Butler County Genealogy Trails Kansas Henry (Harry) Clay Cox Bio

BUTLER COUNTY'S EIGHTY YEARS BIOS

HENRY (HARRY) CLAY COX

Henry Clay Cox, better known to his great number of friends as Harry Cox, district manager of the Kansas Gas and Electric Company since January 1, 1922, member of the El Dorado board of education, Rotary Club, Chamber of Commerce, El Dorado Country Club, active church worker, chairman of the newly inaugurated Federal Better Housing campaign, and loyal Republican, was born in Marion County, Kansas, January 13, 1882, a son of Charles Edward Cox and Alice Carrie (Daniels) Cox.

During the grammar school days of Mr. Cox, he lived on a ranch in the timberland of western Washington, between Gray’s Harbor and Willipa Harbor, about twenty miles from the coast line. The children of the family attended school at Cosmopolis, moving to town in the winter.

Between his graduation from Alberdeen High School in 1902, and his enrollment in the University of Washington at Seattle in 1903, he worked in a lumber mill to accumulate enough to carry him through his first year. This money was, however, supplemented by janitor work, wood sawing and other tasks. During the summer of 1904 he and his brother Roy contracted to fell timber in the lumber woods, making enough to get them through the following term.

When they entered school in the fall (Roy as a freshman) their parents moved with the six-year-old brother, Lester, to eastern Washington, near Kennewick, on the Columbia River. The next vacation was spent on the new ranch. During the vacation between his junior and senior years he worked for the Bell Telephone Company in Seattle, changing the old dry battery telephones to the then new common battery system.

After his graduation, when he received the degree of Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, Mr. Cox operated the Seattle sub-station of the Seattle-Tacoma Power Company. In December of that year, he left Seattle and arrived at Schenectady, New York on January 13, 1908, to begin an apprentice course with the General Electric Company. This was during the panic of 1907-08, and he worked three weeks out of four for $11 per week.

In March of 1909, Mr. Cox was transferred to Pittsfield,Massachusetts to the transformer manufacturing plant. In June he was made night foreman of the testing department and served in this capacity until January, 1910. At that time he was made general testing foreman in charge of both night and day shifts.

Mr. Cox was transferred to the transformer engineering department in August, 1912, serving there until December 3, 1917, lacking about a month of receiving a ten-year bonus which was being awarded.

He began work for the Kansas Gas and Electric Company on December 10, 1917, in the engineering department. In December, 1920, he was appointed transmission superintendent and given the responsibility of organizing a department which would take care of all the transmission lines, these previously having been maintained by various districts in which they were situated.

On January 1, 1922, he was transferred to El Dorado as district manager for that territory which includes a number of small towns in Butler and Marion counties and the several large oil fields in the vicinity.

Mr. Cox’s marriage to Ella Farrington Cottrell took place at Pittsfield,Massachusetts, June 16, 1910. Mr. and Mrs. Cox have an adopted daughter, Ruth Carol, born on April 14, 1924, and adopted twin daughters, Doris Jean and Dorothy Jane, born October 10, 1924. Mrs. Cox was born October 14, 1887, a daughter of Harvey T. and Carrie (Crandall) Cottrell.

Mr. Cox at the present time is serving his second four-year term as a member of the El Dorado board of education, and his second year as president of the board. He has been financial secretary of the First Baptist Church since 1928, and has held various other offices during his years of membership.

His professional organizations include the Edison Electric Institute (winner third prize in a nation-wide employee better home lighting contest, 1925). He has been a member of the National Geographic Society since 1913 and the Travel Society since 1927. He was secretary of the Rotary Club, May 1924-July 1928; vice president 1931-1932; and a member of the Messiah Chorus and the executive committee in 1930, 1931, and 1932.

Mr. Cox was president of the El Dorado Safety Council from October, 1931 until October, 1932, and in 1931 headed one of two divisions of the first Community Chest Drive. He was a director of the Chamber of Commerce from March, 1927, until March, 1929, and from March, 1931, until March 1933; vice president 1931-32; and president 1932-33. He enjoys golf, and although he has no opportunity for them in his present location, is fond of water sports. His hobby is amateur photography. He is one of Butler County's most progressive and best-liked citizens.

Mr. Cox’s father, Charles Edward Cox, was born in Springfield, Illinois, August 11, 1853, and as a boy ran the home farm for his mother while his four brothers were serving in the Civil war. In his early twenties he drove a government mail stage in Wyoming. His later years were devoted to farming. His death occurred at Kennewick,Washington, May 24, 1924.

Mr. Cox’s mother, Alice Carrie Daniels Cox, was born in Clarinda,Iowa, July 2, 1853, a direct descendant through the maternal line of Victoria, Queen of England. The mother came to the United States in 1856, his father having pioneered in Iowa. She spends part of each year in El Dorado, and part with her son Lester, in Medford,Oregon. Her son Roy died in 1917.