Call Number:

SCRC 703

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

.2 linear feet (1 box)

Language:

English

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Cox Family papers, SCRC 703, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

1814-1932 (inclusive)

Creator:

Cox family

Form:

Clippings, Correspondence, Printed ephemera, Legal documents, and Photographs

Abstract:

The Cox family lived in West Philadelphia. Lydia Cox was the daughter of James and Sarah MacFarland, and married Joseph Cox in 1906. Joseph worked at the Warner Company in Philadelphia. They had three sons, Joseph, James and Perry. Perry attended American University in Washington, DC. Joseph died in December of 1941, after a six month illness.

The bulk of this collection consists of letters received by Lydia Cox from 1906 to 1932, many of which are from her son, Perry Cox, while he was a student at American University in Washington, DC. The letters discuss Perry's education, career plans and life as a student. He also discusses his relationship and plans to marry Mildred, who lived in Philadelphia and who also wrote letters to Lydia.

The collection includes a few portraits and snapshots, including three photographs of the Cox family. Other records in the collection include a variety of legal and personal records and ephemera. There is a record of the family marriages and births, a pastor card for Reverend Josiah Perry Cox, an envelope with Christmas postcards that was purchased around the 1930s to support unemployed families during the Great Depression, a fuel fund card that belonged to Sarah D. MacFarland, a W.J. McCahan Sugar Refining Company pocket notebook with family birthdays written in it, as well as newspaper clippings on the marriage of Josiah P. Cox to Mildred Sylvester and the death of Joseph B. Adams. There is a program and menu for the Oxford Fellowship's annual banquet at American University, a pamphlet from the Energetic Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, a program for morning worship service at the National Methodist Church, the last will and testament of James Douglass, the last will and testament of Sarah MacFarland, receipts for funeral expenses and a receipt for the purchase of a burial plot at Laurel Hill Cemetery. There is a record from the court of common pleas documenting the divorce of Mary E. Howshall and Henry Howshall, two copies of a deed for property in Suffolk County, New York, and a series of unattributed poems and musings.

The collection is in original order.