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GEORGE M. COX, better known as Mell Cox, an enterprising stock farmer of Eden township, was born in Wells county, Indiana, March 16, 1860, and is a son of Thomas and Julia Ann (Leonard) Cox, the latter from Grand Junction, Iowa. Thomas Cox was born in Delaware, and as a young man removed to Ohio, where he married and then settled in Wells county, Indiana, his home until 1877. He followed farming in Benton county, Iowa, several years and then located in Greene county, Iowa. He died in Grand Junction, Iowa, which had been his home for seventeen years, in February, 1908, in his eightieth year. His wife was born near Chillicothe, Ohio, and is now about seventy-three years of age. They were parents of eight children, three of whom were born in Ohio and five in Indiana. All resided in Benton county some time, and all survive.
George M. Cox was reared in Indiana, and received a good education. He came to Benton county, Iowa, with his parents, in October, 1877, and has since followed farming and stock raising. He began working for himself when very young, and is a self-made man, his present success having been attained through his own efforts. The farm he now occupies, two hundred acres of well improved land, he purchased in May, 1901; it is known as the Strong Farm, and is located in section 4 of Eden township. Before settling in this place he carried on a farm in Big Grove township twenty-four years. Mr. Cox is a Republican and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church.
Mr. Cox married Belle, daughter of John and Lizzie King, who was born in Muscatine, Iowa, but came to Benton county with her parents when two years old, and has since resided there. Her father died some years since, aged seventy years, and her mother died about nine years ago, at the age of fifty-six. They had two children, Belle and George. The latter now lives at Covina, California, although he still owns a farm in Benton county. Mr. Cox and his wife have two children, both now attending school in Vinton, Delbert L., aged eighteen and Letta F., sixteen years of age.
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