Parents:
James Coffman, born 1802 - died 1882.
Ann Elizabeth (Robinson) Coffman, born 1801 - died 5-4-1870.  

Children:
1. Nancy Coffman, born November 13, 1825
2. Lovel Coffman, born June 19, 1827
3. Terressa Coffman, born April 24, 1829
4. James Coffman, born July 1, 1831 (my gr-gr-grandfather)
5. Elizabeth Coffman, born January 21, 1835
6. John coffman, born January 21, 1835
7. Jacob M. Coffman, born February 4, 1837
8. Caswell N. Coffman, born March 1, 1839
9. Alethia Coffman, born March 1, 1841
10. Amanda Coffman, born April 6, 1843
11. George N. Coffman, born March 23, 1850 (father of Newt)

1. William Coffman, born May 21, 1846
2. Elizabeth Jane Coffman, born January 16, 1853
3. John R. Coffman, born November 17, 1854

(Deaths are recorded but too faded and dim to be accurately read)

1. Nancy Coffman Reed - Daughter of James & Elizabeth Coffman 2-14-1863
2. Ann Elizabeth Coffman, wife of James Coffman, died 5-4-1870
3. James Coffman died 2-13-1882
4. Lovel Coffman died 2-7-1882 (A grandson of Jacob M. Coffman)
5. Minard Coffman died 2-9-1882
6. John H. Coffman died 5-31-1862
7. Caswell N. Coffman died 7-26-1862
8. Amanda K. Coffman died 8-10-1862


This story was written by Jasper Newton Coffman "Newt" son of George Coffman in 1962.

 TAYLOR, TEXAS - July 28, 1962

 A brief story of the Coffman ancestry. I hope you won't be too disappointed. I know that the period from the year 1682 to this time is true. While I was still Postmaster at Daingerfield, I think it was some time during 1930, I received a long letter, typewritten from a man whose name was Coffman. He lived in York, Pennsylvania. The letter was about 8 pages on typewriter paper. He was getting data on the Coffman clan that would enable him to write a true story of our people, asking that I tell him anything I might know. That letter within its self was a good story. I intended to keep it, but lost it. I know he was on the right tract, because in the letter he mentioned 3 or 4 names that I have heard Grandpa speak of when I was a little boy. I can't remember the dates he mentioned in the letter, but I do remember that he had traced the names back to the year 1520. He began with 1520 and gave this account:

 Sicily is an island in the Mediteranean Sea, near the toe of the boot, Italy. Sicily was ruled by the tyrant nation of Italy. They bacame dissatisfied and went to Germany. Germany at that time was divided in several divisions, each ruled by tyrant rulers.

 Our people became dissatisfied because of the harsh rule under which they lived. They were forgetting their language and customs and their young people were inter-marring with the same civilized (Goths) Germans, so they migrated again. I don't remember now how long he said the Coffman clan lived in Germany; it must have been a long time... he had all these dates. They left Germany and went to England. At this time the King of England owed William Penn's father a large sum of money. So, in order to settle the debt, the King gave Penn a vast tract of land in America. This was in 1682, so the Coffmans came to America in 1682 with William Penn & his Quakers. This being true, our people have been in America 280 years this year (1962) about 100 years before we won our independence from England. Look at a map -- you will find that the Delaware River borders on the Eastern end of Pennsylvania, just across the river is the State of New York. United States history tells us of these historical facts.

 Penn's Grant, as you know, was called Pennsylvania, or Penn's Woods. Their City was Philadelphia, meaning Brotherly Love. Penn's colony grew and prospered. They didn't suffer the Massacres and the Indian attacks and destruction that the other settlements suffered at the hands of the savage Indian. Penn's famous treaty with the Indians lasted 100 years. They promised to live with Penn and his people as long as the Sun and Moon should shine. 

My Great Grandfather (your Great Great Grandfather, a Baptist Minister, conceived the idea that he could move south and engage in the cotton industry and grow rich. This was after Eli Whitney had invented the cotton gin. The New England States have already been the manufacturing and commercial part of our country. England, itself, was crying for cotton. Very little cotton could be had because there was no way to separate the cotton from the seed; except to do it by hand.

 Eli Whitney was a son of Massachusetts and a graduate of Harvard. After his graduation, he was sent to Savannah, Georgia as a tutor, but, when he reached Savannah, his job had been taken, so he turned to law and invention. His new southern friends, knowing his invention capabilities, asked him to invent a machine that would separate cotton from the seed and, after nearly a year, he had invented his cotton gin. Cotton production in the south increased from a few hundred bales to thousands and thousands of bales.

 This gave to the South its greatest commercial industry and is the primary cause of Negro slavery being fastened on the south. The savage negroes could not be taught to operate machinery in the Northern manufacturing states, but could be taught to do farm labor successfully. So, great grandfather Coffman, with his family and others, came south (His name was Lovel Coffman), (This is a notation made in the document that I believe is incorrect.) and settled and built his cotton mills on the big Tom Begby River in Madison County in Northern Alabama. I have no record of how many children he had, but he had 2 sons, Lovel - born in 1800 and James (my grandfather) and your great grandfather, born in 1802. He (my great grandfather) must have been very wealthy. He had some young girls working in his factory; one was a fine young lady, whose name was Elizabeth Robinson. She was a Tubercular, but she and my grandfather fell desperately in love with each other. Great grandfather forbade grandfather to marry Elizabeth, and told Grandpa James that if he married Elizabeth, he would disinherit him. This made no difference with Grandpa and Elizabeth. They married... and grandfather was promptly disinherited-- Elizabeth became my grandmother (your great grandmother). Without friends, they were destitute, but grandfather James and grandmother Elizabeth managed in some way to move to East Tennessee. They must have had much courage and determination. They, as was the custom in those days, moved back in the woods, built his (cabin) home on good land, cleared and cultivated the land, managed to buy a team and a much needed wagon, but neglected to go to Nashville and file, or to head-right the land for 3 or 4 years. Then decided he would go and file on the land, as he should have done much earlier, but, when he arrived at the land office in Nashville, he found that some unscrupulous dishonest person had head-righted the land before him. (head-right: Meaning homestead)

 He returned to his lost home and Elizabeth, back in the woods, defeated but not discouraged. He and grandmother disposed of all thier belongings, except that which they could take with them, and came to Texas and settled over on the old Coffman place, at what is now called Holly Springs. How and just when they came is not known; it has been told that they came over in a wagon. Another story is that they came by boat down the Tennessee River to the Mississippi, thence down that river to the mouth of Red River, then down Red River to some landing - perhaps where Shreveport is, or further up stream.

 The time of thier coming to Texas is not known but it must have been about 1832 or 1833. When they came, there were only a few people living in that part of Texas. A few slave owners had come before them and had large plantations in cultivation. Some of them were John Wilks, with something like 100 or more slaves, John R. Strickland, Bob Davenport, Sam and Nathan Lee, and a brother whose name is forgotten. The country was wild and untamed, covered every where with a fine forest; oak, pine gum, hickory, ash and many other varieties of fine timber. Wild life abounded with deer, turkey, squirrel, bear, panther, bob cat, quail, coon, opossum, and many other types. The streams were alive with every species of fish.

 There was no market until Old Jefferson became a market place later, being at the head of navigation from Caddo Lake and Red River. For many years Jefferson was the market for vast portion of Northest Texas. It once had a population of more than 40,000 people. Jefferson died when the T&P Railroad was built. (Note: I believe the people of Jefferson thought navigation was more important than railroads and did not support the railroad, hence the railroad bypassed Jefferson which was about 35 miles from the old Coffman home.

 It seems now more like a dream than a reality, but I can remember going to Jefferson with my father in an ox wagon, loaded with 4 bales of cotton and drawn by 2 yokes of steers. We were not alone on that trip; there were at least 10 or 15 wagons in the caravan, all loaded with cotton. Some of the other men along with us were old man John Couch, his three sons: Wash, Sam and Billy Couch, Levi Harris and Cousin Joe Reed.

 The first night out we camped at a branch called the 4-mile Branch, west of Jefferson, a regular camping place for people going to and from Jefferson. The men boiled a big kettle full of eggs for supper that night. Second night we stayed in a building in a wagon yard in the City. I remember drinking a glass of whiskey-- they thought it would make me drunk, but it did not.

 All trading and marketing were done next day in time to get back to the 4-mile Branch for the 3 nights out, then we returned home.

 At this point, I shall leave our Grandfather and fmaily and write a short account of Grandfather's brother, Lovel, who came to Texas about the time our grandfather came. Lovel was said to be one of the finest of wood workman, building good wagons, plows, spinning wheels, looms for weaving cloth, and just anything made of wood. He needed plenty of fine timber, so that he and his family settled in Red River County, somewhere near what is now called Clarksville, Texas, because of the fine white oak, which abounded so plentiful and built almost every sort of implements the people had to have.

 The Civil War came on. He had a few slaves. I have two letters that he wrote to grandpa in 1863, telling of buying two slaves - a young negro woman and her son and paid $3,000.00 for them and seemed to be very proud of them. He tells in these letters of butchering 4,000 lbs. of pork, and of the capture of some horse thieves near Shreveport. They captured the thieves but left them where they found them.

 In gathering some data for this story, I found a Mrs. Addie Phillips at Detroit, Texas, whose maiden name was Coffman, and would be a 2nd cousin to my father. I also found a young Coffman lady at Detroit, who worked in the Post Office, but did not get to talk with her, though she is a distant relative.

 Now, back to our grandparents, James and Elizabeth. They prospered to the extent that it was called wealthy in those days; owned several hundred acres of land for many years, saw mill, cotton gin, and a flour mill. They reared a large family - 6 sons and 5 daughters. The sons were: Lovel, John, James, Caswell, Jasper and George, your grandfather (my dad) and the youngest child.

 Girls were: Nancy, Teressa, Lethia, Elizabeth, and Amanda. I can't remember grandmother but I remember grandpa well. He was one of the finest of old men, a devout christian, member of the Baptist Church at Lafayette. He was lovingly called Uncle Jimmy by all who knew him. He died in 1882, exactly 80 years of age.

 A brief story of Nancy (Coffman) Reed and Terresa (Coffman) Hinson and their children on a trip to Texas in 1862. Nancy, with 1 little girl and 4 little boys, and Terressa with 1 little girl. Because of hardships, no protection from marauding bands of Yankee soldiers, made the long hazardous trip to their father's, James Coffman home, in Texas, over the almost uncharted Ozarks. This long journey was made in a heavy wagon, drown by oxen. Somehwere in the mountains, they were stopped by Yankee soldiers, who unyoked the oxen, drove them into the woods and were beginning to take thier supplies that they could use, and to destroy the things they had no use for. Nancy thought of a Masonic pin that her husband (Lewis Reed) had left for her when he went into the army. She quickly put the pin (emblem) on her dress where it could be seen. When the soldiers saw it, everything they had taken was given back to the women and children; they yoked the oxen back to the wagon, gave the mothers and children more supplies and bade them God speed to Texas. They, after a long and dangerous journey, arrived at the old Coffman house. How long they stayed in Texas is not known, but they later returned to Arkansas, leaving the youngest son, Joseph Reed, with his grandparents. Joseph never returned to Arkansas but remained with his grandfather and grandmother. Grandfather gave him 100 acres of land, he improved and made it his home until his death in 1904. (Note: this land is just back of the Cemetery behind the Baptist Church at Lafayette and one of his granddaughters is living on this place now - 1975).

 John H. Coffman, son of James Coffman. John Coffman, a soldier in the Civil War, died of Tuberculous in 1862, in Memphis, Tennessee, because of little food, medical supplies and the almost total absence of doctors and the hardships brought on by a cruel war from which to get food and medicine. The soldiers were susceptible to pneumonia, scurvy, consumption, typhoid, and every desease in the book.

 John was in the last stages of consumption and in a Confederate Hospital, fast dying for lack of food, medicine and nursing. A fine citizen, a Mr. G. Yales, who visited this hospital and comforted the soldiers as much as possible, took John to his home in Memphis, wrote John's father, James Coffman, that they were nursing and doing everything possible for him, but with no doctors, scarcity of food and medicine, prevented them from doing the things that should be done. --- In a second letter to John's father, he stated that "Your son, John, passed away yesterday. I am happy to tell you this, before death took him away, he made a right profession of faith and said his name was written in the Lamb's Book of Life, never to be blotted out. I would send his clothes to you, but they are worthless, tattered and torn and the mail service is so uncertain they would probably not reach you." --- Mr. Falls must have been one fine person.

 I have thier old letters and some others, written during the Civil War.

The information about James Coffman's children and thier families and was added by Dorthy Coffman Edwards in 1975. She states that she borrowed the "record" from Barbara Coffman Hibberts and typed it verbatim.