George A. Coffey. There
is no profession to which men devote their energies more dignified in
its ethics or more reasonably helpful to their fellow-men than that
of education, the always advancing standards of which demand of its
devotees constant study and a keen and
comprehensive knowledge of a wealth of subjects. These demands, in
turn, redound to the benefit of the community, for not infrequently
the capable educator is chosen for positions in the law-making
department of our government, where he is able, through his superior
attainments, to contribute materially to his locality’s development
and progress. Of the educators of Western Oklahoma who have won
prominent positions in their calling and at the same time have served
the communities capably in legislative office, one of the best known
and most popular is George A. Coffey, ex-state senator and at present
superintendent of schools of Carter, Beckham County. His labors as an
educator have covered a period of more than twenty years, and his
advancement in his profession has been steady and consistent. Few men
have contributed in greater degree to the cause of education, and no
man has a better record for straightforward, energetic effort as a
public servant.
Mr. Coffey was born
in Saline County, Illinois, January 13, 1874, and is a son of Rev. J.
M. and Mary R. (Glasscock) Coffey, and a descendant of Irish
ancestors who came to America in Colonial days and settled in
Virginia. His father was born in Saline County, Illinois, in 1846,
and as a young man adopted the vocation of farmer, an occupation he
has followed throughout his life, in connection with his labors as a
minister of the Missionary Baptist Church. With the exception of a
year spent in Kansas, he resided in Saline County, Illinois, until
1888, in that year removing with his family to Baylor County, Texas,
and two years later going to Brown County, in the same state. There
he made his home until April, 1893, when he took up a homestead in
Washita County, Oklahoma, and after proving his claim disposed of his
land andbought his present farm, also in Washita County. He is now
living a retired life, being in comfortable financial circumstances.
Mrs. Coffey, who survives at the age of sixty-seven years, is a
native of Tennessee.
Mr. Coffey of this
review comes of a race of people noted for longevity, none of his
ancestors, male or female, having died under the age of seventy-five,
and some of them reaching the age of 112.
George A. Coffey
attended the country schools of Saline County, Illinois, until he was
fourteen years of age and at that time went with his parents to
Baylor County, Texas. He went to the high school at Seymour, and in
1890, when his parents went to Brown County, Texas, he entered Howard
Payne College and finished the teachers’ training course in 1894. In
the meantime he had already entered upon his educational career,
having taught several terms in Oklahoma and Texas, and in 1894 began
to devote his entire time to his chosen calling, as a teacher in
Erath County. In the term of 1895-6 he was principal of schools at
Huckaby, Erath County, Texas, and during the terms of 1896-7, 1897-8
and 1898-9 was teacher at Alexander, Texas, while in 1899,
1900, he was engaged in the same capacity at Walnut Springs, Texas.
On December 25, 1899. Mr. Coffey came to Oklahoma and filed on a
claim in Washita County, on which he began to live March 10, 1900,/
and continued to reside thereon for five years, finally proving up
and selling it. During this time, in 1900-01, he had continued his
professional labors as principal
of schools at Gage, Oklahoma, continued as such in the term of
1901-2, and in 1902-3 was principal of the schools at Cordell, there
organizing the first graded school in Washita County. In the terms of
1903-4 and 1904-5 he was superintendent of schools at Port, Oklahoma,
in 1905-6 at Rocky, Oklahoma, in 1906-7 at Port again, and in 1907-8,
1908-9 and 1909-10 at Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. During the time he resided
at Lone Wolf, Mr. Coffey served as a member of the Oklahoma State
Senate, to which body he was elected on the democratic ticket. His
service therein was a notable one, he being chairman of the
committees on Penal Institutions and Enrolling and Engrossing Bills,
and a member of the committees on Public Service, Fees and Salaries,
Education, Insurance, Mines and Manufacturing, Public Health and
Military Affairs. He introduced and secured the passage of the bill
for State Aid for Consolidated Schools, the first bill of its kind
and now a law. He was one of the authors of and introduced into the
Senate the bill which created the present State Board of Education,
and of the bill that secured the large appropriation for the
buildings at the Granite Reformatory. Mr. Coffey took a leading part
in the fight against the Muskogee Fair Bill, and opposed a large
appropriation for the governor’s inaugural ceremony. For a number of
years Mr. Coffey has been a leading figure in all the prohibition
campaigns, being a stump speaker of forcible address and convincing
argument against the liquor traffic.
In 1910-11 Mr.
Coffey was superintendent of schools at Mountain Park and Retrot.
Oklahoma, in 1911-12 at Spring Creek, in 1912-13 at Sentinel, and in
1913-14 at Spring Creek again, and in the fall of 1915 was called to
the position of superintendent of schools at Carter, Oklahoma, with a
corps of six teachers and a scholarship of 300 pupils. Mr. Coffey is
a valued member of the Washita County Teachers Association and the
Oklahoma Teachers Association. He has at various times been honored
in a professional way, having served as a member of the Board of
Examiners of Erath County, Texas, for four years, and of Washita
County, Oklahoma, eight years. During the greater part of this time
he has devoted the summer terms, when others are enjoying vacations,
to faithful and energetic work in the summer normal schools. A recent
review of the life and labors of Superintendent Coffey said in part
as follows: “He is a man of versatile ability, being known for
twenty-three years to the people of Southwestern Oklahoma in the
various capacities of pioneer and progressive educator, fraternal and
religious lecturer, prohibition speaker and school legislator. He has
ever been in the front ranks of every fight for better government,
better schools, morality and decency. His fearless stand for humanity
and the right has made him a host of friends. In the school room, in
the state senate, in his home, and among his neighbors and friends,
he has ever been the same common, plain, unassuming man. The humblest
citizen and smallest child in the county may approach him on the same
plane of confidence and friendship and be assured of receiving the
same consideration and courtesy that would be given to the highest
educators and officials of the state with whom he has frequently
associated. In his work he has enjoyed the friendship and respect of
the ablest men of the state, yet he has spent his time for the uplift
of the common people; and the overwhelming support that they have
given to all his public aspirations gives proof that they fully
appreciate his efforts in their behalf.” With his family, Mr.
Coffey belongs to the Baptist Church. His fraternal connections are
with Lone Wolf Lodge, A. F. & A. M.;
the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, at Sentinel, and the Rebekahs
of the same; the Woodmen of
the World, at Sentinel, and the Modern Woodmen of America at Lone
Wolf.
Superintendent
Coffey was married in Erath County, Texas, in 1895, to Miss Julia
Gordon Lockhart, daughter of the late Elder J. C. R. Lockhart, who
for more than seventy-five years was a. Baptist preacher in Alabama
and Texas. Four children have been born to this union: John L., who
is a teacher in the public schools of Carter, under his father; Mary
L., who is a member of the sophomore class, at Carter High School;
Georgia, who is in the seventh grade of the public schools at Carter;
and Geordia, twin of Georgia, also in seventh grade.