John Isaac Cox
Governor John Cox constitutionally inherited his position as Tennessee's chief executive when Governor James Frazier (1903-5) resigned the office to assume the U.S. Senate seat of the late William B. Bate. Before becoming governor, Cox was a consummate public official, serving as Bristol's city attorney, a Sullivan County judge, and a member of the state's general assembly in both houses for thirty-two consecutive years.
Cox hailed from a distinguished Jamestown family but grew up in poverty after his father, Henry W. Cox, was killed while fighting for the Confederacy. Orphaned at age eight, Cox struggled to support his mother, two sisters, and brother during the hard years of Reconstruction. His mother's perseverance during times of financial difficulty strongly shaped Cox's bootstrap ethic. Among other duties, Cox's work included carrying mail at age sixteen and serving as justice of the peace at age twenty-one, burdens that sharply constrained any attempt at formal education. Engaged mostly in private study, Cox attended Blountville's Jefferson Academy for two terms and later studied law in the office of Judge W. V. Deaderick. Cox married Lorena Butler, the educated daughter of a former Confederate army surgeon, in 1905.
During his gubernatorial administration, Cox acquired a reputation for fiscal prudence and general economic conservatism. His earlier success as county judge in reducing Sullivan County's twenty-thousand-dollar debt as well as in lowering the county's tax rate made him popular among business interests. As governor, Cox described as one of his greatest accomplishments the dispatching of state troops to protect replacement workers during a Tracy City coal strike, an action that merited predictably little support among labor groups. Other major events during his two-year stint included a renewed attack on yellow fever and the adoption of Lee Roy Reeves's state flag. Cox also lobbied to improve the pensions of Civil War veterans and widows, an effort, no doubt, cemented by his mother's hardships, and one he continued even after leaving office.
After losing a bid for a second gubernatorial term to Malcolm Patterson in 1907, Cox resumed a career in the state Senate until retirement in 1912. Cox spent most of his retirement overseeing his six-hundred-acre farm in Bristol, periodically furnishing vocal support for various Tennessee politicians including Memphis political boss E. H. Crump. At the national level, the former governor was an ardent supporter of Franklin Roosevelt and his TVA initiatives.
Suffering with a kidney ailment, Cox died at age ninety in Abingdon, Virginia. In one of his last interviews, he attributed his longevity to his temperate lifestyle, asserting a personal conservatism that closely mirrored his public governing style.
