Part 1 of 2 parts:
        The Coats have been and are numerous in this region. They are of Scotch descent, and a brief account of their ancestry may be found in connection with the life of John Coats (rev.) late of Coatsville, Indiana, but now residing in Randolph County. Three brothers, Robert, James, and William belong to the "house of Coats" and the family of the thread-makers of Paisley, Scotland, came to South Carolina before the Revolutionary War, but at what exact date cannot be stated. These brothers settled in Caroline and resided there till their death. John Coats the first of the name in Randolph was the son of William Coats one of three brother emigrants from Scotland above named. William Coats was the son of Philip Coats of Scotland and a sister of William Coats was the mother of Rev. John Coats of Coatsville, elsewhere. William Coats had a large family, at least seven of whom came to the Northwest from Carolina as follow: John, William, Joseph, Hepsy (Wright), Rhoda (Wrench), Hettie (Harrison, Mary (Beanblossom). John Coats was born in Carolina in 1786; married Sally Wright, daughter of Thomas Wright, in 1807 (she was born in 1789) they came to Ohio soon afterward, and in 1819 moved upon White River, Randolph Co., Ind., John Coats and Thomas Wright, his father-in-law, lived for awhile near Covington, Ohio, upon what is now the famous and valuable stone quarries at that place. While residing in that region, the Indians were troublesome. There was a fort not far off, and they moved into it for safety, the mother leading on child by the hand and carrying the other at her breast. At one time, Mrs. Thomas Wright and her daughter Mrs. John Coat were emptying meal into a barrel, and old Indian came into the house. He said nothing, coming in unobserved, till he had reached the middle of the room. His hunting-knife had slipped around in front and as he undertook to move it back upon his hip, they thought he was going to kill them. The children were lying on the bed and the women forgetting all about them, ran wildly past the Indian out of the house. Recollecting the children, they rushed back and seizing them, ran with the whole group, five in all, to the shelter of the fort. Mr. Wright coming home in the evening found them there, and was much surprised at the fact. The Indian was peaceable and intended no harm. These families came to Dark Co., perhaps in 1809 and lived there during the war of 1811-13, undergoing the manifold hardships and dangers of that perilous time. Messrs. Coats and Wright moved in 1819 to Randolph Co., Ind., and in process of years their descendants became very numerous in that whole region, as well as elsewhere. Johy (John, I think) and Sally Coats were parents of fourteen children. Seven were born before their emigration to Randolph Co., Ind., and seven afterward. The names of the children are as follows: Thomas W., born 18o8, six children, died May 13, 1864; Isaac, born 1810, eight children, dies 1876; Charlotte (Hiatt) born 1812, ten children, widow. Charity (Coffin) born 1813, sixteen children, widow. Betsey Rose, born 1815, dies 1816. William born 1817, four children, living. Hames, born 1819, six children and he is living. Mary (Pogue) born 1821, five children, widow. Gabriel, born 1824, ten children, killed at Vicksburg by a bursting of a shell, he belonged to the Fifty Fourth Indiana Infantry, Capt. Carter; Joseph, born 1826, nine children died 1878, John, born, 1833, one child and is dead; Dempsey, born in 1835, has five children and is living in Miami County, Indiana. John Coats entered eighty acres of land three miles east of Winchester; he was a farmer and a chairmaker. At one time he held the office of Justice of the peace and his jurisdiction extended at first to Fort Wayne and possibly to the North limit of the State. Mr. Coats was county Commissioner during several years.

Part 2 of 2 parts:
        In religious connection, he was a Friend, in politics, in olden times, a whig, and in later years a Republican. His death occurred in 1878, he being ninety years old; his wife had preceded him three years her death taking place in 1875, and her age being eighty-six years. Twelve of their children grew up and were married and had families. All the sons and the sons-in-law but one were Republicans. A re-union of the connection was held about twenty years ago at the family homestead, at which about 300 descendants of John Coats were present. Several other like gatherings have since taken place, with the attendance of hundreds of children and grand-children. During later years, many of the relatives have removed from the county, yet a large number still remain. At a re-union held near Harrisville, in the summer of 1882, at the request of Rev. John Coats of Coatsville, nearly two hundred of the connection were present. William and Joseph Coats, brothers of John Coats, Sr., did not reside in Randolph Co., William Coats (son of John Coats, Sr.,) was born in Ohio, in 1817, was brought to Randolph Co., in 1819 and married Mary M. Moffit in 1837. They have had four children, all living and all married; his wife and himself are both living; he owns sixty acres of land east of Winchester is a sound Republican and a worthy and esteemed citizen, Rev. John Coats, of Coatsville, Ind. Was born in England in the town of Lockton, Yorkshire, in 1810; his father was Robert Coats, who was the son of Robert Coats, who lived upon the estate which had been in possession of the family for 300 years, and doubtless will be for 300 eyars in time to come. John Coats is the lineal descendant of the famous Coats family of thread-makers, of Paisley, Scotland, who have come down from the fourteenth century to 1882, filling the rank and business every station of enterprise and usefullness among men. The Coats family are found in every State and Territory, the sole representative in Washington Territory being the only son of Rev. John Coats. Glorious Record, Failures, indeed, there have been but, on the whole, the family presents a bright and shining scroll of honor and integrity and success. They are a numerous line through six centuries, comprising twenty four generations of active, energetic men. They extend far back of even that ancient time. They were once five shepherds of Rome feeding their flocks upon the fertile pastures of sunny Italy, and mayhap their flocks by night on the plains of Bethlehem in the sacred land of Judea, when mystic strains resounded through the midnight air announcing to their astonished ears a Savior born. The wonderous babe of Bethlehem, J.C. Spent three years in searching through the 500 volumes of English history to find the traces of his ancestors. On the tented field, they led their flocks, in the land of ancient Rome, and afterwards, but how he cannot tell, they became dwellers upon the soil of Britain. In the fourteenth century, the family divided. King Henry 11 directed that every man of age might choose his own calling, and part chose farming, and part chose to be shepherds, one group went to England, and one to Scotland, one branch spelled their names Coats, and the other Coates. Rev. John Coats was born in England, came to Canada in his ninth year; lived among the Indians for five years with no companions but the dusky sons of the forest, and in 1826 his home was transferred to Northern Ohio, in the neighborhood where lived the Garfield family, and still again, to the banks of the Mad River. Many a time has he been chased by wolves, as his parents dwelt in the deep, dark forests. He has more than once seen his father and mother seated, one on each side of the hewed cabin fire-place weeping bitter tears because they had no food for themselves and their children and knew not how nor where to obtain it, being sixteen miles from a white inhabitant. Hardship and poverty and toil have been his lot, but now "Thank God as he stands trembling on the brink of the grave he can look back and say with the sacrid writer. "have been young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." When young in England the family were very poor, yet when a lad seven years old, J. C> had himself earned 30 shillings "Tending crows". The gentlemen keep immense rookeries with perhaps one hundred nests in a single tree, and in time of harvest, they have to be watched. When twenty years of age, he could not speak a word of English, though born and bred in England. Broad, rough, rugged "Yorkshire" was all he knew, he could not tell a letter in a book or make a character with a pen. After his marriage and birth of his first child, his wife said, "John, I don't want to be the mother of thy children while thou art so ignorant and thou art." And he built a school-house and went to school and learned to read and write, and kept on studying and acquiring knowledge till he might have graduated in the medical school of the times. But he cared not for an empty honor of a conferred degree, and went back to his farm. He had never been sick (except a brief attack of paralysis), has never had a physician feel his flesh, and never took a portion of medicine, and his only son in middle life, can truthfully say the same. He is now engaged in traveling through the country visiting his numerous relatives and gathering up a history of the Coats connection. And both branches of the family have prospered and greatly helped the world to achieve success. As an example of high results may be named Mr. Boyerlt Lancaster Co., Penn. Who married the daughter of Henry Coats and who has a world wide fame as a prince among agriculturists. Among scholors may be named Russell Coats eminent in physiological learning among scientists of the day. They have everywhere been noted for energy, for strength, for hardy endurance, and for firm and steady perseverance against every obstacle and against hardships in their severest form.

End

"Bill..........................................................................Nye"

Return to the Table of Content

E-mail