Joe Cox was born in Dickson County, Tenn., October 7, 1832, and is the eldest of five children born to William and Amelia (Brown) Cox. The father was born in this county and State in 1810, and the mother in Uniontown, Penn., in 1802. At the age of twenty years our subject went to Missouri, where he engaged in farming for four years, at the expiration of which time he went to California and engaged in teaming, mining and farming. After remaining there thirteen years he returned to Tennessee, in 1869, and engaged in farming, which occupation he still follows. In 1871 he took a trip through some of the Western States, but remained only a short time, when he returned. Politically he is a Democrat, and a man of good standing in his community.