[2] His paternal grandfather, George Cox, immigrated from London, England, in 1817 and founded a dry goods store in Maysville, Kentucky, in 1819.

[2][4] In 1880, Cox married Susan E. Farrow, niece of the Chief Justice Peters of the Kentucky Court of Appeals.

[1] Cox was a delegate to the 1892 Republican National Convention that nominated Benjamin Harrison for a second term as President of the United States.

[1] Cox was elected to represent Mason and Lewis counties in the Kentucky Senate.

[1] In 1906, he received every Republican vote in the legislature for election to the United States Senate, but lost to Democrat Thomas H.