Please note that I am an amateur genealogy hobbyist, and not a professional. I do not represent that all facts included here are documented. I have been researching my family tree for 50 years and rely primarily on the following sources: Ancestry, FamilySearch Find-a-Grave, Wiki.Geni, WikiTree, just to mention a few, as well as a multitude of Google and WikiPedia searches for historical information. I make every attempt to assign credit for the information I share.
Origins of the Name
This interesting French name is widely recorded. The name holders were Counts of France, the Coat of Arms being Blue with three Silver Bends dexter. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of Compte Le Houx. which was dated 1680, Paris, France. during the reign of King Louis XIV, The Sun King, 1643 – 1715. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to develop, often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling.[i]
The surname of Houx was a French occupational name for a maker or seller of boots and shoes, or a nickname for someone noted for footwear of an unusual design. The name was derived from the Old French word Heuse[ii]. Other spellings of the name include Haup, Hawks, Hocks, Houchs, House, Heuze, Heuzey, Houts, Houze, Hussey, Houzet, Houzel, Houzeaux and Houzard. It was also a locational name for one who lived in a house. In the Middle Ages the majority of the population lived in cottages or huts rather than houses, and in most cases this name probably indicates someone who had some connection with the largest and most important building of the settlement, perhaps in a religious house or simply the local ‘great house’. In some cases it may indicate a ‘householder’ someone who owned his own dwelling as opposed to being a tenant.
An eminent member of the name was Edward Mandell House (1858-1938) the American Diplomat born in Houston, Texas. During and after World War I he represented America in many conferences, and was a long and close associate of President Wilson. French, or rather Norman French, was the language of the aristocracy and the upper classes in England at the time fixed surnames were being developed, it is therefore not surprising that many of our well-known family names are derived from French words. Many have been translated into English names.[iii]
Early Houx families
Charles Du Houx, soldier, was born at Faucencourt, Vosges, France in 1728. He served in Holland, Hanover, and Corsica, gaining the rank of field marshal. He was sent to Poland and helped capture the castle of Cracow. In 1780, he went to the Colonies to fight in the American Revolution. He was second in command to Count Rochambeau and distinguished himself in the capture of Yorktown in 1781. Later he returned to France and became governor of La Rochelle in 1782. He died in 1792 from wounds received defending King Louis XVI of France during an assault on the Tuileries during the Insurrection of August 10, 1792, a pivotal event in the French Revolution.
Charles’ brother, Charles Joseph Hyacinthe Du Houx, Marquis de Viomenil, was born in Vosges, France in 1724. He served In Germany during the Seven Years War. He also came to the Colonies in 1780 to find in the War for Independence. Returning to France in 1782, he was appointed governor of Martinique from 1789-90. He emigrated from France as a royalist in 1791, served in various military commands in Russia and Portugal. He died in Paris, France in 1827.[iv]
Other early Houx settlers to Canada include:
- Jean LeHoux, who landed in Montreal in 1643, married in Quebec in 1659
- Francoise LeHoux, who arrived in Quebec in 1651, married in Quebec in 1653
- Elisabeth Lehoux married in Sainte-Famille, Quebec in 1682
- Joseph Lehoux, son of Élie and Anne, who married Marie-Madeleine Lefebvre, daughter of Thomas and Geneviève, in Quebec on 4th December 1700
- Jean Lehoux, son of Jean and Élisabeth, who married Jeanne Gerber, daughter of Mathurin and Jeanne, in Sainte-Famille-de-l’île-d’Orléans, Quebec on 22nd November 1701
- Jean-Baptiste Lehoux, son of Jean and Jeanne, who married Angélique Chaussé, daughter of Jean-Baptiste and Marie-Madeleine, in Quebec on 6th February 1741
- Hyacinthe-Charles Lehoux, son of Jean and Jeanne, who married Françoise Morisset, daughter of Gencien and Geneviève, in Sainte-Famille-de-l’île-d’Orléans, Quebec on 27th November 1741
- Pierre-Joseph Lehoux, son of Jean and Jeanne, who married Marthe Asselin, daughter of François and Marguerite, in Sainte-Famille-de-l’île-d’Orléans, Quebec on 14th February 1746 [v]
Our Houx Ancestors
The Houx family line is the second longest line we have traced in our Coots family tree. Our earliest known Houx ancestor was Bastien André Houx (père) who was born about 1645 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France. (The name Bastien is a shortened version of the name Sébastien, from the martyr St. Sebastian.) He married Anne Monin. Their son, Bastien André Houx (fils) was born 1669 in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France and died around 1760, (possibly in Kassel, Stadt Kassel, Hessen, Germany.) André married Laurance Villaume about January 22, 1687 in Crévic, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France and they had at least 6 children: Laurance (b. 1687), Claude (b. 1691), Nicolas (b. 1695), Jean (b. 1697), Bastien André III (b. 1699), and our ancestor Johan Joseph (b. 1701.)
It is worth mentioning that 1669 was the same year that French King Louis XIV limited freedom of religion. The fact that André fils’ grandson Theodor Friedrich Houx was mentioned as a devout Lutheran and the surrounding decades were marked with religious persecution in France towards the Protestants speaks to the idea that the family’s movements from France to Germany and eventually to the United States might have been influenced by their desire for freedom of religion.
Johan Joseph, born September 23, 1701 in Crévic, Meurthe-et-Moselle, Lorraine, France, married Magdalena Schmidt in 1724, Palatinate, Germany, and died 1775 in Baden Württemburg, Germany. They had two known sons: our ancestor Theodor Friedrich (Frederick) (b. 1725), and Jacob (b. 1750.) [vi] Other Houx family researchers suggest another son Michael (b. 1726.)
Theodor Friedrich (Frederick) Houx was born September 15, 1725 in Pflummern, Biberach, Baden-Wüerttemberg, Germany (Pflummern is about 25 miles south of Stuttgart, Germany) and died March 14, 1820 in Frederick, Maryland. He married Anna Maria Federhoff on May 15, 1753 in Lomersheim, Stuttgart, Baden-Wüerttemberg, Germany.
Letter of Recommendation
I, myself, Johann Georg Werner, the then official mayor and teacher in Sommersheim at the cloister office of Maulbronn, attest that the bearer of this, Theodorius Friderich Haux, by birth from Pflommern, has been employed with me as an assistant teacher for one year–from April 23, 1752 to the same date of the year 1753. He made the announcement that he had decided to go farther to find his fortune by moving to Pennsylvania from here. He became engaged for marriage to a local citizen’s daughter by the name of Anna Maria, née Federhof. For this reason he was laid off by me, and he requested an authentic certificate of his past conduct, to be presented for identification at places where asked for. As an official in duty I attest that said Haux for his time being here, was submissive to his superiors. He has always been honest in his contact with people, calm, discreet, and kind. At school he was eager to give instruction to the youth. At church he sang and conducted the hymn. Thus he was outstanding in a way that not only a commendable pastorate and I myself , as a mayor and teacher, but also a whole parish would have had a real pleasure in keeping him here longer, because of his good behaviour and his laudable qualifications as a teacher; had he not requested resignation for sake of his fortune. This is why we warmly recommend said Theodorius Friderich Haux to everyone. In witness whereof and requesting God’s grace and blessing for him, we wish that the Lord may protect him from misfortune on his most dangerous and inconvenient journey. I, myself put him under the Lord’s best guard. I am putting my own signature under this letter which bears my official seal. This came to pass and was done at Sommersheim on May 21, 1753
The Mayor and teacher of the same place,
Johann Georg Werner
Certificate of Marriage and Recommendation
Theodorus Friderich Haux, by birth from Pflummern, worked as an assistant teacher at the local school for about 9 months. He did his work to please the superintendents and the community. His behaviour was blameless.
After this, for purpose of marriage, he became engaged to Anna Maria, a daughter of the citizen Joh. Jacob Federhof. After proclamation of that time, he was married at the local church on the 15th of May of the current year, which I officially attest to the same.
T.M. Johann Gottlieb Gaupp, for the time being pastor of the same place. Sommersheim, located in Werttemberg on May 15, 1753.
After their marriage in 1753 and before the birth of their first child in 1754, Theodor and Anna emigrated from Germany to the American colonies. It is not known with certainty what precipitated their move, but noted that the Third Silesian War (sometimes referred to as the first global war – Seven Year’s War) was being fought during this period. Many other German families from the Rhineland Palatinate and surrounding regions immigrated during the same period.
Theodor Friedrich Houx became a prominent citizen of Frederick, MD after his immigration from Germany in 1753 with his wife Anna on the ship Patience. He was the author of 12 volumes of “Diaries” from 1820-1878, which are now in the County Historical Society of Frederick, MD. All of Theodor and Anna’s children were born in the American colony of Maryland and baptized in the Evangelical Lutheran Church.
Theodor and Anna had 13 known children: Elizabeth, Daniel, William (Wilhelm) Frederick, George (Jerg) Jacob, our ancestor Matthias (b. 1759), Anna Margaret, Joseph, Johann Frederick (Fritz), Heinrich, Peter, Michael, and Johannes. The family appears on the 1790 and 1800 U.S. Census living in Frederick, Maryland. In 1790 the name is spelled “Hocks” and in 1800 it is spelled “Houchs.”
“Frederick Town” was laid out by Daniel Dulany, a land speculator, in 1745; it was settled by a German immigrant party led by a young German Reformed schoolmaster from the Rhineland Palatinate named Johann Thomas Schley, who came to the Maryland colony with his wife.
The settlers founded a German Reformed Church (today the church is known as Evangelical Reformed Church, UCC), which also served as a public school, in keeping with the German Reformed tradition of sponsoring universal public education. Many “Pennsylvania Dutch” (ethnic Germans) settled in Frederick as they migrated westward in the late 18th century.[vii]
Theodor Houx Obituary from Political Intelligencer on March 17, 1802
March 15 buried Mr. Theodor Friedrich Haux, a schoolmaster of the Lutheran congregation here, who was born at Flummern in Germany (Pflummern, Saalgau).
He married in Germany May 15, 1753 Anna Maria Federhoff with whom he lived 48 years, 10 months in matrimony and in that time had 13 children with her of whom however, 7 preceded him into eternity. He came with his family to this land in 1753 and to Fredericktown in 1761 which is presently 41 years since his first arrival here in which time he served other schools 9-1/2 years. 3 years in Sharpsburg and 6-1/2 in Middletown. In his high age his bodily powers left him rapidly so that he became progressively weaker and more miserable until at last he weakly, but gently fell asleep in the Lord yesterday at 12 o’clock noon having reached an age of 76 years, 6 months less one day in the grace of God.[viii]
Theodor and Anna’s 4th son, Matthias Houx was born March 10, 1759 in Fredericktown, Maryland and died October 28, 1831 in Cooper County, Missouri. He married Susanna Morgenstern (Morningstar) on September 25, 1781 in Fredericktown, Frederick, Maryland and they had 11 known children: Johann Jacob (b. 1782), Johan Frederick “Fritz” (b. 1784), Matthias Michael (b. 1785-died in infancy), Susanna Morgenstern (b. 1757), Johann John (b. 1788), Anne Elizabeth (b. 1790), Gustanna (b. 1792), Johann Nicolas “Nick” (b. 1795), George Michael (b. 1797), Wilhelm (William) “Billie” (b. 1799), and Anna Marie (b. 1801.) Matthias and Susanna are buried in the Mount Vernon Cemetery in Pilot Grove, Cooper County, Missouri.
During the Revolutionary War, Matthias served as a private in Captain Henry Hardman’s Company, 1st Maryland Battalion of the Flying Camp. His unit was primarily from Frederick County, Maryland. The unit was at Fort Washington when Washington’s army was defeated on November 16, 1776. Captain Hardman was captured and not exchanged until June 1778. [ix]
Most of the men of the Maryland Flying Camp were captured; although, a few escaped across the river. There are no Muster Rolls for the unit, so the status of Matthias is unknown. There is no evidence that he later served in another unit. He is registered with the DAR as Ancestor #A057236 and SAR as Ancestor #187319. [xi]
Between 1795 and 1797, Mathias moved his family to Kentucky, eventually settling in Louisville. Mathias owned land in both Logan and Muhlenburg Counties, and was Constable of his district for several years.
The exact date of the Houx family’s departure from Kentucky is not known, but Mathias and his clan, by now consisted of grown sons and daughters with families of their own, appear to have settled in Old Franklin, Missouri around 1817. Due to repeated flooding, the township of Old Franklin was abandoned around 1827.
The family moved to Cooper County, Missouri, where there are records that Mathias and his sons voted in August of 1819 to elect the first delegate to Congress from the Missouri Territory. Mathias died in Lafayette County, Missouri, leaving his wife Susanna and several children and grandchildren.
Johann Jacob Houx, first son of Matthias and Susanna, was born March 28, 1782 in Frederick County, Maryland, was baptized April 28, 1872 in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Frederick, Maryland. Witnesses to his baptism were Johann Jacob Joltz and wife Barbara. Jacob died November 8, 1853 in Cooper County, Missouri. He often went by his middle name “Jacob” to avoid confusion with his younger brother Johann John. He married (1) Dorothy (Dolly) Simon on January 2, 1804 in Logan, Kentucky. She died around March 1, 1824. They had 11 known children: Philip Simon (b. 1804), Catherine (b.1806), John Washington (b. 1808), Susan Morningstar (b. 1809), our ancestor Margaret (b. 1811), Matthias (b. 1814), George R. (b. 1817), Mary (Polly) (b. 1820), Michael Morningstar (b. 1821), Lucretia (b. 1822), and Robert Sloan (b. 1824). Following the death of Dorothy, Jacob married (2) Margaret (Peggy) Collins Massie (widow of Sylvanus Massie) on 27 May 1827 in Pilot Grove, Cooper Co., Missouri. Peggy and Jacob had one son, Thomas Campbell (b. 1835). [xii]
In the late 1790’s, Jacob moved with his parents from Frederick County, Maryland to Logan County, Kentucky, and eventually to Cooper County , Missouri.
The Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Court Order Book 1, page 152 dated March 23, 1801 shows Jacob “Howks” claimed the right to 200 acres of land on Little Caney Creek. He also entered “400 acres of page on Red River beginning on Mathias Houx SW corner and running with said Houx westwardly boundary line and down the river for quantity to include the said four hundred acres in as near a square as may be” as recorded in Logan County order book I, page 322 and in Logan County order Book 3, page 164 for the December court of 1804.
Logan County Order Book 6, page 95 for the fall term of 1815 “ordered Jacob Houx be appointed overseer of the road from the forks of the highland lick road to the far corner of Reuben Ewing’s barrow field and that he together with the following hands (see list filed) keep the former in repair, clear and smooth 15 feet wide as the law directs.” (The list of hands was not included.)
Jacob Houx is listed in the 1810 census for Logan County, Kentucky.
Various records indicated Jacob and Dorothy left Logan County anywhere between 1814-1816, settling first in Indiana, where they remained but a short time “owing to depredations of the Indians.” They then returned to Kentucky where they remained a few months before emigrating to Missouri, “settling in Cooper County, near Boonville, which then contained only 2 or 3 houses.”
Jacob and his brother John Houx are listed as early settlers of Pilot Grover, Cooper County, Missouri in 1820. He and his second wife Margaret were, along with his brothers William and John and their wives, among the founders of the Mt. Vernon Cumberland Presbyterian Church near Pilot Grove, founded in 1833.
Jacob entered original patents on land in Cooper County on August 8, 1821 and July 26, 1827. Jacob is enumerated in the Cooper County census of 1830, 1840, and 1850. The 1860 census lists Jacob’s widow Margaret with her daughter by her first husband (Rebecca Massie) and son Thomas Campbell Houx with his wife Margaret.
During the Civil War, at least two of Jacob’s sons, Matthias and Michael, rode with Quantrill’s Raiders, and either son Robert or grandson Robert rode with them as well. Grandsons Jacob Edwin, George Washington, and Robert William Kavanaugh, sons of Philip Houx, fought with the Confederate Army. Jacob Edwin was killed in the battle of Vicksburg, Mississippi. Jacob’s son Matthias applied for and was granted a full pardon and amnesty by President Andrew Jackson on April 11, 1866 for his part in the Confederacy. (No record of pardon has been found for the others.)
(Son Robert Sloan Houx was not listed in the will of Jacob Houx. Family members say that he went to California during the Civil War so he would not have to take up arms against his brothers in combat. However, this information contradicts what appears on his gravestone, that he served in the Confederate Army.)
Historical sources say Jacob Houx bought land in Cooper County where he became a “prosperous farmer, and did much for the development of the county, where he was held in the highest esteem. His public spirit always manifested itself when any movement was on foot for the community’s interest.” He led a “busy and useful life, dying October 1830. He was a man of sterling qualities, his death regretted by all who knew him.”
Mount Vernon Cemetery, Pilot Grover, Missouri
Jacob and Dorothy’s 5th child, Margaret Houx was born April 7, 1811 in Boonville, Cooper County, Missouri and died October 7, 1878 in Stephenville, Erath County, Texas. (On the 1850 Census for Tebo, Henry County, Missouri, her place of birth is mistakenly listed as Kentucky. On the Palo Pinto County, Texas, her place of birth is listed as Missouri. Her place of birth on her marriage record in 1830 was Missouri.)
Contemporaries of Margaret Houx include: Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt; American author Harriet Beecher Stowe, best known for her novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin; journalist Horace Greeley; and radical philosopher, utopian socialist and founder of the “Free Love” Putney, Onieda, and Wallingfield communities, John Humphrey Noyes.
from collection belonging to Lolita Hepworth
Margaret married Valentine Bell on December 2, 1830 in Boonville, Missouri and they had ten or eleven children: Dorinda Jane (b. 1831-1832), John Washington (b. 1833), Susan A. (b. 1836), our ancestor William Asbery (b. 1838), Zephania (b. 1840), Elizabeth Ann (b. 1842-1843), Mathias Houx (b. 1845), Mary Frances (and possibly Mary Ann) (b. 1848), Benjamin Franklin, (b. 1853), and Sytha Virginia (b. 1856).
The 1840 U.S. Census lists them living in Springfield, Missouri and 1850 in Tebo, Missouri.
Valentine Bell and his wife Margaret came to Texas sometime in 1857, and settled in the Ioni Creek area, near the town of Brad. They built the first wagon road west of the town of Palo Pinto to their ranch. Before then, there were only trails for horses. [xiii] Valentine and Margaret are listed with their family in the 1860 census for Palo Pinto County, Texas. Although their ranch was located in the Ioni Creek area, near the town of Brad, unfortunately no records were found of just where the ranch was located, or how many acres it contained. The Texas General Land Office, Archives Division’s records only contain records of early land grants up until the date of the patent system. The early land grant system was pretty much over by 1845, some years before the family moved to Texas.
On March 1, 1863, a son-in-law William H. Peters (husband of Elizabeth) was killed by Indians. [xiv]Because of mutual animosity between white settlers and native tribes, the family moved to Stephenville in Erath County, Texas, just south of the Palo Pinto County border.
After the Civil War ended and men were again available to deal with the Indian conflict, Margaret Houx Bell returned to the town of Brad in the Ioni Creek area in Palo Pinto County and lived there with her Houx relatives until her death October 17, 1878. She is buried in the Brad cemetery. [xv]
[i] https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Le%20Houx
[ii] Heuse: from the name for an iron shoe, sometimes called a pedieux in French. Attached to the greaves of ancient armor – having an iron sole and upper of chain mail. English: a garter; covering worn over a shoe.
[iii] http://www.4crests.com/houx-coat-of-arms.html
[iv] Book of Houx Stories, collected by Jean Carter Dabney, compiled and edited by Ann Bennet Houx, pub. 1994 – disclaims descendance from the two Charles Houx of France.
[v] https://www.houseofnames.com/le+houx-family-crest
[vi] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Houx-95
[vii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pennsylvania_Dutch#Immigrants_from_the_Palatinate_of_the_Rhine
[viii] Taken from “Frederick, Maryland Lutheran Marriages and Burials 1743-1811” Frederick Sheely Weiser. 1972. National Genealogical Society, Washington, D.C.
[ix] https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Houx-3
[x] This image is available from the New York Public Library‘s Digital Library under the digital ID 54209: digitalgallery.nypl.org
[xi] https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75310038/mathias-houx
[xii] Bell and Houx, and some related families, compiled by William H. Hawks, pp. 71-72
[xiii] The Kay Thoreson Letters of Susan Groene.
[xiv] https://www.forttours.com/pages/peters.asp
[xv] Bell and Houx, and some related families, compiled by William H. Hawks, pp. 106
The Coots Clan 
You are doing so good! I’ve got mine all the way back to 1850!