Date: 9/12/98 11:31 PM RE: COE, Stephen b. 1775 South Carolina USA To those seeking to find Stephen Coe's origins in South Carolina, let me add my thoughts. First, good luck! You're going to need it. Not to discourage anyone, my personal opinion is that no record of him is to be found there. Why would there be? He supposedly went to East Tennessee in the 1790s when he was in his twenties. In what census would he have appeared? 1790? He would have been too young. 1800? He was in Tennessee. He has not been found on any census there and his children all listed their births as Tennessee. He may have been dead by 1830, but what about 1810 and 1820. A suggestion would be to check for Cole as Coes are often found recorded that way. But, of course he may have been one of the many thousands who were missed. Back to South Carolina. It is extremely unlikely that a man in his teens would have owned land. So there would be no deed records. Vital records were not kept. So there would be no birth record. Marriages were often performed by itinerant preachers in backwoods location and many failed to make it to public repositories. And he may well have been married in Tennessee. There were Coes in South Carolina from the early 1700s. Henry Coe, a carpenter, died in Charleston, April 27, 1738. Darkes Coe, a child, died in Charleston, June 12, 1739. William Coe, a child, died in Charleston, June 30, 1739. On Aug. 22, 1743, Thomas Beale made a will in Charleston, leaving "40 to friend William Coe for his care of me in my sickness." William Dawe of Beaufort County made a will Jan. 20, 1745, naming his daughters Deana Dawe, Sarah Dixon and Lydia Coe. Joseph Coe is listed as a man over 45 years of age in the 1800 census of Newberry County. And then there is Edward and Lucy Coe of Edgefield County. An interesting family. In 1774, after appearing on record in Charleston District when he leased land from Daniel Tollason, he was granted a 300-acre tract of land on Beaver Dam Creek in Edgefield County. He sold 100 acres of the tract Jan. 10, 1788, to Alexander Burnet. In 1786 Edward served on an Edgefield County jury. Edward and Lucy Coe's daughter Rachel, who died in 1829 in Upson County, GA, married Moses Haddox. Their son Philip Alexander Haddox, born Jan. 10, 1800, was accused of the murder of prominent neighbor Jethro Jackson, Feb. 16, 1829, in Upson County. He quickly added his mother's maiden name to his own and fled to Texas as Philip Haddox Coe. There he married seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Ann Parker, born April 12, 1812, in St. Tammany Parish, LA, daughter of Jesse and Sarah Parker and said to have been a cousin of Cynthia Ann Parker, mother of legendary Comanche war chief Quanah Parker. Phil Coe first settled on the Brazos River in Washington County, TX, then went on to homestead 4,446 acres in the Coe Valley of Gonzales County, May 4, 1831. A delegate to the Texas Consultation in 1835, he was member of the General Council of the Provisional Government and was sent with Sidney Sherman to assist at the Alamo. He served under Sam Houston as a commander of one of the baggage trains at San Jacinto and recieved additional lands for his service. He was murdered in a Gonzales saloon Dec. 6, 1852, by neighbor John Oliver. Interestingly, there may have been a connection between the family of Edward and Lucy Coe of Edgefield County and the family of Isaac Coe of Columbia County, GA. The two counties are separated only by the Savannah River. Isaac Coe's son Isaac Monroe Coe, who was born Jan. 14, 1811, in Georgia, died June 5, 1874, in Waller County, TX, married Feb. 1, 1835, in Stewart County, GA, Eliza Oliver Barrington, born May 21, 1817, in Edgefield County, SC, died April 8, 1880, at Williamson, TX, daughter of Willis and Sarah Cebelle (Mathews) Barrington. For some reason, in Eliza (Barrington) Coe's Bible is recorded the birth date of Philip Haddox Coe. Then there is the most interesting Leverett Hudson Coe of Columbia, SC. Not to be confused with Levin H. Coe, Speaker of the Tennessee State Senate and who was nominated for Vice President of the United States at the Democratic National Convention in 1848, Leverett Hudson Coe was born Aug. 10, 1787, son of Aaron and Sevilla (Bishop) Coe of Durham, CT, and Carthage, NY. A resident of Columbia, SC, until 1823 when he moved to St. Augustine, FL, he was an attorney and friend of John C. Calhoun, fellow South Carolinian and US Secretary of War. After moving to St. Augustine, Leverett enjoyed the respect of the community there until an unfortunate incident on Saturday, Aug. 8, 1824. While spending time at a local tavern, he observed a billard game between Judge Joseph L. Smith of the Superior Court of the Eastern District of Florida and Eusebio Gomez. The game went on into the night and Coe, who thought that Smith was obliously cheating, finally said something to Smith about 10:00pm. At the remark, Smith became enraged and began to beat Coe about the head and body with a stick. Finally, Attorney General Edgar Macon, who had an office near the tavern, pulled Smith off fearing that Coe was near death. With his cheek bones broken and confined to bed in great pain, Leverett struggled off a letter to Secretary of War Calhoun the following Wednesday. Complaining of Smith's attack and of other abuses by the judge, he pleaded for an investigation. Fearing the letter had not had the desired effect, on Aug. 30th he fired off a letter to President James Monroe seeking justice. In December, when an investigation was finally concluded, Gomez filed an affidavit claiming Coe had started the fight and the citizens of St. Augustine filed a letter of recommedation for Judge Smith, claiming the highest respect for him. Leverett Coe has a place in history for another matter. His brother, Rev. Chester Seymour Coe, a Baptist minister, was the father of Cyrenus J. Coe, later known as Captain William Coe, leader of the notorius Coe Gang of the Oklahoma Neutral Strip. Hanged in Pueblo, CO, April 11, 1868, Coe's exploits left a legacy of "romance of crime . . . that has not been excelled in the west." (Colorado Tribune, May 13, 1868) Again, good luck to those who wish to take on the task. You may find something that will lead to other discoveries. South Carolina records have not been overly researched. Perhaps you will uncover information that will help others link their roots, which to me would be an equal reward. Detailed searches of county records would be in order. Start where we know Coes lived: Beaufort, Charleston, Richmond, Newberry, and Edgecomb Counties. You have my best wishes. I will be happy to share anything you feel would be helpful. Please keep us informed of your findings. Carl Robert Coe