George Howland Cox was born in Fairhaven, Massachusetts, on October 9, 1854, the son of James Valentine Cox and Mercy Nye. He attended the United States Military Academy for one year before returning to New Bedford, Massachusetts, on account of ill health. He later moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he became a successful banker and served as president of the Cambridge Trust Company and as a member of the Massachusetts Armory Commission. He married New Bedford native Ella P. Whittemore on September 25, 1877; they had one son, George Howland Cox, Jr. (b. February 1880). George Howland Cox died on March 23, 1932.
From the guide to the George Howland Cox scrapbook, Cox, George Howland scrapbook, 1860-1928, 1860-1914, (William L. Clements Library, University of Michigan)
