Philip Fox, M. D., of Madison, belongs to a family noted as among the pioneer families of Dane county, and also for the number of its members that have devoted themselves to the medical profession. The family comes from Moat-a-Granough, County Westmeath, Ireland, and the original form of the name is An Sionnach, Fox being the Anglicized form. The history of the family in America already covers four generations, the first being Rev. William Fox. who with his wife, Eleanor (Lynn) Fox and six children came to America in 1834 and made their home, first in Tecumsah, Michigan, and soon after in La Grange county, Indiana. They had been preceded by their second son, William H. Fox, who came to Cleveland, Ohio, in 1833, being at that time nineteen years of age. In 1839 he joined his family in La Grange county and soon after began the practice of medicine at Lima, in that county. In the autumn of 1842 the two brothers, Dr. William H. and George, aged respectively twenty-eight and twenty-two years, left La Grange county and drove across the country to Chicago and then continued their journey through the forests and oak openings of southeastern Wisconsin, passing through the frontier villages of Janesville and Delavan and located in the town of Fitchburg, Dane county, both entering land in section 35. George entered one hundred and twenty acres at the land office in Milwaukee, and then returned to Indiana and spent the winter in Michigan City, La Porte county; but in the following spring in company with his wife and two children returned to make a permanent settlement. He built a log-house, sixteen by thirteen feet, which was the family home for thirteen years and the temporary home of other relatives who soon followed these pioneers. The wife of George Fox, whom he married in Indiana, was Catherine Keenan, a native of King’s County, Ireland, who came to the United States in 1838. They had six children, of whom two sons, Philip, of Madison,—the subject of this sketch,—born at Lima, Indiana. March 27, 1840,—and William of Milwaukee, were physicians, and one daughter, Ellen, married a physician, (Dr. Wilson). Their other children were Maria, (Mrs. Capt. Gerraughty) Katie, (Mrs. G. Barry); and Addie, (Mrs. D. E. Kiser). Upon the farm, reclaimed from the wilderness and afterward increased to three hundred and twenty acres, and upon which, in 1856, a substantial stone house was built. Dr. Philip Fox spent his boyhood, and that continued to be his home until 1870. His school life, after passing through the primitive training of the district schools was spent at Sinsinawa Mound, Wisconsin, and his medical training was obtained at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, from which he was graduated in March, 1863. In December of the same year he entered the army as assistant surgeon of the Second Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry, and remained in service until July, 1864, when he was mustered out, and returned to Wisconsin and began his private practice in company with his uncle. Dr. William H. Fox of Fitchburg. In 1870, he removed to Janesville, where he remained for six years, and then located in Madison where he has remained until the present time. He was married in Madison, in September, 1866, to Miss Anna Reynolds, by whom he has had four children, Philip R., Anna K., Mary J., and George W. The two sons are also physicians; Philip R., usually known as “Dr. Rodney”, was born in Fitchburg township, June 23, 1867. He was educated in the schools of Madison. Prairie du Chien and Watertown, and studied medicine at Rush Medical College, Chicago, and was graduated from that school in 1890. Following graduation he spent a year and a half as interne in the Presbyterian Hospital of Chicago, and has since been associated with his father in the practice of medicine in the city of Madison. The younger son, George W., was born in Janesville, January 30, 1875. He was educated at the University of Wisconsin and Rush Medical College, and was graduated from the latter in 1897. He also entered the Presbyterian Hospital as interne and remained there until October, 1899. The following year he located in Milwaukee, where he is practicing at the present time. Beside his private practice he is the attending surgeon and secretary of staff of St. Mary’s Hospital, attending surgeon of the Emergency Hospital and surgeon for the Wisconsin Central Railroad. He is a Republican and a member of the Roman Catholic church. He also belongs to the Phi Delta Theta, the Milwaukee Yacht Club, the Milwaukee Medical Society, the Milwaukee County Medical Society, the Wisconsin Medical Society and the American Medical Association. The members of the medical fraternity in the Fox family have held and still hold a high rank as physicians and surgeons, and the older men, especially, have been of great service to the profession as consulting physicians.

History of Dane County, Madison, Western Historical Association, 1906, Page 295