Full Name:
- Jacob Dolson Cox
Birth Date:
- January 8, 1866
Birth Location:
- Montreal, Canada
Parents:
- Jacob Dolson and Thedia Redelia (Kenyon) Cox
Education:
- Oberlin College (1850)
Occupation:
- Educator
- Lawyer
Career Summary:
- Major General (USVA)
- Governor of Ohio
- U.S. Congressman
- U.S. Secretary of the Interior
- President of the University of Cincinnati
Spouse:
- Helen Clarissa Finney
Place of Death:
- Gloucester, Massachusetts
Date of Death:
- August 4, 1900
Place of Burial:
- Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati
Significance:
- Jacob Cox was born in Montreal, Canada, where his parents were living temporarily, on January 8, 1866.
- Jacob Cox spent his youth in New York City.
- At age 14, Jacob Cox worked as a clerk in a New York law office.
- At age 16 Jacob Cox learned bookkeeping working at a New York brokerage firm.
- Jacob Cox attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio where he graduated in 1850.
- Jacob Cox married widow Helen Clarissa Finney at Oberlin, Ohio in 1849.
- Jacob Cox served as superintendent of the Warren, Ohio school system.
- Jacob Cox was admitted to the Ohio bar in 1853.
- Jacob Cox helped organize the Ohio Republican Party in 1855.
- Jacob Cox was elected to the Ohio Senate in 1859.
- Jacob Cox accepted a commission a brigadier general in the Ohio Militia in 1860.
- When the Civil War began, Jacob Cox commanded Camp Jackson, in Columbus, Ohio.
- Jacob Cox commanded the Kanawha Brigade of the Department of the Ohio in 1861-1862.
- Jacob Cox fought in the Kanawha Valley Campaign in western Virginia under Major General George B. McClellan.
- Jacob Cox fought at the Battle of South Mountain (September 14, 1862) and at the Battle of Antietam (September 17, 1862).
- President Abraham Lincoln nominated Jacob Cox for promotion to major general in 1862, but Congress rejected the nomination because the Union Army had too many major generals.
- For most of 1863, Jacob Cox commanded the District of Ohio, and later the District of Michigan, in the Department of the Ohio
- During the Atlanta, Franklin-Nashville, and Carolinas campaigns of 1864–65, Jacob Cox commanded the 3rd Division of the 23rd Corps of the Army of the Ohio.
- Jacob Cox saved the center of the Union battle line at the Battle of Franklin in Tennessee (November 30, 1864).
- Jacob Cox was promoted to major general of volunteers on December 7, 1864.
- Jacob Cox was elected as the 28th governor of Ohio in November 1865, while still serving in the army.
- Jacob Cox mustered out of the army on January 1, 1866.
- Jacob Cox served as Ohio’s governor from 1866 to 1868.
- As governor of Ohio, Jacob Cox opposed giving African Americans the right to vote.
- Having lost the confidence of the Ohio Republican Party, Jacob Cox declined to be re-nominated for governor of Ohio in the election of 1867.
- Jacob Cox moved to Cincinnati in 1868 and practiced law.
- Jacob Cox served as Secretary of the Interior in the Grant administration from March 1869 to November 1870.
- Jacob Cox resigned as Secretary of the Interior in November 1870 because of differences with President Grant over patronage and civil service reform, which Cox advocated.
- Jacob Cox joined the Liberal Republican Party in 1872.
- Jacob Cox served as president of the Toledo and Wabash Railroad from 1873 to 1878.
- Jacob Cox was elected as a reform Republican to the United States House of Representatives from Toledo in 1876.
- Jacob Cox served as a trustee of Oberlin College from 1876 until 1900.
- Jacob Cox served a one term in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1877 to 1879 and declined to be re-nominated.
- Jacob Cox served as Dean of the Cincinnati Law School from 1881 to 1897.
- Jacob Cox served as President of the University of Cincinnati from 1885 to 1889.
- In 1897, Jacob Cox declined an offer from President William McKinley to serve as U.S. minister to Spain.
- During his later years, Jacob Cox authored numerous works about his experiences in the Civil War.
- Jacob Cox died while on summer vacation at Gloucester, Massachusetts on August 4, 1900.