Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 895
JOSIAH COE

Josiah COE (Portrait), the man whose name heads this sketch, has passed through the mill of pioneer hardships in Harrison County, coming to this section as he did, during the month of April, 1854. He in company with a young man by the name of Cyrus WHITMORE, followed the old Mormon trail from Keokuk on foot to Council Bluffs, and was twelve days on the road. The first summer after his arrival here he worked on a farm in Boyer Township, for a Mr. PHILLIPS, and in the fall of 1854 he went to Crawford County, where he bought a claim, land not having yet come into market, but the following year, with a party of twelve persons, he went to the Council Bluffs land office, to enter his land at eh Government price of $1.25 per acre; the party got together and gave the speculators to understand, that if they wanted to be baptized beneath the clay-colored waters of the Missouri Rive, to just overbid them on these lands, which they never did. Mr. COE never lived on that tract of land, but traded in 1856 for an sixty-acre farm in Boyer Township, at what is known as Twelve-Mile Grove. This farm was taken in exchange for two hundred acres in Crawford County. Our subject was a bachelor at the time and boarded with Mathew HALL, who was a near neighbor.

In 1856 he pre-empted a quarter-section where he now lives, and by breaking prairie and laying a foundation for a house, which was then called bona fide improvements, he was enabled to hold his claim one year, and in 1857 he paid the Government price for the land.

Early in the spring of 1855 Mr. COE and John MOORHEAD went to Nebraska with five yoke of cattle and broke one hundred acres of land between Omaha and Florence, at $1 per acre, and returned to Harrison County in time for harvest. He only had five acres of wheat, which a neighbor, Luke JEFFERSON, cut with a cradle, while he bound it up himself. The same year he entered another forty acres of land adjoining other tract.

To inform the reader of the birth and early years of the man for whom this sketch is written, it may be said that he was born March 4, 1830, in Athens County, Ohio, where he remained under the parental roof until twenty-four years of age and then came to Iowa. He is the son of James COE, born in Connecticut during the first year of this century, and when ten years of age with his parents emigrated to the Buckeye State, his father building the first mill in Athens County. James COE's wife, the mother of our subject, was Katherine (HURLBURT) COE, married in 1823, and was the mother of ten children, our subject being the fifth child.

Josiah COE was married March 20, 1865, to Miss Jessie KINNIS, at Plattsmouth, Neb., and by this union there are eight children--Jennie E., Katie M., Bertha, George W., Mary, Arthur J., Jessie S., and Amy. The last named died March 31, 1891. George and Bertha are now attending college at Des Moines. Jennie and Kate have both attended the Drake University, at Des Moines, the former marrying Charles F. COE March 3, 1891.

Concerning the family history of our subject's wife, she ws born in Scotland in the town of Perth, June 14, 1843, and in 1854 emigrated with her parents to America, remaining in New York City until 1859, when the family came to Harrison County. Her father was Andrew KINNIS, Sr., a native of Scotland and born January 1, 1785, and died in Harrison County February 4, 1864. The mother was born June 8, 1798, in the Highlands of Scotland, at Dalquise and died in Harrison County January 22, 1884. They were the parents of seven children, Mrs. COE being the youngest.

In May, 1884, Mrs. COE with her brother, D. M. KINNIS, sailed for the land of her birth and visited until September. Mr. and Mrs. COE are members of the Christian Church, the latter having been reared in the Baptist Church, but finding no such denomination here, attached herself to the Christian Church in New York, which faith she still holds, her husband having been a member of this church eight years.

Politically our subject is a stanch supporter of the Republican party.

Mr. COE helped select the swamp land of Harrison County from Logan to the south line of the county. George WHITE was surveyor in charge and the party consisted of that gentleman, Mr. COE, Smith BLAKELY, and George SMOTHERS. This work was executed in the winter of 1854-55, and they camped in the timber which skirts the Boyer River.

The first improvements on Mr. COE's place was the building of a log cabin which was 16x20 feet and was erected in 1858; this building was originally built by L. D. BUTLER on the Picayune Creek and still stands on COE's farm, a good building; the same was occupied by the family until he built his present residence, which is a two-story brick house, the main part of which is 30x36 feet with a kitchen 14x16 feet, erected in 1870 and at the time was said to be the best house in the county. Beneath this farmhouse is a cellar nine feet deep, with a wall sixteen inches thick. The total cost of this building was $4,000.

Having due care for the large number of stock he keeps, in 1869 he build a barn 30x40 feet and in 1882 erected a cow barn 20x24 feet. Prior to this he had the ordinary Iowa Hay and straw shedding.

While the years have been passing by, this man has been busily engaged in the honest efforts to accumulate property, and when one views his present landed estate, comprising something over thirteen hundred acres, and realizes that he is President of the Commercial Bank at Woodbine, over which he has presided ever since it was organized in September, 1884, it will go without saying that his efforts have been crowned with success.

Return to 1891 Biographical C Surnames Index

Back to 1891 Biographies Index