Genealogy Trails
The Paternal Fox Line
Benjamin Kendrick Fox 1772-1842
Married first, Martha Norvell 1771-1799 on May 9, 1792
Martha was born 1771 in Virginia and bore Benjamin first a daughter, Nancy Norvell Fox (Chaffin) July 29, 1793 and second a son named, Nicholas whose birth is only identified as 1796 by the Millennium File.
Married second, Elizabeth Anderson, 1778-1846, Aug 20, 1799
Elizabeth bore Benjamin eight additional children who share DNA with James Fox Jr..
In the few documents and books that cite the name of Benjamin Fox, he is always listed as a son of William Fox and his wife Mary (Kendrick). DNA broke through 240 years of misdirection, but has more yet to reveal.
His peculiar dual residency in Kentucky and Tennessee might have something to do with the physical and possible emotional distance between his eldest son Nicholas of his first wife Martha Norvell, who remained in Knox Co, KY and the children Benjamin had with second wife Elizabeth Anderson who all remained in Flynn’s Lick, TN.
Benjamin has many descendants that remain in Tennessee. The author shares DNA to they and their families.
Nicholas Fox 1796-btw 1845-1850
Married Mary Sara Hammack 1796-1852
The couples children;
Unnamed daughter 1815
Susan Fox (Moore) 1815-1870
Unnamed daughter 1820
Ephraim Fox 1822-1899
Unnamed son 1825
Phoebe Fox (Bunch) 1826-1913
Ann Fox (Mendenhall) 1829-1884
Nancy Jane Fox (Bunch-Wilkinson) 1834-1917
John Madison Fox 1837-1898
William J Fox 1840-1917
Charles Nicholas 1842-1913
Though Benjamin sired the family, it was Nicholas that pulled up stakes in Knox County, KY and moved the family to Linn County, MO. Nicholas Fox is nearly as mysterious as his father Benjamin. He had few documents generated in his life or is death. Judging from citations that exist, he passed between a land deed he signed in 1844 and the 1850 census for Macon County, MO in which his family is listed without him. The Millennial File is the only indication he was the son of Benjamin Fox. It simply states he was born in Virginia. It took DNA to prove the lineage.
Ephraim Fox 1822-1899
The best description of Ephraim Fox, was given on this application for an Indian War pension. Note the signature of the first witness, Nauve Rice. (Courtesy of Bev Moltzau)
The Oregon Bibliographical, and Other Index Card File, 1700’s to 1900’s held at the Oregon Historical Society in Portland, Oregon might be the second most informing document on Eph. It lists his birth was March 14, 1822, in Barboursville, Knox County, KY and came overland from Missouri in 1852. In the remarks Ephraim states that he was in the Rogue River Indian War 1855/56; that he with five others, packed out Nauve Rice (who later would sign as witness on Eph’s pension application) who he said was shot in the thigh and was a very heavy man. The snow was knee deep and there was nothing to eat. They packed the litter bearing Nauve for 2 1/2 days. The author established the pair shared a close friendship until they died of old age.
Through Ancestry.com, I was able to contact a relative of Nauve’s to let them know who one of the men was that packed their granddad out when he was wounded in the Rogue River Indian War. Since this information was recorded by Ephraim in his Oregon Biographical Index, there would have been little chance the family would have ever found that information. It feels so good to find these things and share them!!
Though no documents record the marriage, Ephraim's eldest son, Andrew Jackson Fox always claimed his mother was a Turner. She has never been identified. See Jimmy's Most Wanted in the menu for more on this mystery.
Married first Frances Louisa (Lucy) Wells 1827-1870 on Sep 17, 1846
Ephraim’s eldest son, Andrew was two years old when Lucy married Ephraim. She gave him six children;
George Fox 1849-unknown
James Marion Fox 1853-unknown
Anna Missouri Fox (Barnard) 1856-1930
Laura Jane Fox (Hearing) 1860-1934
Angenette Rebecca “Nettie” Fox (Hearing) 1862-1945
Mary Catherine Fox (Barnard-Mowery) 1865-1936
Second Marriage Nancy Elizabeth "Liz" Johnson 1846-1900 on Jan 23, 1871
Liz bore Eph five children;
John Wesley Fox 1871-1913
Charles Simpson Fox 1871-1957
William Marshall Fox 1875-1940
Mary Belle Fox (Moore-Hawk) 1879-1952
Viola Catherine Fox (Keeney)1882-1948
Andrew Jackson Fox 1844-1907
Married Irene Claressa Barnes 1853-1941
Irene bore Andrew three sons;
John Lee Fox 1870-1906
James Monroe Fox 1872-1959
Charles Guy “Clyde” Fox 1881-1951
Born in Missouri in 1844, the identity of his mother often identified as ‘Turner’ remains an enduring mystery. Eight years old when he walked across the plains, Andrew lived most of his adult life in Albany, where he worked mainly in mills. He was married to Irene Clarressa Barnes. The couple had three sons; John Lee born 1870, James Monroe born 1872 and Charles “Clyde” Guy Fox, born 1881.
He passed away at only 63 years old and was buried in Albany.
James Monroe Fox 1872-1959
Married first Ocorra Syvilla Baltimore (Fox-Rambo-Williams) 1875-1923 on Mar 16, 1893
Orra as she was known, bore Grandpa Jim two children;
Arrilla Beatrice Fox (Wilson) 1894-1969
Royal Hobart Fox 1899-1961
Second marriage to Ida May Anderson 1886-1966. No children
Third marriage to Lyda Cordelia "Cordia" O'Neil-Gourley-Fox 1880-1965. No children
Born in Jacksonville, Jackson County, Oregon, James, known as Jim, was reasonably successful in the livery stable business, until Henry Ford made his profession obsolete.
Jim, like his great great grandfather Benjamin, was a man who harbored secrets that I don’t believe his grandson (my father), was ever aware of. I wonder at what Dad’s reaction would be to the revelations.
Royal Hobart Fox 1899-1961
Married first, Velma Josephine Bailey 1904-1996 on June 12, 1920
The couple had one son; Hobart Clyde “Hobie” Fox 1922-2015
Married second Bessie Gitchell 1907-1993 on Mar 9, 1927
Bessie and Royal had two children;
Lucille Marie Fox (Christy-Rick) 1928-1982
James Royal Fox, Sr.
Royal Hobart Fox was born in Tennessee, Oregon, a tiny unincorporated town very near Albany. He got a charge out of telling people he was from Tennessee. It was necessary that Grandpa get a job as a very young man. He, like his father Jim, commonly found work in saw mills. Eventually he made a living from the farm that his mother bought in 1922, that is still known as the Fox farm. Grandpa had a fine team of horses he worked the farm with.
Grandpa and my father were very close and his death was the kind of life changing event for my father that his death would someday be for me.
James Royal Fox, Sr. 1931-2011
My father was born in the homestead that once stood in my front yard. Like his father and grandfather, he found work in saw mills for a while in his youth. Eventually he was presented with the opportunity to purchase a roadside grocery and gas station. When the road in front was widened, eminent domain was used by the state government to make him an offer he really could not refuse. He never made a living as a logger, but he knew his way around the riggin’ and cut massive amounts of firewood throughout his life. He was a farmer with a soft heart and he like his father, was a crack shot with a rifle. He bought another grocery store and for a while, he ran both a dairy farm and the grocery. In time he sold the farm and then sold me the family grocery. For a while after that he worked for the Tillamook County Dairy Herd Improvement Program, where as an old farmer himself, was right at home among his peers. He passed away in his home on the Fox farm in 2011, not 50 yards from where he’d been born.
James Royal Fox, Jr. 1965-
Loving son, proud patriot
Maternal Lines
Please note these maiden names of the wives of the Fox paternal line. If you find, we are distant cousins please reach out! My family would love to share our pictures and hope you will too!!
Keep in mind, photography was introduced in the U.S. in 1839 as a daguerreotype
If there are photographs or items of interest that yet survive, they likely are held in families whose last names are;
Hammack (Mary Sara), wife of Ephraim Fox.
Johnson (Nancy Elizabeth ‘Liz’), second wife of Ephraim Fox. Daughter of Oregon pioneer John Johnson.
Bunch (Phoebe and Nancy Jane Fox, daughters of Mary Sara Hammack-Fox, married Bunch brothers George and James, respectively),
Baltimore (Orra), married James Monroe Fox, had one daughter; Arrilla Fox-Wilson
Mendenhall, (Ann Fox) married Jesse Mendenhall
Moore, (Susan Fox) married Martin A Moore
Overholser,(Phoebe), mother of Orra Baltimore, wife of Wesley Umatilla Baltimore