The Eugene St. Julien Cox House

In 1871, Eugene St. Julien Cox built this picturesque neo-Gothic Italianate house, noted for its towered cupola, small balconies, and carved eaves. Cox began his law career in 1857 and built a thriving practice in the frontier village of St. Peter. After brief service as a Union officer in the Civil War, he enrolled fifty men into the "Frontier Avengers" and led the unit in the defense of New Ulm during the Dakota War of 1862. After the wars, Cox was elected St. Peter's first mayor, then served in the Minnesota Legislature, first as a representative and later as a senator. In 1877, he was elected judge of the ninth judicial district, but within four years the Minnesota House impeached him and the Senate organized a high court for trial purposes. He was mainly charged with intoxication caused by the voluntary and immoderate use of intoxicating liquors, which disqualified him for discharge of his official duties. In 1882, after a sensational five-month trial that included seventeen hundred pages of testimony and a petition for acquittal signed by four thousand people, he was convicted and removed from office as district judge by a bare two-thirds vote of the Minnesota Senate. Nine years later, the legislature passed a resolution vacating, annulling, and expunging all the proceedings of the impeachment and trial. A few years later, E. St. Julien Cox left Minnesota and died in Los Angeles on November 3, 1898. The house remained in the Cox family until 1969, when it was donated to the Nicollet County Historical Society for preservation and restoration. In 1969, the property received the first grant awarded by the Minnesota Historical Society as part of the newly created State Grants In-Aid program for the preservation and restoration of Minnesota's historical sites.

St. Peter, Minnesota · United States