Cox, William Ruffin

Life Span
to
    Full name
    William Ruffin Cox
    Place of Birth
    Birth Date Certainty
    Exact
    Death Date Certainty
    Exact
    Gender
    Male
    Race
    White
    Sectional choice
    South
    Origins
    Slave State
    Education
    Other
    Other Education
    Franklin College (TN); Lebanon College (TN)
    Occupation
    Attorney or Judge
    Farmer or Planter
    Businessman
    Other
    Other Occupation
    Secretary of the U.S. Senate
    Relation to Slavery
    Slaveholder
    Political Parties
    Democratic
    Other Affiliations
    Fire-Eaters (Secessionists)
    Government
    US House of Representatives
    State supreme court
    Military
    Confederate Army

    William Ruffin Cox (Congressional Biographical Directory)

    Reference
    COX, William Ruffin, a Representative from North Carolina; born in Scotland Neck, Halifax County, N.C., March 11, 1831; attended Vine Hill Academy in his native town; moved with his mother to Nashville, Tenn.; was graduated from Franklin College in 1851 and from the Lebanon College Law School in 1853; was admitted to the bar in 1853 and practiced in Nashville, Tenn., 1853-1857; returned to North Carolina in 1857 and engaged in agricultural pursuits in Edgecombe County; moved to Raleigh, N.C., in 1859; early in the Civil War entered the Confederate Army as major of the Second North Carolina State Troops; became brigadier general; resumed the practice of law at Raleigh, N.C., in 1865; solicitor of the sixth district 1866-1870; delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1868; judge of the superior court for the sixth district in 1877 and 1878, when he resigned; chairman of the Democratic State committee 1875-1877; elected as a Democrat to the Forty-seventh, Forty-eighth, and Forty-ninth Congresses (March 4, 1881-March 3, 1887); unsuccessful candidate for renomination; elected Secretary of the United States Senate April 6, 1893, qualified August 7, 1893, and served until January 31, 1900; resumed agricultural pursuits, with residence at Penelo, Edgecombe County, N.C.; president of the State agricultural society in 1900 and 1901; died in Richmond, Va., on December 26, 1919; interment in Oakwood Cemetery, Raleigh, N.C.
    "Cox, William Ruffin," Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774 to Present, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=C000841.
    How to Cite This Page: "Cox, William Ruffin," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/node/5485.