Cumberland Co., KY

Coe Ridge Family Tree

Courtesy Barren’s Black Roots Volume 3, Michelle Gorin Burris, Gorin Genealogical Publications, (c) Sept 1993. Information taken from the files of the late Eva Coe Peden and abstracted also from William Lynwood Montell’s “The Saga of Coe Ridge.”

Located in the foothills of the Cumberland Mountains in Cumberland County near the Tennessee line. It was known as Coe Town, Coe Colony and Zeektown.  The African American colony began thusly; abstracted.

Betty: An African American slave and her Master Stove, a Cherokee Indian. She accompanied him from North Carolina with her two sons – Ransom and Ezekiel.

Sukey: Possibly Betty’s sister, African American also came from North Carolina. Sukey had the following children by her master Lynch, white:

      1 – Patsy Ann. Born on Kettle Creek in Monroe County about 1822, married Ezekiel Coe, son of Betty and Stove.

      2 – Riley – an escaped slave

      3 – Bill Burress – born on the Coe plantation about 1845

      4 – Tom Softly

Betty’s Ezekiel and Sukey’s Patsy Ann had the following children:

      1 – Mary Coe. Married Tom Wilburn. She died 8 Feb 1907; her birth date seems to be 29 Oct 1848. Thomas Wilburn came from the head of the Obey            River, a descendant of slave parents. Tom and Mary were supposedly moonshiners. Their children:

(a)     Charlie Wilburn (married, spouse not known). They had:

(1)     Ruie Wilburn who married Joe Coe

(b)     Shirley Wilburn

(c)     Sherman Wilburn

(d)     Billy Wilburn

(e)     Garfield Wilburn

(f)     Oleson Wilborn

2 – Ezekiel (Crippled Zeke). Single. Lived with his parents until his death in the 1950’s.

3 – Thomas Coe married Lucetta (Sett) King. Lucetta’s mother, Mary, lived in the Obey Riger area, just north of Celina, TN. Lucetta had a sister Fertilda     who lived with she and Thomas Coe all her life. Thomas and Lucetta’s children:

(a)     Robert Coe. Married Lucy Anders. He was born 21 Sept 1874; died 7 Dec 1946 on Coe Ridge. Lucy was a 16 year old daughter of slaves from Monroe Co.            Also known as Lucy Robert Coe. Her mother was Jennie. Jennie’s father was Isom Stephens (white). Lucy’s father was Mat Anders, property of master     Varney Anders/Andrews of the Turkey Neck Bend area. Robert and Lucy’s children:

(1)     Joe Coe. Married Ruie Wilburn

(2)     Clay Coe

(3)     Jack Coe

(4)     Annie Coe

(5)     Ollie Coe

(6)     Ivie Coe

(7)     Willie Coe

(8)     Grace Coe

(9)     Kate Coe

(10)  Mattie Coe

(11)  Ruthie Calvin Coe born 14 June 1898, died 21 Oct 1918

(12)  Mary Susie Coe born 5 Mar 1900; died 22 Oct 1918

(13)  Lucie Coe

(b)     Josephus (Sephus) Coe. Married Lou Williams. Moved to Indianapolis IN. Lou was Daughter of Billy Williams who lived in the Meschack section of Monroe      Co. Their

Children:

(1)     Hazel Coe. Died in Indianapolis in 1956

(2)     Frank Coe – lived in Indianapolis

(3)     Tom Coe

(c)     Sarah Ruth Coe. Married Frank Anders

(d)     Molly Coe. Married Wilse Holman. Wilse was from Monroe Co, the son of Danny Holman and Mime Coe. He had a sister, Mary Ellen, who married Molly’s      first cousin, Little John Coe. Wilse and Molly spent most of their married life on the Johnny Overstreet place in Celina TN. After his death, Molly      returned to Zeketown. Molly and Wilse had:

(1)     Lawyer Holman

(2)     Henry Holman

(3)     Esau Holman

(4)     Calvin Holman

(5)     Oscar Holman

(6)     Tom Holman

(7)     Isabella Holman

(8)     Lizzie Holman

(9)     Cassie Holman

(10)  Lucy Holman

(11)  Fannie Holman who married Roy Anders

(12)  Lottie Beatrice Holman

Children of Ezeliel and Patsy Ann continued:

4. Jemima (Mime) Coe married Danny Holman. Their children:

(a)     Wilse Holman who married Molly Coe

(b)     Bob Holman

(c)     Frank Holman

(d)     Mary Ellen Holman married Little Joe Coe. Their children:

(1)     Minnie Coe

(2)     Ida Coe who married Cornelius Allen

(3)     Levie Coe

(4)     Ulah Coe

(5)     Samuel Coe Jr

(6)     Laura Coe

(7)     Beulah Coe

(8)     Lois Coe

5         William (Bill Zeke) Coe married Mandy Kirkpatrick. Mandy was a slave girl who could read and wirte. She was born on the Chism Kirkpatrick        plantation, north of Celina, TN. Bill died 9 Feb 1913. Their children:

(a)     Little John Coe. Married Mary Ellen Holman. He killed Simp Smith. Mary Ellen was a sister to Wilse Holman. After Little Joe was imprisoned, she took      all the children and moved to Indianapolis and never returned. When Little Joe was freed in 1928, he too Went to Indianapolis and died shortly      thereafter.

(b)     Thomas Ezekiel (“E”) Coe. Married Lucy Wilburn. Lucy was his first cousin. She was a school teacher. He died shortly before his wife – both are

        buried on the ridge. Their children:

(1)     Leslie Coe Jr

(2)     Charlie Coe

(3)     Otley Coe

(4)     Beulah Coe

(5)     Jewell Coe

(6)     Dimple Coe

(7)     Glaydelle Coe

(c)     Jesse Coe. Single. Killed two policemen in Indianapolis IN 1906, escaped and hid out in Zeketown for 18 months. He was shot to death in an ambush.

(d)     Cassie Coe. Married Bill Raspberry, married (2) a Wagner? Bill’s real last name was Asberry, usually called Raspberry. He was a drifter from VA who       came to Coe Ridge. In the 1890’s. They married about 1870 and moved to Indianapolis. At his death, he Confessed that his real last name was Esselman.      Children had their names changed to Esselman. Cassie became a preacher known as “Mother Wagner” – returned to live in Zeketown.

(e)     Ada Coe married Hance Williams. Hance was from the Martinsburg area of Monroe Co

(f)      Samuel F. Coe. Born 12 Sept 1879, died in Kansas City KS 12 May 1897. He was Married to an unknown spouse but had no children.

(g)     Ora Coe married Chester Coe. They lived their lives on Coe Ridge, she died at age 42.

Children:

(1)     Tim Coe

(2)     Big Les Coe

(3)     Marjorie Coe

(4)     Wallace Coe

(5)     Prentice Coe

(6)     Tabitha Coe

6         John (Old or Yaller John) Coe married first Tennessee Black; married second Virginia Warren. After marrying to Tennessee; they moved to her place           of birth at Mud Camp in Cumberland Co. His second wife was a white woman, Virginia, who died of TB. John died in his 90’s at Zeketown. His

       children:

(a)       Chester Coe married Ora Coe

(b)       Cora Coe

(c)       Willie Coe. Born right before Virginia’s death.

7         Joe Coe married Tilda Black. She was from the Mud Camp section of Cumberland Co. Joe was killed by an assassin’s bullet during a visit to Zeketown         in 1888. They had no children.

8         Sarah Coe married first Joe Kirkpatrick; married second a Lewis. Her first husband was a cousin from the Meshack section of Monroe County. After         her marriage to Mr Lewis, Sarah moved to Glasgow, Barren Co KY, where she died about 1956.

9         Frank Coe

10      Sue (Suze) Coe. Died of TB while at school on the Ridge.

11      Calvin Coe married Sue Ann Barton. He was born 20- May 1861, died 21 April 1955 at age 93. He attempted to elope once with a white girl, Molly      Ballard. His wife Sue Ann was also white, She stayed with him the rest of her life as a common-law wife, and lived in the jail where he was

     a prisoner. They had a “houseful” of children which were not named. Sue Ann was supposedly a Black who passed herself off a white.

12      Unnamed daughter Coe.