211. Mrs. Wilson Cox, Foster Mother To 40.

RCHS Blog Post Number 211.  

Mrs. Wilson Cox, Foster Mother To 40

Winchester News-Gazette, April 8, 1971.

By Roger Mitchell.

  With respect to practical knowledge in rearing foster children, there may be no better authority than Mrs. Wilson COX. Mrs. Cox, now 80 years of age, has since 1911 been a foster mother of nearly 40 children. The octogenarian's farm, located three miles north of Winchester, is quieter now than when there were as many as 13 children simultaneously romping about vying for attention.

  Now her labors are directed toward a single 16 year-old boy, who will probably be her last parental experience, and a young married couple with two infants who are now living in a nearby house also located on the Cox farm. The mother of the infants is one of the dozens who have been welcomed into the Cox home as foster children.

  "I'm coming to the end of my work," said Mrs. Cox, "but I've lived a life from which I may reap benefits in the hereafter and am surely reaping now." Her last "son" will probably leave within two years and when he does, it will bring to a close a 60-year endeavor filled with a unique mixture of human emotions.

  The years were not all joy. Much sacrifice, dedication and patience were demanded. Her strength to continue was greatly tested in 1969 with the passing away of her husband, her marriage companion for 51 years. Each child posed for her a new awareness of a need for affection, comfort and love.

  All the children came from a tragic background; some were diseased, some undernourished, and some neglected. The first days of each experience were spent by Mrs. Cox and her husband restoring health and assuring security.

  The Coxes would patiently await the day that a child would begin to laugh and speak and drop the defenses which denied love and trust. Then began the task of guiding each toward independence.

  Eventually the day of mixed emotions arrived, the day of separation between foster child and foster parents. The foster mother described the day of departure as one of sorrow for the leaving and of joy for a task completed.

  In the words of one of her cherished children, "Living here has meant a home which I would have never have had and when in school, I had clothes that were as nice as anyone's. It has helped me to appreciate my own children and to try very hard to make them happy."

  The young lady who is quoted above first came to Mrs. Cox with lice in her hair and coal embedded in her skin. She was lean and sickly to the point of nearly dying. A picture of the girl taken a few months after she arrived at the Cox farm reveals a plump, smiling, bright eyed child. She is now a housewife and the mother of two.

  Mrs. Cox would be the first to say that not every fostering experience since 1911 was successful. She said that the situations of the children she has raised have often created lasting problems which no environment could eradicate.

  Many of her foster children were perpetually harassed with unpleasant memories of the past. Some of the children's parents, after several months or years of absence, visited the Cox farm for the purpose of coaxing the children to return home. In some instances, Mrs. Cox found it to disallow certain parents' visits because of their affect on the child.

  Persisting problems springing out of the past, plus certain hereditary factors are, according to Mrs. Cox, "problems which can not be solved by environment alone."

  Mrs. Cox said that many of her foster children have left school at an early age. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is reflected in the thoughts of a former foster child who said she did not think she could make friends with someone who knew that she was a foster child. She felt that they would not accept her as they would a "normal" child.

  The children who did not finish school often married at an early age. Mrs. Cox said that all but three of her foster children were girls. Of the girls who quit school, almost all are now married and are functioning as housewives and mothers.

  Many of the Cox foster children still keep in touch with their foster mother now that they are independent. They often write letters and return to their former home. At least five return each year for an annual Mother's Day reunion.

  Mrs. Cox herself was a child from an unfortunate background. She and her two younger sisters lost their father when she was only six. This, she says, probably influenced her to dedicate 75 percent of her life to the lives of other unfortunate children.

  Since 1911, Mrs. Cox has found her own fortune in the fruits of her compassion. She displays a religion which has been the routine of her life and the key to her strength. A more fitting summation of her life could not be made than her own conviction, that her lifetime of love and dedication may be rewarded in the hereafter--but has certainly been rewarded in this world.

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Would you like a book to learn more about local history? 

Randolph County, Indiana 1818-1990
Commonly referred to as "The Red History Book"
Compiled by the Randolph County Historical Society, 1991, Second reprint 2003.

To obtain your own copy of "The Red History Book" stop in at The RCHS Museum Shop or send an email to arrange placing a mail order.

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