In early January of 1922 the town of Hartford in south Sebastian County was still a hustling and bustling place.
Coal mining, which started throughout the region not long before the turn of the century, had turned the town intoa melting pot of Germans, Greeks, and Polish immigrants who gravitated to the mining concerns and worked long and strenuous hours below ground.
But there were also plenty of local residents who helped bring up the "Black Gold" from the fertile mining fields. Just eight years removed from the infamous Bache Mining War that had erupted between union and non-union forces, the town, which had grown to 4,000 in population, was on the downside of it's boom.
In 1920, Hartford had eight doctors, a hospital, two dentists, several lawyers, three livery stables, three drug stores, several restaurants and saloons, two hotels, two movie theaters, and nine different churches.
An eight room brick building provided education for 12 grades for public school. Sixteen different coal mines operated within seven miles of Hartford, including three within the city limits.
John Cox, a 55-year-old itinerant worker who had spent time in Kansas before finally landing in Hartford between 1895 and 1898, was born in Pennsylvania in 1867. He and his wife Fannie Elizabeth Fox (Cox) along with their two first children, settled in an area in the outskirts of Hartford where they added four more children to their brood between 1898 and 1907.
Described in contemporary newspapers at the time as a "rather attractive brunette woman" 48-year-old Fannie may (or may not) have "spent time" with other men while her husband was hard at work.
That alleged flaw in her character, combined with what has been described as incessant drinking by her husband, combined to spell death and disaster to Fannie and serious injury to a Mansfield man who may or may not have been her lover.
On January 10, in a drunken state and sure that his wife was seeing other men, Cox hid out two blocks from his home. Cox later said in the three months prior to the incident a 66-year-old Mansfield merchant by the name of E. G. Fuller had made frequent trips to the Cox home to visit Fannie.
At about 1:00 p.m. on the day in question, Fuller pulled up to the gate in front of Cox's house, tied his horse at the gate, and went into the house. Cox, who was armed with a revolver, rushed into the dwelling moments later.
Finding Fannie and Fuller in a room alone, Cox opened fire on his wife, shooting her through the lung and arm. He then turned the gun on Fuller and wounded him on the left side near his heart.
Fuller ran into the yard with Cox firing at him as he fled.
The shooting occurred while one of the couples 11-year-old sons was in the other room.
There are also conflicting reports that the home was in Hartford but actually it was located in the Diamond Township just on the edge of town.
Fannie was taken to one of the nearby hospitals in critical condition. Doctors said they figured she would not recover and the day after the shooting Justice Will Horn took her deposition on what they thought was her death bed.
Fannie's version of the incident differed from her husband's. She said there was nothing wrong in her relations with Fuller. She claimed they were just friends and he had stopped in to get a drink of water.
But, in that same deposition she gave the name of another man, Graham Harper of Mansfield, as the person she had been "keeping company with".
So either Fannie was getting around a lot or her husband had just shot an innocent, thirsty man.
Fuller, described as a married man with a large family, recovered from his wounds. There is little or no record of him in Sebastian County after the 1922 shooting.
Fannie wasn't so lucky. As sometime happens in these historical reviews, the final date of her death was reported on Grave Search as being eight days after the shooting. But, as established by information on the same page, she actually held on to life for several weeks before finally passing away.
Cox, who apparently like to pull a cork on occasion, showed little remorse about the shooting. While at the scene of the crime Cox told Deputy Sheriff John Claiborne "I would be satisfied now if I could just get that other fellow", indicating that he thought Fannie just might be lying about the "drink of water" story.
He also told officers that Fuller had been to his house twice before the day of the shooting and that he had warned him of the consequences if he did not stay away.
"When he came the third time I decided it was time to act. I shot them and I plead the unwritten law in defending my home", Cox said
Despite hours of research, there is little or nothing to be found about the legal ramifications levied against Cox for what he did. The "unwritten rule", which was utilized a lot back in those days against philanderers and adulterers, seems to have served him well. There is no record of him going to jail, other than the short stay immediately after the shooting.
Cox lived another thirteen. years after the shooting. Described in newspaper accounts as a "drayman" for one of the local mines, he married Ruth Crabtree Porter and continued to work in the coal industry.
He died on Christmas Day, 1935 of alcohol poisoning after spending the day drinking with friends. His name is etched on the coal miners memorial wall in Greenwood and he is buried in the Huntington Cemetery.
The only memorial ever erected to Fannie is her simple headstone located in the same cemetery as her killer.
