I started my research with what I knew...that my grandfather, Berry Green Fox was raised in Del Rio, Cocke County, Tennessee. My great grandfather had lived in Del Rio, Cocke County, Tennessee...his name was Nick or N.B. Fox, Nick was short for Nicademus , so my grandmother thought..she loved Bible names, she would always love to relate the story of Nicademus and Jesus to me.
Thru research of Marriage and Death Records for Cocke County, Tennessee, I found that he went by Nicademus, even tho his real name in the 1870 & 1880 Census Records was Nicholas Brown Fox, (b.September 8, 1855 - d.November 28, 1924) that he was married on August 14, 1882 to Sidney Emaline Reece, (b.1862 - d. July 10, 1937) , who was the mother of Berry Green Fox. I also found that Nicholas had been married prior to Elvira Jane Woody (b. 1855 d. 1881) of Del Rio, Cocke County, Tennessee.. That they had one child , Mary Jane Fox (b.August 30, 1877 d.September 4, 1957) . Elvira Jane had died at childbirth with their second child...
Sidney had raised Mary Jane, because Sidney had known Elvira Jane Woody... Sidney's parents, Alfred and Elizabeth Reece had lived in the mountainous Del Rio area near the parents of Elvira Jane; George and Edie Woody .
I found out that Nicholas' parents were Thomas Fox and Mary Ann Brown. Marriage records show that Thomas Fox married Mary Ann Brown in Washington County, Tennessee on April 19, 1854. Mary Ann, (b. abt. 1829 - 1837) was the daughter of John Wesley Brown, (d. December 1, 1849) and Margaret Kincheloe of Washington County, Tennessee.
In the 1860 Census, I found them living in Jefferson County, Tennessee with 2 children, Nicholas and Margaret.
I do not know if Thomas fought in the Civil War.
In the 1870 Census , I found them living in Sevier County, Tennessee, with 4 children, Nicholas, Margaret, William Thomas, and Martha.
I went to the Property records of Sevier County, District 2, and found that on December 8, 1866, Thomas had bought 200 acres on Webbs Creek next to Pinnacle Mountain from A.J. Kelley.
In the 1880 Mortality Schedule, I found that Martha, the youngest child of Thomas and Mary Ann had died of diptheria in Sevier County, Tennessee at the age of 14.
I have not found where Margaret went to...? Did she die or get married... or did she move somewhere with family?
Still the mystery of the ship voyage puzzled me...Was it Thomas? Finally a break came when I found a Ship record of Irish Potatoe Famine Immigrants to New York City. On March 13, 1848, Thomas Fox, age 26, (b.1822), and a brother named, Francis Fox, age 35, along with a sister named, Catherine, age 16, left Liverpool, England and arrived in the United States at New York harbor aboard the ship "Channing" on April 17, 1848.
Francis was married to Mary, age 33, and had two sons,
Pat, age 7, and Francis, age 4.
Thomas,Francis, and Catherine had left Kilglass Parish, Roscommon County, Ireland, because they were evicted by the Crown of England. The Potatoe Famine had prevented them from making enough money to pay the rents on the land they farmed. According to ship journals, they were some of the very last to leave Kilglass and didn't want to leave their homeland of Ireland.
By tracing records of William Thomas Fox and Nancy Ann Matilda Ramsey and their children who left the Webbs Creek Area around 1910 , I have found several cousins who live in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. They hold a reunion every year on the 3rd weekend of July often at the Davy Crockett State Park.
I have yet to find the graves of Thomas, Mary Ann, and Martha . I feel that they are inside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park Boundaries south of Webbs Creek at the head waters of Noisy Creek on Greenbriar Pinnacle where the old homestead was located according to land records.
I am still looking for records of Francis and Catherine Fox, they are perhaps in New York records.
I will be forever researching my family, anyone who knows anything of interest should contact me at my residence in Sevierville, Tennessee.
Ray Phillips
121 Joy Street
Sevierville, Tennessee 37862
(423) 428-0316 home phone and fax
Email: rl5ever@planetc.com or
rlphillips@hotmail.com
Compiled on November 10, 1996