Samuel Cox – 7 Apr 1790 – 14 Oct 1861.
Born in Tennessee.  He married Elizabeth (last name unknown, possibly Counts) about 1836.  She was his second wife.  By his first (unknown) wife he had John (b. @1828, TN) and Susan (b. @ 1829, TN).  With Elizabeth he had Frederick (b. @ 1838, MS), William (b @ 1840, MS), Mary (b. @ 1841, MS), James K. Polk (b. @ 1844, MS).  He is listed in the 1850 (p. 387) and 1860 (p. 29) DeSoto County Census records.  Son, William Cox, served in Co. F, 22nd Mississippi Regiment and was killed at Peach Tree Creek, GA on July 20, 1864.  Son, James K. Polk Cox, served in Co. F, 18th Mississippi Cavalry.

Mary Shackleford – 12 January 1838 – 4 Sept 1878.
Born in Georgia, she married John J. Shackleford (often spelled Shackelford) about 1853 in either Elbert or Gordon County, Georgia.  John was the son of Starling M. Shackelford and Mary Frances Higginbotham, and was born in 1836 in Elbert County, Georgia.  Mary and John are listed in the 1860 Fayette County, Alabama Census (p. 519).  John was a Confederate soldier, serving in Co. I, 43rd Alabama Regiment along with brothers George, Andrew and Thomas.  He died during the war.  (Once source says he died November 29, 1863 in a hospital in Macon, GA and another says he was killed on May 16, 1864 at Drewry’s Bluff, near Richmond, VA.)  Mary is listed with her children in the 1870 Marshall County, MS Census (pp. 445 & 446).  She and John were the parents of five children: William A. (1854, GA – 1949, MS – buried in Oak Grove Church Cemetery), James (1857, GA), Gordie (f) (1861, AL), John H. (1862, AL), and Thomas Finus (26 Oct 1863, AL).  The children are listed together in the 1880 DeSoto Census (p. 512).