There is nothing more interesting than to examine into the life of a self-made man, and to analyze those principles that have enabled one man to pass on the highway of life many who were more advan tageously endowed at the outset of their careers.
But few men who left their eastern homes in pioneer days to seek a fortune in the wild West were men of wealth. Their capital after landing here, generally speaking, consisted of two strong arms and a will power. It was this class of men who have made the great State of Iowa what it is to-day-men who faced hardships and privation and settling on the unbroken prairie have brought the wild lands under cultivation and made Iowa one of the leading agricultural States of the Union. They are the men who deserve their names inscribed on the pages of honorable history, and in this connection there is none inore deserving than the gentleman whose name heads this sketch.
Joseph Coe was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1820, and is a son of Benjamin and Nancy (Shields) Coe, who were natives of the Keystone State. They were married about 1814 and to them ten children were born, eight of whom reached the years of maturity.
The ancestors of our subject can be traced back to Robert Coe, who sailed from Ipswich, Suffolkshire, England, with his wife and three sons, April 10, 1634, on the “ Francis,” landing in Boston the following June, and settling soon after in Watertown, Massachusetts.
Benjamin Coe, father of Joseph Coe, was a farmer and stock raiser of Allegheny County, where he lived until his death, which occurred in 1873, his wife having died in 1862. Joseph Coe was reared on his father's farm, and did not start out to fight the battles of life on his own account until he was twenty-six years of age. In 1846 he decided to come west, and settled in Scott County, Iowa. The following year he took up a claim of one hundred and sixty acres in Le Claire Township, and the Government land office being located at Iowa City, he made the journey on horseback from Le Claire, and entered his land. It cost him two hundred dollars, which he paid in gold. This took the greater part of his capital, but he began the cultivation of his land by breaking the sod and planting a crop. In May of that year (1847) he married Miss Elizabeth, a daughter of James Jack, who was a pioneer settler in Scott County. She died the following year. August 24, 1854, Mr. Coe was united in marriage to Miss Catherine Moyer, a daughter of John Moyer; to this union four children were born. Benjamin F. married Miss Jennie Peasley; Sarah J. married Matthew Wilson; John A. married Miss Fannie Hamilton; Joseph C. married Miss Mamie Rich.
When Mr. Coe landed in the Territory of Iowa he had but three hundred and fifty dollars, but he had a capital which he could not lose by wild speculation, and that was sound judgment, supplemented by a determination to make a success of life and become a man among his fellow-men. He has accumulated a great deal of real estate and now owns over nine hundred acres of valuable land in Scott and Jasper Counties. He attributes his success to his industry and that of his wife, who has always used economy and helped to save their earnings. She is a lady of pleasing manners and is held in high esteem by all her neighbors.
Standing six feet three inches in height, and very erect for one of his age, Mr. Coe is smooth shaven and has the bearing and manners of the old school gentleman. His home is a pleasant one, overlooking the Mississippi river, and he merits the pleasant life he is living in his declining years. He has never been an office-seeker, preferring the life of a farmer and stock raiser.
BIOGRAPHIES