For some reason or other, the boy attended school in Middletown for only a year. I think he did not graduate. Perhaps they did not have graduations in those days. The school, however, was the best in that section of the country. The old farmers tell me it was called the "Gilt Edge School" by the taxpayers, because it always required so much money. Certainly it paid good wages for such days, as the records show that Mr. Baker got one hundred dollars a month. It contained three large rooms.
In short, Mr. Cox's boyhood was similar to that of most boys brought up on a farm. The magazine writers like to embellish it with tales of misfortune and struggle; but the facts do not justify such stories. He had a fair chance and was especially fortunate in receiving the help which came from his brother-in-law, Mr. Baker.
James M. Cox's earliest recollection is of being set on the kitchen floor inside of a big old-fashioned horse collar. This enabled him to play and crawl around without getting into mischief while his mother did the house work. When I spoke of the incident to one of his own neighbors, the neighbor grunted and said to me:
"Guess they put Jimmy in the horse collar so he would get used to one. He was usually getting one on or off an old horse. Certainly if any boy was brought up to work, Jimmy Cox was."
Upon leaving the Amanda School, the boy did not go back to the farm. He was determined to get to work, and was willing to do almost anything else, honorable, in order to get a start. He earned money at several odd jobs. He acted as tutor, as janitor, as newsboy and as printer's devil. His first regular work after leaving school was teaching in "the little red school house." Many thought he would be a school teacher for life, being so much interested in history, geography and other subjects. He seemed to have a natural knack for seeking the truth and teaching it to others. Those who remember him say that he stood for more liberty than did the other teachers and allowed the scholars more freedom. On the other hand, they say, he took much more pains in explaining to the boys and girls what is right and what is wrong. In those days, school teaching was more of a physical than an intellectual task. Corporal punishment was in vogue, and a school teacher was supposed not to argue but to rule with the aid of a rod. Cox disagreed with this custom and preferred the now accepted methods of teaching. Instead of relying for discipline upon a piece of bamboo, he appealed to the hearts and the reason of his scholars.