Henry Fox in St. Clair County, Michigan

I am pretty confident in stating the Joel Fox listed in the 1820 census for Deerfield, Oneida County, New York is my Joel Fox.  Everything fits together nicely with the obituary for Sarah Perry (transcribed in a previous post). Joel Fox is living near Utica, New York in 1820.  Sarah Ann Fox is born in 1821.  He is living next to Warner Forbes who had a daughter named Mary.  Joel Fox has a female in the household in the right age bracket for Mary Forbes, as she would have been 19 years old.

I started this series off with an image of the 1840 census for St. Clair County, Michigan.  William Perry, his wife Sarah Ann Fox and their son, James C. Perry are listed in the household.  I also highlighted the family of Henry Fox who was living a few houses down from William Perry.  Who is this Henry Fox?  Is he related to Sarah Ann Fox?  If so, how are they related?

The image to the left is a small clip from the History of Macomb County, Michigan.  I highlighted the parts of this biographical sketch which provide some clues to the identity of Henry Fox.  The sketch is for Winent Fox, who is a grandson of Henry Fox.  According to this sketch, Henry is the son of Joel Fox.  Henry is identified as being born in Connecticut in 1806.  It is also stated that Henry Fox immigrated to Michigan from New York in 1833.

Henry Fox marries Mary Avery and relocates to the Port Huron area of St. Clair County, Michigan.  This is where we find William Perry and a Henry Fox.  Is this Henry Fox the same Henry Fox described in this biographical sketch?  I submit to you that these Henry's are indeed the same person.

Another key piece of data is a mention that Henry has a brother who  also lived in Macomb County, named Gustavus A. Fox.  Gustavus was born in 1810 and lives a long life, dieing at the ripe old age of 94 years.  We will cover Gustavus in another post.





I copied a partial page of the 1850 census for the township of Clyde, St. Clair County, Michigan.  This is the same township William Perry and Henry Fox are living in, in the 1840 census.  Here we have Henry Fox and Mary his wife.  The oldest child, Lewis must be Henry L. from the sketch.  So now let's compare this 1850 census to the Henry Fox listed in the 1840 census.  

I have redisplayed the 1840 census record using the information from the 1850 census record to see if both of these records represent the same family.  The only individual that does not seem to be in the right age column is Henry Fox.  He should have been 34 and he is listed in the 40 to 50 age bracket.  Everyone else fits perfectly into the correct age groups.  My guess is Mary was probably pregnant with Oscar when the 1840 census was taken.

I feel confident in identifying Henry Fox, above, as the son of Joel Fox and a brother of Gustavus Fox.  Assuming the biographical sketch of his grandson is correct, Henry was born in Connecticut and came from New York to Michigan in 1833.  Before I start looking for him in 1830, I will cover Henry's younger brother Gustavus Fox...