Halloween Appropriate Story: Walking on Philip Cox’s Grave
Philip Cox: 1677-1736
Years ago, when someone experienced a sudden chill that made
them shiver, they would say that either a cat or “someone” had “walked over
their grave”. The phrase meant that someone had stepped on the ground where
they would eventually be buried. Poor Philip Cox must have been shivering for
decades in his grave, as his headstone ended up as part of someone’s front walk
where people stepped on it daily!
Philip Cox was the husband of my first cousin eight-times-removed
Dorcas Hull. Philip was born in England in 1677 to a merchant tailor named
Isaac Cox. He immigrated to New Jersey sometime before 1700, marrying Dorcas
Hull before 1702. The couple had at least six children, and owned a sizable
farm in Middlesex, New Jersey.
Philip died July 12 or 13, 1736. He left a decent estate,
including money and land which was divided between his surviving sons Philip Jr.
and Phineas. The family apparently buried Philip on the Cox farm in a family
burial ground rather than in a dedicated cemetery. This would help to explain
what happened to his headstone years later, after his descendants had sold the
farm:
“In 1947 Charles C. Gardner, a genealogist, recorded this information about his tombstone:
‘On the farm of Mr. Thomas at Springdale, on N. side of road from Warrenville to Martinsville in use as part of a walk by kitchen door: philup cox July ye 12 1736.’”
I surmise that Mr. Thomas was the most recent owner of the
old Cox family property, and lacking all respect for the graves of the Cox
family, made use of the headstones as stepping stones near his kitchen door.
Three years later in 1950, Philip Cox’s
fifth-great-granddaughter Grace Hendrickson Riddle, “discovered his marker in
the sidewalk at the Fred Dilzell house, 155 Washington Valley Road. After
chalking the inscription, she took the picture shown here, the only one known
to exist.” Sadly, I have been unable to find the referenced photo.
Less than a decade later, the stone had either been removed
or had become so worn that it was no longer identifiable as a headstone, for
subsequent efforts to find it failed.
I find it rather horrifying that the people in this town had
so little respect for the dead that they could stomp over a headstone every day
without a single qualm. Even if Mr. Cox was not one of their ancestors, the
dead deserve more respect.
With the stone being hauled around for use in at least two
households’ walkways, the actual location of the grave was obviously lost. Who
knows how many people are unknowingly walking over Philip Cox’s grave every
day? Or how many cars are driving over him? The blog embersoftheflame.com, run by Steve
Cox, provided more information on the possible location of Philip Cox’s
remains:
“According to Crane, there were tombstone inscriptions made
by Charles Gardner in 1947. One read, “Philup Cox, July, ye 12, 1736.” The
second one read, “In memory of Philip Cox who died Sept 19, 1785, aged 80
years.” Two witnesses remembered seeing the stones, Mrs Hazel Mundy and Donald
Freiday. Mrs. Munday believed the stones were originally back to back, and that
the cemetery was probably on the north bank of the Mountain Boulevard Extension
at the intersection with 155 Washington Valley Road. The tombstones have
disappeared, and Crane discovered that local people believe the cemetery is
buried underneath Mountain Boulevard Extension. This would be the most likely
place to find the property where Phillip was living at his death.”
 |
| Map of Mountain Blvd. Extension--Cox Burial Ground Likely beneath the road |
So poor Philip and any other members of his family who were unfortunate enough to be buried in the Cox Burial Ground are probably beneath a freeway entrance in Warren, New Jersey. There is no indication that the burials were properly removed and reinterred during construction of the road. Since the headstones had already been removed by community members before the road construction occurred, the construction company may have had no idea that they were digging through a family cemetery. While his grave is lost, at least Philip will be remembered as part of my family tree.
Sources:
PHILLIP COX FAMILY AMONG EARLIEST SETTLERS IN "THE BLUE HILLS"[From Warren History Vol Two, No. 8, Fall 1997] http://warrennj.org/wths/cox2.htm
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