Shortly before his 100th birthday, James O. Cox visited the Porter County Historical Museum (now the PoCo Muse) to reminisce about Chautauqua desks. Cox donated the desk, at right, to the museum. He is holding a salesman’s sample of the product, which was manufactured in Valparaiso by the Lewis E. Myers & Company. A variety of educational scrolls were designed to be used with the desk.
This story by Mary Henrichs appeared in The Vidette-Messenger on September 21, 1981.
“It takes nerve to sell goods – to go out in public and sell. I had to sell or starve.”
James O. Cox of 302 Madison (in Valparaiso) was referring to his career as a salesman of Chautauqua desks which were manufactured in Valparaiso before 1930.
Cox, who will be 100 years old on Sept. 30 (1981), “arrived at Otterbein College in Westerville, Ohio in 1905 with $2.92 in my pocket.”
He took odd jobs to support himself, but his big break came during his freshman year when he learned about Chautauqua desks.
Lewis E. Myers was recruiting fellow college students to sell the desk door-to-door and “as soon as I saw the Chautauqua desk, I knew I could sell it,” said Cox, who got the Wadsworth, Ohio, area as his territory.
The design of the desk, which was hung on the wall at the proper height for the child using it, originated with O. H. Powers, who was influenced by “chalk-talks” at Lake Chautauqua, N. Y.
Powers was impressed with how strongly a lecturer using charts and chalkboard could affect large audiences and he decided to develop educational scrolls for children to use at home, Cox said.
The scrolls consisted mainly of drawings (furniture, toys, animals, plants, people), numbers, letters, geometric shapes and music scales which children could copy.
The desks to which the scrolls were attached also featured a blackboard; a rack for storing books, papers and pencils; and a United States map showing the agricultural and industrial products of each region.
“To my way of thinking, the Chautauqua desk was the greatest thing for children ever invented. It was the foundation of education,” Cox said.
Powers got his first patent on the desk in 1885 and around the turn of the century, he moved to Valparaiso, building the large frame house at 415 Madison.
Myers, who was graduated from Otterbein in 1906, soon joined Powers in Valparaiso where the desk was manufactured under the label of Lewis E. Myers & Company. The factory was located in what is now the Valparaiso Technical Institute building facing Center Street.
Cox sold Chautauqua desks until his own graduation in 1911.
His method involved first showing the product to the primary school teacher in each area. “If you couldn’t prove to her the desk was a good thing for children, of course you were done for.”
“I made it my business to know what the teacher wanted and the teacher wanted the Chautauqua desk for her children.”
Cox entered youth work when he left college, but in 1913 he married Medillia Waldron of Springfield, Ohio, and shortly afterwards he resumed selling Chautauqua desks.
When their only child, Miriam Cox Carter, was born in October 1916, the Coxes moved to Valparaiso.
“I wanted to be at the head office – that was my ambition. I didn’t want Myers to have it all,” said Cox, laughing.
Cox left the company in 1925. “It was booming.” Myers wanted to open large offices in New York City, “but I was conservative.” Lewis E. Myers & Company closed about 1930.
Nearly a year before Cox departed, the business had begun publishing, for use in rural schools, agricultural charts telling how to raise crops and animals. Cox took over production of those charts when he left Myers. He made the last revision in 1950.
Cox also developed Beulah Heights, a subdivision bordered by Campbell, Glendale, Napoleon, and Harrison Streets.
“I liked property. But you have to watch out – it’ll bust you.”
Today, the man who was born in Rossburg, Ohio, on Sept. 30, 1881, “gets up when I please but usually about six o’clock.”
He writes letters, makes his bed, helps in the kitchen, collects the trash. And “I want to clean out my office – it’s a pile of junk.”
“I set my goal to be 100 and I’ve reached it. Now I want to reach 110 and I expect to make it!
Will there be celebrations marking his 100th birthday? At 2 o’clock Wednesday, Cox will be honored by the Golden Years Club with a party at Banta Senior Center.
At home, on his birthday, he will unwrap the Chautauqua desk sent to him recently by Ed Cooper, former financial editor of radio station WGN in Chicago. The desk is still sealed in the shipping carton in which Cooper’s mother received it from Lewis E. Myers & Company many years ago.
And on Oct. 24, Cox will be grand marshal of the Otterbein College homecoming parade.