maternal aunt (either great great aunt or great-great-great aunt) by the name of Elizabeth Newton Cox.

I'd like to start out by saying my Cox family has a great many skeletons in it.... which is likely why my maternal grandmother never talked about her family....

Elizabeth Newton Cox was born in Hamilton, Butler County, Ohio on 16 June 1893, according to the entry for her in the Butler County birth registrations, which lists her as Lizzie (for the first and ONLY time).  Her parents, according to that registration, were a couple by the names of William Cox and Anna Sperry.  However, her baptism record from St. Luke's Episcopal Church in Scranton, Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania, (which gives her name as Elizabeth Newton Cox and even lists her as a year older) lists her parents as William Newton Cox and Isabel Fowler.

These parental names might not mean much to some, but to me, they are important.  You see, William JAMES Cox and Anna Sperry are my great-great-grandparents.  William NEWTON Cox and Isabel Fowler were William Cox's parents and Anna's in-laws.  If Elizabeth was indeed birthed by Anna, then why is Isabel listed as her mother in later records?  Even more curious is the fact that William and Anna had a daughter named Ellen who was just a mere two months older than Elizabeth and born in Indiana, according to documents collected (Ellen's death record, headstone dates, and the 1900 census).  Now while modern medical science does allow for delayed interval births on very rare occasions, that was not the case in 1893.

Elizabeth never shows up with William James Cox or Anna Sperry on any records other than the birth registration.  In the 1900 and 1920 census enumerations, she is listed as the daughter of William N. Cox, residing with him and Isabel in Lansdale, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania in the 1900 enumeration and with William in Danville, Montour County, Pennsylvania in 1920.  She has not yet been located on the 1910 census enumeration, an affliction a number of her siblings seem to share.

Even more curious is the fact that in William James Cox's obituary in The Danville Morning News on 13 February 1913, she is listed as his sister, Miss Bessie Cox.  She is also listed in both Isabel Cox's obituary and William N. Cox's death notices as a daughter of theirs.

So why was Elizabeth registered as the daughter of William and Anna on her birth registration, yet reared by William Newton and Isabel?  It is a question that may never be answered.

There is also the mystery of where she disappeared to after the 1940 census enumeration......

Let's start back at the beginning.

After her birth in Hamilton, Ohio, Elizabeth "Bessie" Cox next appears on the 1900 census, living in Lansdale, Pennsylvania with her parents, William N. Cox and Isabel Fowler.  William Newton Cox was a stoveworks molder and had been a hired strikebreaker, along with his eldest son William James Cox, which is why the family was in Ohio in the first place.  It appears the family moved around a great deal, as some of Bessie's siblings (or aunts and uncles?) were born in various counties in Pennsylvania.  One sister, Viola, was born in Ohio.   Bessie was the youngest of William N.'s children, and twenty four years separated her from the eldest son, William James, who also could have been her father.

*Another note here: for the remainder of this post when I refer to Bessie's parents, I am referring to William Newton Cox and Isabel Fowler, as those are the two that raised her.*

In December 1910, Bessie was baptized at Saint Luke's Episcopal Church in Scranton, Pennsylvania, and was confirmed a week later.  As previously stated, any attempt to locate her on the 1910 census has been fruitless as of yet, as she could have been living in a number of localities.  *Side note here... I am still working on her siblings' research as part of my FAN methodology in my "free" time, so as research on her siblings progresses, I may yet find her living with one of them.*

In 1913, she lived at 1413 Sanderson Avenue in Scranton with her father (and it assumed with her mother) as both she and her father were listed in the Scranton City Directory for that year.  In 1914, the family lived on East Market Street in Danville (it seems the family as a whole shuttled back and forth between the two cities), and in 1918, she was employed as a domestic and had lived at two addresses in Scranton; 1636 Penn Avenue and 615 New York Street.

1918 was the year she married for the first time.  On 10 June 1918, at the age of 25, Bessie married Alton Westcott (also spelled Wescott), a man just a year or two her senior.  It was the first marriage for both parties, and the couple was  joined in matrimony by Rev. John C. Matthes, who appears to have been a Lutheran minister.  In 1920, the couple resided with Bessie's widowed father in a rented home at 406 East Front Street in Danville, Pennsylvania.  The marriage was very short lived, however, as the couple divorced in October 1920 according to the marriage register of Alton's second marriage.  *Note here, I am also trying to locate divorce records for the couple... but since I don't know if divorce proceedings were done in Scranton or Danville (since they are located in two different counties) it has been slow going.*

Bessie appears to have resumed her maiden name after the divorce, as a newspaper clipping from The Danville Morning News on 22 May 1926 states the following:

"Evan Thomas, widely known local man, and Miss Bessie Cox, also of this city and well known, were united in marriage at 8:30 last night at the manse of Mahoning Presbyterian church. Rev. Theodore C. meek officiated, with the ring ceremony being used. [break] The newlyweds have taken up residence in a newly furnished home on East Front Street."

Evan Thomas was seventeen years older than Bessie and a widower with a few children.  An inquiry into accessing of the marriage license has been made via email to Montour County's Registrar's office, but has as of this writing gone unanswered.

The couple resided in the house at 321 Front Street in Danville until Evan's death on 23 August 1932.  Bessie continued to reside in the home for two more years before relocating to Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania for a brief time, and then back to Scranton in July of 1935 to live with her sister's family.

1940 is the last year I can locate her.  In April of that year, she was enumerated on the Federal Census living with her nephew, William C. Grimes, at 416 Mahon Court in Scranton.  In August, The Danville Morning News mentions she (as Mrs. Bessie Thomas) and sister Ida (as Mrs. Floyd Grimes) were visiting her brother Lewis Cox on Railroad street.

After that little snip from the newspaper, she just seems to vanish into thin air.  While I have death records for almost all of her siblings (brother George remains a mystery as well, but I have a time frame of when he died), there are no records for a death for her on Ancestry or FamilySearch or any of the other databases I have searched. Perhaps she married a third time, or changed her name yet again?  At this point it's a mystery.

Granted, as I previously mentioned, I am still working occasionally on fleshing out her siblings and gathering more information on them.  Perhaps research on one of them will lead back to what happened to Bessie, and maybe even solve why she is listed in two differing documents with two differing sets of parents.  Perhaps with the increasing digitization of records, I may eventually find the piece that will solve her mystery.... or someone may know what happened who reads this blog one day.

Until then, she remains an elusive, and I will continue to chase her.

Sources:
"1900 United States Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 January 2017), Entry for William M. Cox and family, Year: 1900, Census Place: Lansdale Montgomery, Pennsylvania, Roll: 1442, Pages: 6B-7A, Enumeration District: 0205, and FHL microfilm: 1241442; citing United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Twelfth Census of the United States, 1900. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1900. T623, 1854 rolls.

"1920 United States Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 January 2017), Entry for William Cox and household, Year: 1920, Census Place: Danville Ward 1 Montour, Pennsylvania, Roll: T625_1603, Pages: 9A-9B, Enumeration District: 49, and Images: 335-336. citing Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. (NARA microfilm publication T625, 2076 rolls). Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29. National Archives, Washington, D.C.

"1930 United States Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 29 October 2019), Entry for Evan Thomas and household, Year: 1930, Census Place: Danville Montour, Pennsylvania, Page: 6A, Enumeration District: 0003, and FHL microfilm: 2341819; citing United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1930. T626, 2,667 rolls.

"1940 United States Federal Census," database with images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 15 December 2019), Entry for William C. Grimes and household (indexed as Gimes), Year: 1940, Census Place: Scranton Lackawanna, Pennsylvania, Roll: m-t0627-03685, Page: 14A, and Enumeration District: 71-103; citing United States of America, Bureau of the Census. Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 1940. T627, 4,643 rolls.

"Aged Civil War Veteran Dies on Steps of Neighbor: William Cox, Aged 80, Dies Suddenly While Out for a Walk: Had Long Been Ill," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 14 December 1927, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 29 October 2019).

"Death Claims William J. Cox," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 13 February 1913, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 4 January 2017).

"Death Follows a Protracted Illness," obituary, The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 27 October 1916, page 1; obituary of Mrs. William Cox; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 5 January 2017).

"Evan Thomas and Miss Cox Wedded," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 22 May 1926, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 29 October 2019).

"Marriage License 1885-Present," database online with images, Lackawanna County, PA - Public Access System (http://www.lpa-homes.org/LPA_Public_Inquiries/Views/LPA_Views/LPAXX01D.aspx : accessed 17 May 2017), Entry for Alton Westcott and Bessie Cox, marriage date 10 June 1918, record number 0140-00430, license number 930; citing Lackawanna County Courthouse records.

"Marriage License 1885-Present," database online with images, Lackawanna County, PA - Public Access System (http://www.lpa-homes.org/LPA_Public_Inquiries/Views/LPA_Views/LPAXX01D.aspx : accessed 29 October 2019), Entry for marriage of Alton Wescott and Irene Phillips, 14 July 1923.

"Ohio Births and Christenings, 1821-1962," online database, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 16 January 2017), Entry for Lizzie Cox, 16 Jun 1893; citing Hamilton, Butler, Ohio, Butler County (Ohio) Birth and death records, 1867-1908, Birth records v. 1-2 1867-1893, page 151 ; FHL microfilm 355,799.

"Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985," online database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 January 2017), Entry for Elizabeth Newton and Ida Mary Cox; baptism 28 Dec 1910; St Luke´s Episcopal Church, Scranton, Pennsylvania; Reel 514; image 1161 of 1266; citing Historic Pennsylvania Church and Town Records. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

"Pennsylvania and New Jersey, Church and Town Records, 1708-1985," online database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 December 2019), Entry for Elizabeth Newton Cox; confirmed 8 January 1911 (indexed as a baptism); St Luke´s Episcopal Church, Scranton, Pennsylvania; Reel 514; image 1219 of 1266.

"Personals," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 23 December 1916, page 7; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 8 April 2017).

"Personals," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 1 June 1918, page 3; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 8 April 2017).

"Two Families Move," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 13 October 1934, page 1; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 December 2019).

"Untitled," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 1 July 1935, page 2; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 December 2019).

"U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database online with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 17 December 2019), Scranton, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1913; page 160; "Cox Bessie, r 1413 Sanderson av"; citing a collection of directories for U.S. cities and counties

"U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," database online with images, Ancestry.com, Scranton, Pennsylvania, City Directory, 1918; page 163; "Cox Bessie, dom, 1636 Penn av". 

"Visiting Here," The Danville Morning News (Danville, Pennsylvania), 9 August 1940, page 4; online images, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : accessed 15 December 2019).