>From: "zella coffman" <[email protected]> A TRUE STORY, "AND AWAY WENT THE RABBIT" >Hi Carl, THIS IS A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR > >I've done some editing on your story - I really don't want to cut any of >it, >and would like to include Part I in the March newsletter, and Part II in >the >June issue. Is there a Part III? I think I understand it all - quite a >story!!! - except for one sentence near the end - "Bob Jones, Harris, and >Jowland, who were only found guilty on the charge of theft, were sentenced >to hang the others and get out of the county in ten days." > >This is my edited version - full credit will be given to you, of course, >with my name as ed. - please read and let me know what you think. I >intended to get this to you earlier but just haven't had time - I'd really >like to include Part I in the March issue and need to get it to the printer >by Monday, at the latest, preferably sooner. > >Gail > >And Away Went the Rabbit >By Zella and Carl Coffman > >Greetings! This is a story that has mystery - a war between the people of >two Missouri counties and the bullies, a war that the Missouri State Army >had to bring under control - a man on the run, maybe his wife and children >also, for their lives. It’s about a Baptist Church in Aldrich, Missouri, >being taken over by thugs and threatened. It’s about the Military Highway >that runs south out of Kansas City, between the state lines of Kansas and >Missouri and on into Texas and Louisiana, and some very hot saddles on the >way to Texas and Shreveport Louisiana. It’s about a man on the run in >Texas; he was killed, and we sure wish we could tell you how - was it >Indians raiding along the Red River, or did the bad guys catch him in the >end? I call him the Rabbit, but the name he was born with was Andrew D. >Coffman, and he was born in 1824, in Grainger, Tennessee. My daughter, >Zella Coffman and my self, Carl Coffman in Wichita, are chasing as fast as >we can after a very long lost rabbit, that we found court documents on, in >Fannin County, in December. We were there in person, and everybody was >super and nice and very helpful. We had a lot of success in the records at >courthouse and went to view Great-Grandfather and our Great-Grandmothers >land, 4 miles north on Farm Road # 898. There was no cemetery index at >Brown's cemetery but we sure did look just the same, as it would be just >west of a section of the farm. We found a lot of un-marked graves. > >Now to tell the story of this Rabbit with 4 wives. Two married others in >Harrison County and ended up in Fannin County, and there was a girl friend >in Grayson. Our records show Andrew Coffman died in Cooke 3 November 1873. >He married in Polk Co. Missouri, #1, next #2 (our ancestor, in Harrison >County), #3 In Harrison, County, also. Rabbit married # 4, Laura F. >Brown, in Fannin County, 1870. Well, the stage is set for over a 50 year >chase after his information, and that of his children. Got to admit, The >Red River Valley was a nice place to stop running. > >This story started in Tennessee, in the year of the birth of Andrew David >Coffman and his twin brother, John H.B. Coffman, 1824. There were 9 -11 >children born to David, 1787-1838, and wife Susanna Bunch. David’s father >was in the American Revolution and lived in Lancaster Pennsylvania. He >left Pennsylvania with a brother about1780, and went to Tennessee. Let’s >see, we have Andrew's father and grandfather listed and that’s far enough >for now. Rabbit’s father, David, was a Baptist preacher and had a calling >to go the wilds of Missouri to start a church school about 1835. His >children, friends, and members built it, and I've been there in Aldrich, >Missouri, near the Truman Dam, and walked the farm on canes and said a few >words over David and Susanna’s graves on their own old homestead. I felt >very sad that he only lived about three years after coming to Missouri. >Susanna raised all >their children. There was a private war that broke out in Polk and Benton >Counties, called the Slickers War, and it was run by a bully and his 4 sons >and bar room buddies. If this bunch didn't like you they would steal your >land, tie you to a tree, tear off your shirt, take a small limb, tear off >all the bark, and beat your back until you were bleeding, and then untie >you and tell you to leave the county or die. Those against the Slickers >were called Anti-Slickers. There were many killings for a period of 4 to 5 >years and there wasn't enough law to control them. The Slickers were at a >Baptist church meeting at Aldrich about 4 years after David the preacher >died, and thought the words the preacher was speaking were directed at >them. They got up in front and told all the members if they didn't stop, >they would be run out of the county also. Andrew and his family were there >that night. Many were killed, or run out of the county, and it took the >Missouri Army to stop >the mayhem in these two counties. There is a book is for sale about the >Slickers War at the Polk County, MO Historical Society, in Bolivar, MO. >Andrew’s first marriage was in 1849 to a very nice Tennessee lady, >Elizabeth S. Sanders, and I never could find out any info on her, nor if >she had any children with Andrew. I did find them as a couple in the 1850 >Polk Co. Census and never again together. I found Andrew again in Caddo >Parish, LA. and Harrison Co., TX. I did find a Elizabeth Sanders marrying >again in 1854, at Jefferson County MO, which is just west of St. Louis, and >two boys named Sanders in the next county west of Polk, Dade Co., with a >family of a different name. The story was they were being raised there >because they couldn't get along with one of their parents. I will always >wonder if the boys could have had their mother's maiden name, and if >Andrew, Elizabeth, and those two boys were on the run for their lives, and >all went in different directions, because of fall-out from the Slickers >War. Some of >the Slicker and Anti-slickers must have hated until they died. We call >Missouri the “Show-Me-State”. Anyway the family is all gone and couldn't >be found except Andrew, under a different name, was shown marring Magdaline >S. Sheltman, in Caddo Parish LA, in March of 1866. The marriage did take >then but not in Caddo Parish. I found the #2 marriage in the marriage book >in Harrison Co. TX. as Dedrick Haufman. We know it's Andrew, as when we >looked at land sales in Fannin Co. after Magdaline died, he signed Andrew >D. Coffman. Magdalin had "twins" in 1867, and a son named Hugh in 1869. >Magdaline died 3 months later and Hugh, 3 months after that. That left >Andrew with Magdaline's four children, and two babies, aged 2 and 3 years >old. >"What to do, oh what to do," the Rabbit says. We think we can tell you a >close story of what happen. We could probably prove most of it if we wanted >to go on a records search in Harrison County, but our tree doesn't need it. >Magdaline S. Sheltman and Thomas Harrison were married in Harrison, Co. Tx. >On The 1850 Harrison Co. census, the Harrison and Sheltman families were >very near one another. I have seen some places that Magdaline may have been >11 when she got married? We think Andrew got a baby sitter for the twins, >took the 4 children to the farms of the Sheltmans and Harrison, and found a >wife probably really quick in Harrison Co, by the name of Virginia. He >filed for divorce against her, in Fannin Co. in early 1870. We know that >was where she was from because the sheriff tried to serve papers on her in >Harrison Co. Well, the rabbit is slowing down. I don't think he is >looking over his shoulder as much as he is usually is. He married Laura F. >Brown, >from Bonham, Fannin County, in March 19, 1871, under Andrew D., and sold 3 >plots of land that had been in Magdaline’s name, as Andrew D. Coffman. See >what 4 wives and “on the run” will do to you? And a girl friend in Sherman, >Grayson County, too. What you want to hear about the girl friend? And do >you >want to know how this case of mis-direction was solved? To be continued >in the next issue of Ancestor Issues, June 2000. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com