Vol. V, No. 4, Spring 1992

Britain-Cox Family


Information kindly provided by Kitty Cox Lipscomb, granddaughter of Amanda Belle Britain Cox. Photograph from the Center for Ozarks Studies Collection.

Britain family picnic, about 1896, near Republic, Greene County, Missouri. Site is the farm of George Washington Britain Jr. and Betsy Ann Bailey Britain, seated left foreground.

Cox Family
Amanda Belle Britain Cox, a daughter (standing, sixth from left, wearing white blouse), was founder of Hood Methodist Church in Republic (a Greene County Historic Site); and is remembered for her

leadership in the canning of vegetables and the making of quilts for Burge Deaconess Hospital in Springfield. Her son, Lester E. Cox, continued her interest in assisting the hospital, and was a chief motivator and enabler in its development. In his honor it is now the Lester E. Cox Medical Centers.

Her mother, Betsy Ann Britain, was known as "the children's doctor." Skilled in the art of natural medicines, she rode her horse with saddle-bags throughout the countryside to tend sick children. Amanda Belle doubtless gained her interest in healing from her mother.

Father George Washington Britain was the son of Tennessee immigrants to Greene County in the 1850s. He and four brothers were orphaned in childhood, and were "bound out" by the County families. As "bond boys" they served their masters until age 21. They were to receive education in reading, writing, arithmetic and "80 acres," i.e. the government land price, @$1.25. George Washington, brother Marquis Lafayette, and the others eventually accumulated large farms, many of which remain in the families to the present.

The James M. Cox home, Main Street, Republic, MO, Ca. 1904. At left are James M. and Amanda Belle Britain Cox. Nine-year old Lester E. Cox with his first coronet, a gift from his mother, sits on his uncle's knee.

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