John Kenney and John Goudy were the first settlers in Sugar Creek township, and John and James Goudy were the next, and after them came my father, Peter Cox, and then Samuel Cook, William Homan, and Rev. James Adams, who was the first preacher in the locality. William Homan was the first Justice of Peace, elected about 1826. At an early day an election was held where Sugar Creek, East Union, Baughman and Greene corner, and every man who attended it went home with two offices. The first school-house built was on the farm where I live, and Samuel Cook was the first man to teach school in Sugar Creek Township. It was a subscription school, and the rates were fifty cents per capita per month to the pupil, and in the absence of money most anything else received for pay. The first school-house erected in Dalton stood upon the site of the present cemetery, the first teacher being Peter Voohes. The first church (Presbyterian) was built near the south-west corner of the quarter now owned by S. Snavely, Samuel Arnold owning the land at that time, Rev. Adams being the first minister. This was the first church built in the town or township. William Goudy built the first grist-mill on lands now owned by John Cully three miles south-west of Dalton. It was constructed of logs, had one run of burrs, made of niggerheads, the neighbors helping to dig the race. It was built in 1823-24. William Goudy and Sarah Bates were probably the first couple married in the township in 1815. John Kenney’s wife was the first woman buried in the Presbyterian graveyard west of Dalton.

Jacob Cox was born in Fayette County, Pennsylvania August 29, 1801. His father Peter Cox was a farmer and a native of Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River, and was born in 1775. His grandfather emigrated at an early date from Hamburg, Germany, and after his arrival, as was the usage, was sold, his period of servitude being seven years, during which time he made three unsuccessful efforts to escape. When he crossed the Allegheny mountains to settle in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, he had six children, two of whom, Peter, the father of Jacob, and a sister, were packed in wallets, one in one end and one in the other, and placed on horseback.

Peter and his family, on their removal to Ohio, temporarily located in Stark county in 1814, and in October of the same year they removed to Wayne county, although he had been to the premises before harvest and erected a cabin on the farm--one hundred and sixty acres which his father had previously entered. Peter died in 1841.

Jacob Cox married to Jane Denman, of Ten-Mile, Washington county, Pennsylvania, December 4, 1823, and had nine children, eight of whom are living. Their fiftieth bridal was celebrated December 4, 1873, at which their eight children, with their families, were present. His wife died April 18, 1874. For his years, Mr. Cox is quite a remarkable man, never having had a fever, never having taken but two portions of medicine, and never in bed sick only when he had the measles.