Arthur Cleveland Coxe

Arthur Cleveland Coxe (May 10, 1818 – July 20, 1896) was the second Episcopal bishop of Western New York. He used Cleveland as his given name and is often referred to as A. Cleveland Coxe.

He was the son of Samuel Hanson Cox and Abiah Hyde Cleveland, but changed the spelling of the family name. He was born at Mendham, New Jersey, May 10, 1818. On his mother's side he was a grandson of the Rev. Aaron Cleveland, an early poet of Connecticut. His parents moved to New York in 1820, where he received his education.

Coxe was prepared for college under the private tuition of Professor George Bush. He entered the University of the City of New York, and was graduated in 1838. During his freshman year he wrote a poem, The Progress of Ambition, and in 1837 published Advent, a Mystery, a poem after the manner of the religious dramas of the Middle Ages. In 1838 appeared Athwold, a Romaunt, and Saint Jonathan, the Lay of the Scald, designed as the commencement of a semi-humorous poem, in the Don Juan style.

Coxe in 1841 became a student in the General Theological Seminary, New York. While at this institution he delivered a poem, Athanasion, before the Alumni of Washington College, Hartford, at the Commencement in 1840. In the same year he published Christian Ballads, a collection of poems, suggested for the most part by the holy seasons and services of his church. The volume went into numerous editions, so much so that "their place in American literature has long been secure."

He was ordained deacon on June 27, 1841 by Bishop Benjamin T. Onderdonk in St. Paul's Chapel, priest on September 25, 1842, at St. John's Episcopal Church (Hartford, Connecticut). As a deacon he took charge of St. Anne's church, Morrisania, where he wrote his poem, Halloween, privately printed in 1842.

He then became rector of St. John's Episcopal Church (Hartford, Connecticut), from 1842–1854. While there he published a dramatic poem Saul: a mystery, of the same kind as his earlier productions but at much greater length. But it was condemned by reviewers including Edgar Allan Poe.

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