Notes:

John H. is in the deed records for Union Twp., Miami Co., Ohio in 1850 and 1856. He originally purchased 226 acres and later added 40 more. His property is listed in the 1871 Atlas of Miami Co., Ohio published by C.O. Titus in Union Twp. wedged between the Heirs of Aaron Coppock and Benj. Coppock. He was the first dairy farmer in the state and well respected stock dealer of his dairy cattle. By 1897 he was supplying local hotels, restaurants and the Soldiers home with the finest butter anywhere. (C-26, 1025)

In the 1850 census, John Coate is 24 years old, a farmer worth $5000 in real estate. He was living with his wife Jane, age 20 and was married within the year of the census. This census was taken in late 49 or 50 before the month of Oct. His stepmother, Eunice Cothran Coate, who is 57 years old is living with them. John and Jane were born in Ohio Eunice was born in South Carolina. In the 1860 census records, John's worth is estimated at about $14,000. He was a farmer. In the 1880 Ohio census records for Union Twp., Miami Co., Ohio, he was 55, a farmer and sick that day of disease of the bowels. He said he was born in Ohio and both his parents were born in North Carolina. The data for his family was: wife Jane C., age 51, born Ohio as well as her parents, Warren, age 24, b. OH; Ida J., daughter-in-law, age 20 b. OH as well as her parents; Loretta, age 18, b. OH; Maurie J., age 8/12, b. Sept. 1879 in OH; Rachul Coppock, age 71, Mother-in-law, b. Oh, her parents born, North Carolina; (Eluoia) Coppock, age 18, niece, Servant, born Indiana, parents born in Ohio. (C-385) His father's third wife, Eunice, also lived with them in both the 1850 and 1860 census records. John H. was living with his daughter Loretta and son-in-law, Edgar W. Yount in the 1900 census records. (C-224)

He might be the John Coate who was a dealer in groceries, wood, coal, lime, hair plaster and cement in Beers History of Miami Co. OH, though this is more likely to refer to another John, as the census records consistently list him as a farmer. (C-10) Specifically, we know for certain that he was a dairy farmer in Miami Co., Ohio.

His death date is the 24th on his death certificate and the 26th on his cemetery stone. I do not know which is correct.

John married Jane COPPOCK on 22 May 1850 in Union M.M., Miami, OH, USA. Jane (daughter of Joseph COPPOCK and Rachel HOLLINGSWORTH) was born on 1 Oct 1829 in Ludlow Falls, Miami, OH, USA; died on 4 Dec 1914 in West Milton, Miami, OH, USA; was buried on 7 Dec 1914 in Union Joint Cemetery, Ludlow Falls, Newton Twp., Miami, OH. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He went by the name of Harry B. Coate as an adult. He was known for his astute business sense. He was the senior member of a drygoods business called Coate and Caw in the Allen building in Troy, Ohio. He ran off with his governess and moved to Chicago, IL where he was the vice-president of Cooper, Coate and Casey Co. When he left his wife with the governess, this tainted his memory in the eyes of his family, as they were quite fond of his wife. He married the governess apparently after his wife, Mary, divorced him. He had at least one daughter by his second wife. Her married name was Mrs. Gertrude Huddel. (C-370a) He and his second wife lived in Los Angeles, California where he opened another dry goods store with three surnames in the title of it too. He owned that store for 38 years and died at a ripe old age. (C-370a, 2081, & Al Coate)

Family/Spouse: Mary C. WILLIAMS. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Warren Coate taught school at Wilmington, Ohio where I believe he had gone to college. He then married and inherited the large dairy farm in Ludlow Falls, Ohio from his father. He somehow lost possession of it financially about 1899, at which point he and his wife Ida Jane and family moved to Piqua, Ohio. They rented a house owned by (Mary) Jane Mast Pickering at 309 Wood St. Warren went to work for a dairy farm across the street from there. When he no longer could do that hard labor, he helped his wife run the boarding house that was one side of the home they were renting. (Mary) Jane Mast Pickering was very aged and didn't know that her relatives renting her home were also running a boarding house for a good 20 year period. This is also the home she later rented to Albert Pickering Coate and Maude Stevens Coate, my dad's parents, several times. (Interview of my father, Albert Edward Coate, C-54 & 606)

Warren's grandson, Richard Coate, remembers him handing him a "Milky Way" candy bar when he was just a preschooler. It made a lasting impression. He also remembers him sweeping the rows between the corn in the backyard garden with a broom! On Warren's death certificate, he was listed as a gardener by occupation. He lived on Urbana Pike R.R. 5 St. in Piqua, Ohio at his death. He died of Volvulus of a transverse colon in Memorial Hospital on Sep. 27, 1929. (C-1847, DOC)

Warren married Ida Jane HARB on 30 Jan 1879 in , Miami, OH, USA. Ida (daughter of Marquis Lafayette HARB, * and Arabelle C. MAST) was born on 15 Feb 1860 in Van Wert, Van Wert, Ohio, USA; died on 4 Sep 1926 in Hamilton, Butler, OH, USA; was buried on 6 Sep 1926 in West Milton, Miami, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Loretta married Edgar W. YOUNT on 28 Oct 1880. Edgar was born on 25 Sep 1861; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

She was known as Mamie Smyers as an adult. She was not living with her parents in the 1880 census when she supposedly was about 4 years of age when the census was taken. She is possibly the Mary J. Smyers living with her daughter, Isabell Ronan's family in the 1930 census for Chicago, Cook Co, Illinois. Her age was 54 and her birthplace is given as Indiana. Her birthplace is what is not likely to match our Mary Jane Coate Smyers.

Mary married No Name SMYERS after 1890. No was born in 1875; died in 1915. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Unknown SMYERS. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

This aunt of my fathers is remembered with great fondness by him. She was a very sweet, kind genteel woman who outlived her husband and child. She was nicknamed Mamie J. as a baby by the 1880 census where she was staying with her grandparents. She was one of 3 Baccalaureate speakers as her High School Graduation on May 6, 1898 for West Milton High School. She was listed as the honored final speaker with her oration entitled "Thermopylae". She was a teacher in Miami County. I have one of her teacher qualification exam certificates in my files date Aug. 5, 1899, Troy, Ohio. She is the aunt who gave my father the two rocks that had been in the family a long, long time: the indian matat (et) and the stone shaped like a Mexican sombrero (or axe) that was probably the stone found by the first Coates to come to Ohio, Henry's children, on their first day at Ludlow Falls. It is described in a biography of their first day as being shaped like an "adze". It could have been a stone tied to a very large piece of wood made into a very heavy axe. She died at age 81 according to her cemetery records as indexed in the Miami Valley Index on the internet. (C-362, )

Family/Spouse: Joseph (Joe) B. MCKINLEY. Joseph died after 2 Jun 1941. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

I have in my files a copy of the ancestry of Herbert Hoover that includes biographical descriptions of Henry Coate's (Marmaduke's son) emigration from SC to Ohio in Aunt Grace's handwriting. According to my father, her sister Mamie McKinley would do the composing and Aunt Grace would handwrite it out. It's likely that this manuscript entitled "Ohio History of Herbert Hoover's Ancestry" was what Mamie was preparing for a Dayton paper as referred to in an Apr 25, 1931 letter between Mrs. Dunn to Mrs. McKinley.

The letter from Aunt Grace written on May 10, 1963 is partially transcribed below by Richard Coate, it's recipient. The part in which she included Aunt Mamie's work still needs to be transcribed, but it was sent in this letter. "I received a nice letter from your mother a couple weeks ago. She is looking forward with great anticipation to all of you children coming home this summer. How I would like to see all of you. I think she is doing marvelously well to be so active as she is. She is not far from 70. But I guess I was still pretty active at that age, too. I am now 81. Peggy and Don stopped to see her in Trenton on their way home from Houston." [Don was returning to Houston to be employed as Sports Editor for a Houston newspaper.]

"Hannah's son, Richard, is a junior in High School. He was sent with 83 other Boy Scouts to England on a Scout Exchange deal." I feel I have missed so much in not living closer to my nieces and nephews. You all are such nice folks. Albert and family topped here a few minutes on Mar. 10 en route from Mt. Clemens where they had taken Marcena's Aunt home. Albert's children are adorable. Was so glad to hear that Warren, Bob, and Albert's families all went down to Ashville for Martha Ann's wedding and your mother, too."I'm glad I was well enough to go to Mamie's as long as she lived. I spent much time there in the last two years - from 2 to 7 weeks at a time. She was so patient and kind.

There are so many things that come to my mind of long ago, that I want to know and only she could answer."I am expecting Margaret and Robert Fuller the latter part of this month. Their travels East and West North and South, (Australia to Alaska) have been extensive. Of course your darling daughter, Jennifer is walking and is she talking some by now?"

She also enclosed a document Aunt Mamie had drawn up concerning our genealogy, tracing our lineage all the way back to the Marmaduke who, along with his wife, Edith spent fifteen years in an English prison because of their adherence to the teachings of George Fox. It was pretty much what she had already taught us. (C-362) (Note: Our direct ancestor turned out to be John Coate married to Elizabeth Humphries. John spent 15 years in prison for not paying tithes to the Church of England because he was a Quaker. This has been proven through autosomal and YDNA).

According to cousin, Martha Hale, Grace and two of her sisters followed in their fathers footsteps and went to college. This would have been before women won the right to vote.

Family/Spouse: Corey L. WILSON. Corey (son of Benjamin WILSON and Sarah SMITH) was born on 30 Dec 1881 in , , OH, USA; died on 24 Aug 1956 in Akron, Summit, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Lenna, like her father, also went to college. Her obituary in the Journal Hearld, Dayton, Ohio is as follows: "Services for Mrs. Lenna C. Cress of 120 Five Oaks Avenue will be held at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the Roy H. Miller funeral home, West Milton. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery, West Milton. Friends may call at the funeral home from 5 to 9 p.m. today. Mrs. Cress died Saturday at her residence. A native of Miami county, she was employed as a secretary at the Wagner-Smith company 26 years. Surviving are her husband, Walter, and three sisters, Mrs. Grace Wilson of Akron, Mrs. Margaret Fuller of Nashville, N.C. and Mrs. Mamie Mckinley of Piqua." (C-2586) In the 1930 census for Dayton, Ohio it lists that she was employed as a book keeper for an Electrical Engineering firm. This were most unusual patterns for the time.

Lenna married Walter E. CRESS about 1904. Walter was born about 1879 in , , OH, USA; died after 2 Jun 1941 in Of Dayton, Montgomery Co, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Information about Albert P. is mostly from his children's memories, with some of it coming from insurance papers, deeds, and birth records.

When he was a child, he hated school and by the fifth grade his mother took a switch to him to get him to school. He was a very gentle and quiet man, the opposite of his wife in many ways. He was a very plain looking man and always very kind. His only fault mentioned was a quick temper. He went out of his way to help any person in need. He was the first of his family in Ohio to not be a practicing Quaker as an adult. He was a floor sander by trade and worked in all the counties surrounding his home. He also worked for what is now ARMCO, a steel rolling mill company. His job was to help turn the steel over and flip it onto a new line. When my dad was about nine, his father designed a device to automatically place the steel onto the new line. He showed the company his design and they said they had just gotten a patent on a similar device. They paid him $500.00 for his design. It was his design they actually built and this invention is still being used there today.

Some of what we know about Albert P. Coate comes from documents in his insurance files and my father, Albert Edward Coate. They rented one half of their Aunt's house in Piqua, Ohio when their first daughter was born. In the record of their 2nd stillborn daughter's birth in 1912, they lived at 696 Woodlawn, Middletown, Ohio. (C-DOC). They had moved to Baltimore St. in Middletown when their first son, Albert Edward was born. When Albert was 2 years old they tried to make a living by moving to the onion fields of northern Indiana. The summer brought a drought there and my father remembers living on potatoes and onions. It was a disaster and the Coate and Stevens families both moved back to Ohio after the first summer. Albert Pickering and his family then lived in Piqua, Ohio renting the house from their aunt again where Ben was born in 1916. Within a year, they moved to Trenton, Ohio on the opposite side of town that became their final home. Here Bob was born in 1917. They returned to Middletown on Franklin St. in 1919. About 1923, they returned to 113 John St. in Trenton where Albert P. Coate purchased the home I remember them living in for one thousand dollars. This is where he lived until the end of his life.

He was the third person to own a car in Trenton, Ohio. It was a Green Rio. His second car was a Model T. His young son Ben and a neighbor boy cut out the icing glass in it's windows when it was brand new. (C-687) On Sept. 13, 1934, he bought a Ford 28 Roadster from Lebanon Motor Sales for $95.00.(C-284) The final home belonging to Albert P. and Maud Stevens Coate at 113 John St., in Trenton, Ohio was sold in 1976 when Maud Coate moved to Columbus. It was listed at a cost of $23,500.00 with Jack Hembree Real Estate. (C:DOC-20)

Albert P. was known as a very friendly man. My father says "he never knew an enemy". People came from miles around to honor him at his funeral. It was one of the largest the town ever held and was packed with the people he'd befriended and an overflowing abundance of flowers. Twenty five years after his death, my father ran into a member of his community who commented on his dad's funeral and then said in a soft, sweet voice, "There was a fine.... man." He obviously touched people's hearts. One of his newspaper obituaries says that he had been ill since the November previous to his death and had been bedridden for the last three months. My father remembers his death occurring at the young age of 54 due to liver cancer. Apparently Albert P.'s smoking and years of exposure to floor sanding products got to his liver. My father, Albert Edward, stayed with him the night before he died. He died the next morning with the whole family gathered around him including his sister Mamie and her husband, Joe. His funeral service was held at the United Presbyterian Church with James P. Sturgeon and J.E. Amstutz (a Mennonite and close friend of the family) officiating. (C-284, 285, 2108) His death certificate says he died at age 53 years, 7 months and 21 days. It also says he was born on Nov 12, 1887, but his funeral book says he was born on Oct. 12, 1887 and his birth certificate says he was born on Dec. 12, 1887. The later is more likely to be correct. His son Benjamin was the person who gave the information for his death certificate and his memory on this subject might not have been accurate. His birth record would have been added closest to the event. (C: DOC)

The following is a biographical piece done by Richard Coate, son of Albert Pickering Coate about his father.ALBERT PICKERING COATE - INTELLIGENT, RESOURCEFUL AND INVENTIVE."As we all know, Dad was not a man of great means at the time he married Mom; however, an overall view of his history as a provider for his family reveals him to have been an intelligent, resourceful, and inventive man whose attempt to improve his circumstance and exercise a degree of control his own destiny was often foiled by the climate of the times in which he lived as well those who would exploit him for their own gain. That he was a man of deep humility was evident to all that knew him, due in large part to his Quaker upbringing. That he was capable of overcoming the many obstacles he confronted through the years is a testament to his tenacity, resilience and strength of character.

The pride and devotion to his family predominated all else. Considered by some to be a "dreamer" he was actually a man of considerable vision. Despite the error in judgment in quitting school at an early age, he was nonetheless determined to overcome the handicap by making his mark in the world.(In) 1915, when Marahelen and Albert were five and two respectively, Dad and Mom, along with members of the [Kaufman family] in Piqua, Ohio spent a hot, dry and unproductive summer in the Onion fields in Indiana. Though I don't know how many children they had at the time Dad and his younger brother John, owned a company for the manufacture of decorated cement blocks, they were still residing in Piqua. It must have been disheartening when Dad learned that Uncle John took off for Mexico with the $7000.00 in company funds.

When the Company was forced to close down for lack of sufficient operating funds, Dad, was again confronted with a crisis. Not one to bear a grudge, with passing time Dad apparently forgave his brother, for I recall the times Dad visited Uncle John at his home in Hamilton, Oh. However, as long as Mom lived she never had a good word to say about her brother-in-law. Though it is not known when he became an employee of the steel manufacturing company which became known as Armco in Middletown, Oh., Dad's inventive mind became a boon to his employer. In 1922, he was paid $ 1,000.00 for an invention of a means whereby a sheet of steel was automatically placed onto a new line in the manufacturing process. After he paid the man whom supplied material and the money to develop the invention, his profit only amounted to $5,00.00. Revolutionary as the process proved to be, the $500.00 was still pittance in comparison to the boon it proved to be for his employer. The amount of money and time in labor it saved them is inestimable.

Apparently Dad used some of the money to purchase the house on 113 John Street in Trenton, which became our home until Mom sold it in 1976. It was still in the boom years of the '20s when Dad left Armco. He apparently used some of the money to invest in a new business of his own. Dad would continue in the floor sanding business until his death. However, during the early depression years, floor sanders or refinishers as they were sometimes referred to, were not in great demand. Confronted with yet another personal financial crisis, Dad again confronted the challenge with the courage and resourcefulness that was akin to his nature. Though I have vague recall of Dad loading blocks of ice containing frozen fish onto the fender of his car, I was not old enough to appreciate what he did with them after he pulled out of our driveway. The older boys in the family no doubt recall that Dad hawked the fish as one source of income. He purchased the fish encased in ice blocks at the fish market in Middletown, Oh. Securing the blocks on either fender of the front bumper of his truck, he proceeded through the streets of Trenton and Middletown, calling out for all to hear. "Fresh fish for sale, Fresh fish for sale. Get them before their gone!" Warren tells me that he did this for several winters in those early depression years. By the time the Depression began to ease up, Dad was back at floor sanding full time.

As all the boys in the family learned the business, we had good reason to be proud of our father. By the mid-thirties, word had spread about the pride he took in his work as well as his work ethic. Always an advocate of a fair business deal, his client's invariably recommended his work to others. By the time ill health forced him to retire, his territory expanded to include Middletown, Hamilton, Lebanon, Franklin, Oxford, the outskirts of Cincinnati and Dayton, Oh. His clients included business people, owners of luxurious farm homes as well as those of city dwellers. As a boy, I found the diversity of his clients exciting and it always proved to be an adventure to work in these great houses I would never have seen had it not been for Dad's choice of occupation. As the invention for Armco Steel had lasting impact, Dad was sure that his invention for a more efficient floor sanding machine would lift him from the economic woes which plagued him for most of his married life. The invention was intended to render the machine more efficient in operation and less time consuming in the achievement of the desired result - a smooth, magnificent finish intended to endure for years. I recall the many arduous hours Dad spent working on the invention with his partner, Gink in "Gink's garage." Gink [short for Gingerich] was a long time, and highly respected Trenton resident. Dad, in the late '30s, employed Gink's hearing impaired son. Unfortunately, Dad's illness halted work on the invention, so a patent was never issued.

Though some of my older brothers often referred to Dad as a dreamer, he was, in my mind, a true visionary. As one with proven ability to conceive ways to improve productivity in a manufacturing process ranked him well above those who readily accept status quo as norm. Had he not been felled so early in life, I am sure that a patent on the invention for improving the sanding machine would have resulted in the financial boon he deserved. And I might add, as a kid whose formative years were during the hard times of the Great Depression, I was not a little envious of those who could afford to live so well. And it was a proud moment for me to walk hand in hand with Dad through the streets of Trenton, passing towns people who invariably addressed him, "Hello, Mr. Coate. How's the family." Dad would always respond with a warm smile, nodding in the affirmative, replying "Just fine, thank you." The occupational hazards of working with material giving off toxic fumes would take its toll. In 1939 when his health began to fail, Ben, a student at Ohio State University, having established his own floor sanding business in Columbus, Oh. was able to supplement Dad's diminishing income.

By summer of 1940 Dad was no longer able to work and the burden of supporting the family fell upon the older boys. Given the circumstance at home, Bill, Shirley and myself would spend a year away from home, Bill living with Aunt Grace and Uncle Corey in Akron, Oh., Shirley with Marahelen and Charles in Ashville, NC, and I with Ben's business partner's family, the Renwick's of Uhrichsville, Oh.[Though I could never relate this experience to Charles at the time I wrote the letter, by late May of 1941 we returned home to discover that Dad's weight was so reduced that he was a mere shadow of his former self. The day before he died, Dad summoned me to his bedside to read from the 23rd psalm from his bible. It was an experience I treasure. That he had singled me out for so private a moment so near his death was a defining one.

During my first days as a combat rifleman, I would have reason to recall that an ennobling experience with Dad. I, too, would seek comfort by repeating the 23rd psalm. On a post card to Betty I would inform her of my assignment, my address and state, "If I've repeated the 23rd psalm once, I've repeated it a hundred times this past day." Dawn of June 2, 1941 is one I shall never forget. Marahelen's gentle hand shaking me, her insistent voice commanded me to wake up. Her speech had taken on a soft southern inflection. "Wake up Dick, wake up, your Daddy's dyin.'" I recall racing downstairs to join the entire family, including Helen Schenck, Aunt Mamie and Uncle Joe, who were gathered around his bed at the moment of his passing. It was a sad day for all of us. Dad was dearly loved and respected and the impact of his life upon his immediate family, relatives and a vast array of friends, business associates and clients, accounts for the huge turn of those who came to pay their respects at his funeral."

Albert married Maud STEVENS on 2 May 1910 in Covington, Kenton, KY, USA. Maud (daughter of John STEVENS, * and Keturah (Kitty) DIMMACK) was born on 14 May 1892 in Dayton, Montgomery, OH, USA; died on 27 Mar 1982 in Columbus, Franklin, OH; was buried on 30 Mar 1982 in Woodside Cemetery, Middletown, Butler, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

He lived on Wood Street in Piqua up to 1925 when he moved to Hamilton, Ohio. He is listed as a contractor in the 1930 census for Hamilton. Years after his brother Albert established himself as a highly respected Contractor/Floor finisher and inventor, John followed his brother Albert's example as a contractor. He is likely the John H. Coate who was a pall bearer for my grandfather's funeral in 1941. (C-370)

John married Vela TUDOR after 1915. Vela was born about 1904 in , , OH, USA; died after 1947 in Of Hamilton, Butler, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Elsie BINGHAM. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Margaret graduated from college about 1910. She taught at a Quaker School which is now the Grace Baptist Church in Ludlow Falls, Ohio.

Margaret married Robert Benjamin FULLER on 18 Jun 1919 in , Miami, OH, USA. Robert was born on 21 Mar 1894 in Meriwether, Greenville, GA, USA; and died. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

My father fondly recalls memories of his cousin, Esther Wedebrook.

Family/Spouse: Walter WEDEBROOK. Walter was born about 1896; died before 2 Jun 1941 in , Miami, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Her funeral was held at the Frings and Bayliff Funeral Home in Tipp City, Ohio, pastor DeAnn Donaugh officiating.

Family/Spouse: Karl Marion SIMS. Karl was born on 17 May 1908 in Dresden, Muskingum, Ohio, USA; died on 16 Feb 1990 in Victoria, Victoria, TX, USA; was buried on 18 Feb 1990 in Tipp City, Miami, Ohio, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Marahelen and my father, Albert Edward Coate, were quite close. He can remember them washing the dishes together. If they'd have a tif, he would swat her rear with the dish towel and she would flick him with the dish water. As a senior in high school, her parents sent her of a trip to visit her Uncle Robert and Aunt Margaret in Asheville, NC to thank her for helping with the latest infant in their household. There she met Charles Fuller, a relative of her uncle Robert Fuller. They wrote to each other throughout the following year. When Uncle Robert and Aunt Margaret came for a visit to Ohio the following summer, they brought Charles Fuller along to test the strength of their friendship. Marahelen and Charles became engaged on this visit in Ohio. When she told her mother, her mother dropped a plate of eggs on the floor in surprise.

Marahelen and Charles married about a year later in the Coate home in Trenton, Ohio. They went to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon and then settled in Asheville, North Carolina. They purchased their home on 87 Winston Ave., Asheville, NC 28803, in 1831 for a very good price due to the fact that they depression was on. Both Charles and Marahelen worked at Sayles Biltmore Bleacheries, a cloth manufacturer, where they had earned the money to buy their home. They lived in this sturdy house their entire adult lives. They moved in 1994 to a retirement condo also in Asheville, North Carolina. She was intelligent, efficient, artistic, and spent a lifetime as a good southern wife. She could cook a delicious meal for a crowd quickly. This is apparently a skill she developed while helping to raise all of her younger brothers and sister.

Charles was the dominant one in their marriage for the first few years only. Once she became a confident adult, her strong-minded ability to keep things organized came to the forefront. She was able to accomplish more at once than any other person my father knew. She would be frying chicken, sewing upholstery, and working on an oil painting all at the same time. I remember her energy and outgoing, friendly nature. (C-2166)

Marahelen married Charles Wesley FULLER on 22 Jul 1930. Charles was born on 18 Feb 1905; died on 6 Dec 1998 in Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Al Coate was a unique individual. He grew up before the depression and helped support his mother during it. He read an entire encyclopedia from cover to cover as a child. His mind was excellent at retaining minute facts. He rated amongst the top 3 students in the state whenever they took statewide tests in high school.

He went to Miami University and was the first man to major in Home Economics (Liberal Arts) there. He lived in a lean-to unheated barn while at Miami. He did not graduate, but when money permitted returned to work as a Home Economics major at Ohio State University specializing in Institutional Management. Apparently, his credits didn't transfer and he basically had to start school over again at OSU.

An article about him in the OSU "Undergraduate Scene" Magazine says that he tried journalism and architecture before taking the plunge into Home Economics (C-292, 470). He hoped to be a chef or restaurant manager upon graduation. He was hired as a chef at Minerva Park Golf Course in Columbus, Ohio while he attended O.S.U. Although he entered his senior year at Ohio State University, he was unable to finish due to a very serious kidney infection in 1938. Upon an operation where doctors removed 2 kidneys, he had to thank a birth defect that had given him 3 kidneys to his saved life. He was destitute by this time and left school. He moved west in search of new opportunities. During World War II, he was hired as a Camp Stewart for the men constructing the Alcon Highway in Whitehorse, Yukon Territory, Alaska. It was the first highway in Alaska, and my father claims to be the first hitchhiker on the highway when he went south to see his brother, Ben, off to war. Later in the war he moved to Long Beach, California where he had a job in an aircraft factory followed by employment in a ship building firm. His brother Ben lived in California at the time, and he would visit them. While he was in California, he met Marcena Clark for the first time. It was in a group setting where she was with another gentleman named Phil. They barely knew each other from this meeting.

After the war, he became a navy civil service employee on Guam in 1948. He worked as a sign painter. He has very fond memories of his time in Guam. One of his favorite stories from this time period was his near-death experience with quick sand. He was on his way to the Post Office on the other side of the island when he stepped into the muck. He realized as he was sinking that no one knew where he was and that his family would never know what happened to him. When he'd sunk clear to his shoulders, he stretched out his arms and then pulled himself out by his elbows. By the time he made it to the Post Office, he was dry! He returned to Trenton, Ohio after this service, where a meeting was again arranged by Audrey and John Amstutz between he and Marcena Irene Clark who was now living in Hamilton, Ohio. They got along fairly well but parted because Marcena was on her way to school in Michigan and Al was taking his mother and sister to North Carolina to visit Marahelen, his oldest sister. When they were introduced for a third time in Oct. 1950 by Audrey and John Amstutz, they grew close quickly and were married 5 weeks and 2 days later.

Dad insisted upon the short courtship, because he had been strung along for 5 years in a previous engagement in California, making him decide that the opposite was better. He moved into my mother's apartment in Hamilton, Ohio. He was employed as a floor sander by his brother Bob at the time. I have pay stubs in 1953 when he was making about $70.00 a week working for his brother. When Bob moved to Columbus, OH to become a home builder, Mom offered her teacher's retirement fund to help him buy the floor sanding business. He was known for his high-quality work, but it was a very strenuous job. He too desired to become a home builder.

We moved from Hamilton, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio in about 1964 so that he could try his hand at home building. His brother, Warren, helped to teach him the ropes. He became known for his well-designed quality custom homes. He was the first builder to introduce the Spanish style home to Columbus for the middle-class home owner. He called his houses "Pacesetter Homes". This was often the case as many Columbus houses were copied after his. My favorites of his were these Spanish homes with court yards and his beautiful contemporaries. Al Coate was the chairman of the (Columbus) Parade of Homes in 1970 when it was located at the Gables Subdivision near Godown and Bethel Roads. (DOC-C:) The fact that he was one of 5 brothers, all connected to the Home Building Industry in Columbus, Ohio is noted in a BIA newsletter in 1972. (DOC-C:) Many of his homes are featured in newspaper articles that are in my Coate Document files. If the court house deed records are checked it will be evident that we lived in many of these houses while I was growing up. Our homes were always just one more of his houses that were for sale. It kept the money flowing in those days. All in all, it was an enjoyable experience.

My father was a very creative person. He used oils to paint nature and still life scenes. Many of his paintings are spread throughout the family. He gave both my brother and I lessons in oil painting. He loved to bake deserts. He won first prize for a raspberry cake of his own creation in a Columbus Dispatch cooking contest. He truly enjoyed traveling and was fun to travel with. He claimed to have visited all but 5 of the states in the U.S. and most fondly remembers his trips to Japan after World War II and to Europe with my mother on a BIA tour. He loved playing games and working puzzles with us throughout our lives. I remember a Christmas with great fondness where he bought thousands of beads and Styrofoam balls and we all sat around in the evenings making ornaments which decorated our tree that year. He enjoyed photography. He was a self-taught piano player, and would sit down on the piano and play a couple tunes from memory over the years. He grew roses and gained great pleasure telling us their names, buying new ones annually until his last year of life and having fresh cut flower arrangements in his home throughout each summer. My brother and I both continue this tradition.

My father sadly spent his last 20 plus years in retirement in poor health. He lived two years longer than his ancestor, Marmaduke Coate. He had paid $149,575.98 in Social Security in his lifetime from 1937-1977. He was an avid storyteller, much like his mother was. He had the wonderfully friendly nature of his father. He luckily got to see two of his grandchildren grow to near adulthood and see his youngest grandson grow to age 5. They were a significant source of pleasure for him. His encyclopedia like memory of the Coate family history which went back to Marmaduke Coate was what originally interested me in learning about our family tree.

He once started a biographical story of his life which is included herein, short but sweet. "The first time that I can recall occurred when I was only one year old. (I say recall, for I am not sure whether it is actual memory or a picture instilled in my mind by oft told stories.) We lived in Amanda, a little town of a hundred or so souls about two miles south of Middletown, Ohio. It was a little white frame house across the road from the brick school house. Mom and Dad had been married only a few years, and the only other child in the family was my sister, Marahelen, two years older than I. Dad worked in the mill as Armco Steel was known locally. Dad had a spring wagon pulled by an old white horse, as our only means of transportation. There was a great commotion with people milling around the old horse, who lay dying. She had just been shot after having fallen in a gravel pit and broken her leg. We have a picture of my sister Marahelen and I sitting on the back of the old critter, both looking scared to death, with me hugging her for dear life.

Dad had bought the animal with the belief that she was a spirited animal, but the story goes that within a short time she ran out of spirit and energy, as well, and was really quite a tired and almost listless creature; apparently she had been doped and the effect had worn off. She did show some spirit one day, when Mom decided to drive old Dolly over to the mill to pick up Dad when he got off work... So she loaded up us two kids in the spring wagon and hitched up Dolly and took off. Mom having been brought up in the city (Dayton) was not accustomed to driving a horse. A passing train frightened old Dolly and she took off running. The more Mom pulled on the reigns and the more she screamed, the faster the horse ran, it seemed. At any rate when they passed the gate of the mill, Dad stood there with mouth agape while Mom and we kids streamed by all yelling and waving for help. A passerby succeeded in grabbing the reigns and bringing old Dolly to a halt some half mile down the road. Dad was a country boy, having been born and raised on a farm near Ludlow Falls, Ohio in Miami County, where his Quaker ancestors had settled a century earlier, but that is another story.

So, dad within inherited instincts was a man of the soil, and always had a garden as long as he lived. There in Amanda, he raised several acres of truck garden. What they could not eat Mom canned or sold in Middletown. Dad would start out in a summer morning with a wagon load of sweet corn, or roasting ears as we called them shucking them through the streets calling out his wares. He started out selling them at a dime a dozen but as the day wore on, he reduced the price to a nickel to dispose of it all. Oft times he had company or help from my Uncle Albert Stevens, Mom's brother (born on the same day as Dad) or my Uncle Harry Ritter, husband of Mom's sister, Keturah. Many times on the week end Uncle and Aunt Stell or Uncle Harry and Aunt Keturah spent the weekends with us. They had great old times with the women in the kitchen cooking up feasts while the men folks had eating contests trying to out-do another in consuming the greatest amount of fried chicken or number of roasting ears.

They tell me I was slow in learning to walk, being almost two before I took off on my own two feet. Apparently, I could travel on my bottom at considerable speed by pulling one leg along and dragging the other under me. They said I followed my dad everywhere that way right through the vegetable patch. Then One Day (Mom) said that she was tired of that kid scooting on his rear. She vowed she would get me to walk that day. So, she took me across the road to the school yard, and sure enough she brought me back walking on my own. "

This is but a sample of the many stories he told. In fact, telling stories of his memories was by far what he enjoyed most. That is why it was a major theme of the Eulogy about him written and presented by his grand-daughter, Amber Dudick at age 15: "I'll always remember his stories; the stories of past years, innocent days, cold winters and warm summers, starry skies, interesting neighbors, and of family and friends that he so cherished. These stories are each a step of his life, some tiny steps, baby steps, describing the smallest detail of a moment, others large steps, leaps from place to place that carry you through the adventure of his life. These steps brought him through the years, the years which were as unpredictable as the wind. But that's life, surviving each and every thing that comes around the corner. Albert Coate, he was a survivor. He lived 86 long years filled with blessings and also with sorrows. We all are here for some reason. We all are here because Albert Coate touched each and every one of us in some way. We will each take a piece of him with us wherever we may go. I will take the memory of a grandfather, one that was caring, kind, and whose mind was filled with passions and hope and dreams and those same stories that I will always remember. He will always be the man, the husband, the father, the brother, the uncle, the grandfather, the cousin, the friend, the cook, the painter, the architect, the linguist, the florist, the dreamer, and the memory that I will always cherish and hold in the depths of my heart and soul. To him, wherever he may be now, I send my utmost respect, my gratitude, and most of all my love. It will never be the same without him. In a way, it's almost ironic, that the stories he told will be the stories we all tell to our children and our friends, and those same stories will be what makes him immortal. May the story of Albert E. Coate have no end."(Written and presented by Amber Dudick, his 15-year-old grand-daughter, for his funeral celebration.)

Albert married Marcena Irene CLARK on 3 Nov 1950 in Butler, Ohio, USA. Marcena (daughter of William Edward CLARK and Grace EVANS) was born on 1 Mar 1916 in Rio Grande, Gallia, OH; died on 17 Sep 2019 in Delaware, Delaware, Ohio, USA; was buried in Westerville, Franklin County, Ohio, United States of America. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

My father remembers that they moved from Middletown, OH to northern Indiana to work the onion fields for a summer and then moved back to Piqua, Ohio where Ben was born.

He graduated from Trenton High School, in Trenton, Ohio during the depression. He then joined the CCC. When the depression was waning, he became a student at Ohio State University. He was a member of a Fraternity there. He completed two years at OSU before being drafted into World War II. Ben achieved the rank of Sergeant in the U.S. Army Air Corps. He was a member of the East Columbus Lion's Club and the National Kitchen Cabinet Association. He was the founder and owner of the Formitex Plastic Fabricators and Coate Floor Co.

He is remembered by friends and family as a very hard worker, someone with a lot of spunk, who spoke up for the underdog and showed no prejudice for any of his fellow man. He was a great supporter of his church, St. Andrew Christian Church in Dublin, Ohio. (C-1779, Obit.)

Benjamin married Virginia BRIGHTWELL about 1941. Virginia was born on 26 Feb 1917 in Wheelersburg, Scioto, Ohio, USA; died on 16 May 2002 in Columbus, Franklin, OH, USA; was buried on 20 May 2002 in Blendon Central Cemetery, Westerville, Franklin, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Bob was born in Middletown and raised in Trenton, Ohio. Bob was remembered by his brother Richard as the "true diplomat of the family. ... he was gentle by nature, and slow to anger. A shrewd business man, he started out in the floor sanding business, but moved to Columbus to go into the home building business. Achieving great success in a short time, he was highly respected by a vast array of friends and business acquaintances. As a boy scout he was elected to join a throng of scouts in a trip to Washington where they would have been greeted by President Roosevelt. The trip was canceled, however, due to a polio outbreak. Bob loved to raise chickens and ducks. When we were kids, Dad constructed a pond in the side yard. What's a pond without ducks? So Bob began raising them to fill the void. We all enjoyed them. However, I'm sure Bob never forgot the day I roasted a couple of his duckling in the oven.

A pre-schooler, my attention span was not all that great. I'd exhausted the poor little things in the pond. Having witnessed what Bob did with the duckling shortly after they were hatched I decided I'd do the same thing to dry them out. I still remember Bob's surprise and outrage at what I'd done. However, given my age and remorse for what I'd done, I was forgiven. ...I never went near his ducklings after that! ...

He married Mary Musselman, his high school sweetheart. Though he was drafted, his tour of duty in the army in World War II was foreshortened due to Mary's health. They were surely proud parents of Caroline and Donny. Caroline, as you know died shortly after her father passed.

One thing Betty and I recall with fond memories - Warren and Bob bought a farm somewhere northeast of Columbus. Warren could tell you where it was located. The pre-Civil war log house was situated on 165 acres of pure bliss. The Coate family used it for reunions until it was sold. So when I look at the photo of the farmhouse, I'm always reminded of the good times! You probably remember it!" With great fondness, I and my uncles and family that met there on many occasions certainly do remember it.

According to Bob's brothers, Warren and Richard, Bob's death was due to a reaction to the type of anesthesia that was administered during a gall bladder surgery compounded by previous reactions to his recent dental surgery. His liver was not able to process all of it. (C-1782)

Robert married Mary Jane MUSSELMAN on 3 Sep 1938 in Covington, Kenton, KY, USA. Mary (daughter of Floyd MUSSELMAN and Hilda Grace MEHL) was born on 26 Feb 1920 in Middletown, Butler, OH, USA; died on 19 Jul 1997 in Fort Myers, Lee, FL, USA; was buried on 26 Jul 1997 in Anderson Funeral Home, Reynoldsburg, Franklin, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Charles was a partner in the Coate Floor Company with his brother Ben. He was a member of Eagles Lodge 2801 at Buckeye Lake. He was a former member of East Columbus Lions. Charles was married for about six months in 1940 to a woman whose surname is not remembered. They lived 2 houses down from his parents house on John St. in Trenton, Ohio. (C-2108) In 1945, he married Jane, his wife of many years and mother of his children. He was a very caring husband to Jane in her last years after she suffered disabilities from a stroke. (C-72) His kindness was returned by his third wife, Wilma, and his sons and daughters-in-law when liver cancer brought the end to his life. It was the same affliction that had taken his father.

Charles lived on Buckeye Lake in Ohio the last several years of his life. He loved to fish and boat. He spent many of his last days enjoying the view from his home. (C-1397) He had several children and grandchildren listed in his obituary that I can't place. Listed with his sons was a David Howell married to Jeri. Listed as stepsons were Carl Dittoe and Darl Dittoe married to Sally and Joanna respectively.

The following lengthy letter to Charles from his brother, Richard, tells a great deal about this family's life. "Richard Coate Brooklyn, NY 11201July 12, 1997

Dear Brother Charles, You'll have to forgive me for the delay in writing this letter. I came down with a case of bronchitis which put me behind schedule. However, the antibiotic has knocked most of it out of my system so I'm doing my best to catch up. I'm sorry that neither Betty or I can be with Shirley when she visits you in Ohio. She's going to spend a couple days with us before she flies to Columbus. She'll get here on Wednesday evening, the 16th and leave on Saturday morning the 19th. She'll get a whirlwind tour of some of the highlights in the neighborhood and Manhattan on Thursday. Friday we'll make a trip up to Jennifer's in Dutchess County. As you know she lives way out in the country surrounded by farm land. The Shenandoah mountain is on the distant horizon - so Shirley will be able to see Jennifer and Joe, their beautiful 175 year old, nine room house and some of the scenic wonders of NY State while she's here.

You have been much on our minds and in our prayers since we got the news of your illness. Betty and I began reflecting upon our childhood and our life in Trenton when our families were all together.

Though the town has changed much in the ensuing years, I still retain the images of what it was way back in the '30s when the population was only 350 and we were kids. Remember taking baths in a wash tub in the kitchen? Norman Rockwell would have had a ball, Mom standing over one of us, with the next in line waiting turn. That was way back when the House of The Seven Smokes was still standing. I don't know about you, but Warren, Bill and I did a lot of foraging around in that abandoned and very spooky building.

I'm glad Daddy had to the sense to get some of the flooring before it was completely demolished. The downstairs of 113 John Street had wide-planked highly-polished ash floors as a result of it. I still remember the Amish rigs on Hamilton Pike and the Model-T Fords, and little Wally Poplin climbing the water-tower, the whole town holding its breath until someone finally rescued him!

Remember the short cut to school through Adam Gozie's corn field. One day he lay in wait, caught me just as I was about to climb the fence onto John Street. Talk about surprise! He booted me in the butt so hard that I peed in my pants. Once he hoisted me over the fence and released his grip I was off and running. Though he spewed out a string of invective I was so terrified couldn't understand a word of it. But I sure did get the gist of it! It was a long, long time before I got up enough nerve to take that short cut again.

After growing up in a rural town like that way back before any of us ever heard of television, who could ever have imagined that in our lifetime there would be such technological wonders as Internet or American scientists landing on the moon, and exploring Mars or the moons of Jupiter! That was "Flash Gordon" or "Buck Rogers" funny paper stuff. And remember the fuss we made over who would be first to read the funnies and we'd all wind up sprawled on the floor with them spread out before us.

Remember those hot summer days when everything seemed to be at a standstill and the long treks we made to the gravel pit to cool off - sometimes twice a day. We'd sometimes stop at the gas station by the railroad tracks opposite the old Scheibert house [where Betty lived before their house was moved up to John Street opposite ours] and if we could afford it we'd buy a coke in one of those glass bottles and pause long enough to drink it while the station attendants went about their business with their attention glued to the baseball game on the radio. And when the train passed through one could hear its whistle all over town.

The gravel pit - now that was a swimming hole! Spring fed no less. If my memory serves me right, wasn't it also stocked with cat fish? I know we caught cat fish from somewhere around Trenton. I believe Mom used to make a batter of corn meal, dip them into it before she plopped them in that big black iron skillet full of lard atop the blue porcelain two oven Kalamazoo wood stove. If the smell of frying cat fish didn't make your mouth water, nothing would.

Talk about kitchen smells. Monday was wash day. Soap suds and beans. One day was ironing day and Mom had stacks of clean smelling linen on the back porch. I'll never forget how it felt to climb into bed and sleep on a freshly washed, sun-dried and hand- ironed sheet. Whoever heard of ironing a sheet these days? One day was house cleaning day, and Mom would put those lace doilies on the sofa and we had to pay special care that we didn't muss them up. Since she raised nine of us, it's a measure of the respect we had for her that those doilies remained in place and unruffled. . Or baking days. Remember how the house smelled when we came home after school. Every surface in the kitchen was filled with baked goods. Golden crusted loaves of bread, big buns, sugar rolls with cinnamon and vanilla icing, doughnuts dipped in powdered sugar! Pies and cakes!

Then there was canning season - the aroma of strawberry jam mixed with the melted wax. The smell of the dinner before we all sat down around the kitchen table. There was many a day when Bill and I would race across the field in time to tune in on an episode of Little Orphan Annie before we sat down to dinner. And on special days we'd have bread pudding for desert. To this day I have never tasted a bread pudding that can match Mom's! And I'll never forget the day that Mom put a big pan of it atop the buffet to cool. Only after Mom had accused everyone else in the house of eating the whole pan full did Daddy finally confess! When he came home there was no one around so he took one look at it and said, "For once in my life I'm going to get my full of bread pudding!" And he did!

Then there were the times on those long summer nights when we played kick the can out under the street light, and in winter we made walnut fudge on top the blue Kalamazoo coal burning stove. Fudge has never tasted as good since! I remember the time that Daddy fell asleep in his living room rocking chair with his jaw agape. Bill and I decided we'd play a joke on him so we ran to the kitchen, got the pepper shaker and sprinkled it on his tongue. We were long gone when he awakened, sputtering and spitting. I don't know if we ever confessed, but this much I know, he never let on that anything unusual ever happened after we finally got nerve enough to go back into the house.

Remember the day that you had that unfortunate encounter with the skunk in the fields to the rear of the house. The creature was concealed in the hedge row near the Seeman farm when you attempted a short cut - just waiting for some wayward kid to challenge his turf! Talk about stink! You called to Mom from the back yard and she made you change clothes and take a bath either outside or on the back porch before you were permitted to come in the house. After that day a Coate kid would make a wide and respectful circle around that hedge row.

And on summer nights, the dazzling array of fireflies hovering over the cornfields; we were mesmerized at the wonder of it and even the distant sound of the train whistle of the Baltimore and Ohio passing through at the other end of town did not break the spell. .Though I doubt that I was born yet or if I was I was too little to remember, but the story was told me so many times it's as if I had witnessed the event myself. Ben and his buddy, George Crug were "camping out" in a pup tent in the alley to the rear of the house - below that wild cherry tree we used to climb. Ben and George had bedded down and settled in for the night - just this side of the fence separating them from the Holtzer cornfield. Awakened by a weird sound and some rustling - Wooooooo ..... Woooooooo! - not unlike the ones Mom used to make when she told us ghost stories - they peeped out of the pup tent flap to investigate when they saw this white figure prancing about between rows of corn, waving its arms about like it was about to take off. Bug-eyed, too paralyzed to move, they stared at the ghost until George finally gathered enough nerve to make a wild dash to his own home to retrieve his BB gun. Returning with a determination to send the phantom back to the place from whence it came, he peppered Dad with two BB shots and was about to fire the third when Dad began raising such a ruckus that George's hair must have stood straight up on his head. Sure that he had all but killed Ben's father, George dropped the gun and made a dash for the Crug home without so much as "I thought you were -" or "I didn't mean to shoot you, Mr. Coate, honest!" George was a stranger to the Coate household for quite some time after that. Fortunately a brass button on Dad's overalls right over his heart deflected one BB while the other was lodged in his chest where it remained until he died. [Note Given Charles' condition at the time I wrote the letter, I couldn't include this During the grave site ceremonies at Woodlawn Cemetery in Middletown, Ohio, just before Mom was laid to eternal rest beside Dad, the minister reminisced, reminding us all of the good times we had with Mom and Dad when we were all kids in our home on John Street in Trenton. The elderly gentleman at the fringe of the large crowd who was sobbing with grief at her passing was George Crug.]

Remember how proud we all were when the Eagle Scout in the family, brother Bob was selected to go with a group all the way to Washington, D. C. to shake President Roosevelt's hand - and the disappointment we all felt when the trip was canceled due to a polio outbreak. Was Dad ever proud of his family!

Though we were poor, our family was always rich in spirit. Though we didn't always have chicken we did have wild rabbit. I wasn't old enough to carry a gun but I'd sometimes tag along for the adventure of the hunt.. I remember we'd get up early, bundle up to brace the early morning chill. Puffing steam, we'd trek over the frosted, frozen turf in the fields to the rear of the house. But I had my share of skinning rabbits. In freezing weather they were sometimes strung up from the eaves of the garage.

Most of all I remember our holidays. Holidays at the Coate house on John Street were always festive, and Mom always said that we had the most beautiful Christmas Tree in Trenton. And I still believe it!

Remember the Billy goat that climbed atop the chicken house roof to butt us off if we didn't pay attention. And the time a bunch of us were gathered outside in the driveway in front of the garage cleaning and repairing bicycles. Shirley, a preschooler, gulped a glass of coal oil thinking it was water. "Look, Shirley's making bubbles" I exclaimed. When Albert realized what she had done, he grabbed her and carried her to the street, yelling at the driver in the passing car to stop! Stop! She was rushed to Dr. Dobbs and he got her to vomit it all up.

Or the time that Shirley fainted on the roller coaster at Lesourdsville Lake and as they carried her around the lake to the aid station - a crowd followed believing she had drowned. As late as 1992 Shirley told me that when she awakened in the arms of the man who was carrying her she decided to faint all over again and fell limp in his arms. I suspect she kept fainting as long as she had an audience - or at least until she was safely inside the aid station.

I remember the time that I was taking a bottle of Fuzzy Weir's root beer out of our coolerater. When it exploded in my hand and I thought for sure I'd lost a thumb. Off to Dr. Dobbs, this time the short cut through Adam Gozie's corn field. I still have the scar on my thumb. I'll never forget the bus trip that Mom and I took during WW II to Ashville, N. C. to visit Marahelen and Charles. The bus was so crowded that Mom sat on my lap. As we rounded those dangerous curves of the Smoky Mountain roads a mountaineer played his guitar and we all sang, "She'll be comin' round the mountain when she comes!"

And we all remember our summer vacations with Marahelen and Charles and the wonderful times we had at family gatherings at Uncle Robert and Aunt Margaret's deer hunting cabin in the mountains outside Ashville. What a retreat! And the time we went mountain hiking and Mom very coolly stepped over a rattle snake without so much as a blink. About a half mile below the cabin - diving off the rocks into the cold mountain stream - always on the outlook for water moccasin. And summer vacations on Aunt Mamie and Uncle Joe McKinley's farm in Piqua, Ohio or the Sunday afternoon visits when Aunt Mamie and Mom cooked up those big dinners of fresh farm produce and home baked bread in a brick oven. Ah, the aroma emanating from the kitchen!

And in the depths of the depression, the Christmas we celebrated at Aunt Martha's in Dayton when Uncle Godfrey played Santa to us wide-eyed kids. What a joyous Christmas that was! And speaking of Aunt Martha, I'll never forget the time I sucked in on a whistle when I was supposed to blow out and swallowed the darn thing. Poor Aunt Martha was beside herself with indecision when she grabbed me by the ankles, turned me upside down and bumped my head on the floor hoping I'd cough it up.

Remember when Billy won the prize for best costume at the Halloween Carnival a couple years in a row. Especially the "Tin Man" from the "Wizard Of Oz " he made from flattened tin cans. Bill could also spin a yarn which would have impressed Will Rogers. Was he ever proud when he won him first prize in the Trenton High School Comedy Hour. Of course we all remember the story about Shirley's mishap when her prom date accidentally killed the stray mule which wandered in front of his car on the fog-bound country road somewhere outside Cincinnati. Despite the smashed windshield, neither were hurt. But imagine the shock on Mom's face when, near dawn the next morning, the terrified young boy escorted a disheveled Shirley to the front door, her beautiful yellow chiffon gown splattered with the blood of the poor creature.

And remember the WW II years - when I led the 1943 Memorial Day parade carrying the American flag as we marched through the main streets of town ending up at the knoll overlooking the main intersection for the unveiling and dedication of the WW II Honor Board listing the names of the Trenton military personnel serving their country. And in 1944 when Mom got the dreaded telegram from the President of The United States informing her that Warren was Missing In Action after the D-Day landing. We waited and prayed and gathered around the radio hoping to hear of any news about the Army division with which he served. And finally our prayers were answered when we received a letter from Warren to let us know he was OK. Warren's future wife, Helen Schenck, living with us all through the war years, sharing our anxiety. Remember when Mom used to accompany your kid brother, Dick, on the piano with a resounding version of Turkey In The Straw when he danced black-face in the amateur "Major Bowles" contests as far away as Oxford or Dayton, Ohio. Who could have imagined that this amateur hour contestant would grow up to be Richard Coate, the actor who was among the pioneers of that new broadcast medium, Television, when, in 1948 he appeared on a series on WLW TV in Columbus, Ohio - during his years as a student at OSU - before he became the Korean War rifleman in silhouette in an AP photograph which was destined to attain iconic status, a symbol of American fighting forces in Korea, and a unique place in Cold War history.

I remember that little house on Miami Street that you and Jane lived when some of your kids were born. It was built on a hill and as I recall you had to step down into the kitchen. I didn't think they could make them any smaller until Betty and I moved to New York. Our kitchen on Willow Street here in Brooklyn Heights was little more than a closet - but, like Jane and our mothers, Betty cooked up a storm.

Betty and I recall stopping off at your house to watch television and have a beer - before I was inducted into the army and my tour of duty in Korea. By then we were in college and barring the three summers I spent at home before graduation, I never lived in Trenton again. I really enjoyed the 50th anniversary of our graduating class held at the Manchester Hotel. Class of '44! I hadn't seen most of them since then. We laughed so hard at the stories we had to tell on one another that the young newspaper reporter covering the event was amazed that so many "old folk" had so much life in 'em.

Give our love to Wilma. I'm happy I was able to finally meet her in North Carolina at Marahelen's funeral. She fits right into the family.

Betty sends her love too,
Your brother, Richard"

Charles married Hilda Jane FINK on 29 Dec 1945. Hilda was born on 12 Feb 1917; died on 1 Feb 1990 in Columbus, Franklin, OH; was buried about 4 Feb 1990 in Glen Rest Cemetery, Columbus, Franklin, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Barbara MAYS. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Wilma UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Warren was in some of the worst battles in World War II. For most of his life, he could not bring himself to discuss the war at all. Reunions with old war buddies eventually helped him open up on the subject. He was one of 9 who survived out of 125 men in Hurtingken Forest. He was in the Utah Beach invasion, 8th Infantry/ 4th Division under Sgt. Dagastina. He was at Omaha Beach eleven days after D-Day and saw all the tanks and trucks languishing in the water from the orginal battle. He was at the liberation of Paris where he had his first taste of champaigne. Crowds of thousands were throwing flowers and tomatoes as thanks. Women were throwing themselves on the soldiers. Half of his division went AWOL for up to a week there was so much celebrating going on. As they left town, the celebrating throngs of people thinned out. As the third plattoon passed, they were attacked and 33 more men died. His plattoon was the last to pass. They were fighting the Germans and pushing them back as they went. His regiment took Orley Fields outside of Paris. Some of the incindental stories he related was his remembrance of the cans of celery soup that heated themselves when you opened them with phosphorous. When they entered the town of Schubers, the soldiers were given cigarettes and chocolate to throw up to the residents to let them know the Americans had arrived and the Germans were gone. He received hearing damage on about July 24th when they had captured some Germans. There were so few men left, that they had 1 man per fox hole. He was almost shelled when trying to go the restroom. Warren jumped into a ditch to avoid the shells and hit face down into a German latrine. The incident left him with hearing loss.

After the war, Warren attended Ohio State University on the GI Bill as a young man, but dropped out when he married Helen. They were the aunt and uncle on my Dad's side that I was closest to growing up. He was a homebuilder by trade. Years ago, he was a partner with his brother, Bob Coate. I believe their business was called Bob Coate Builders. I have a flyer from his current business, Coate Homes, North Carolina., in the Coate document file. They taught my father this business when we moved from Fairfield, Ohio to Columbus. (C-537, 1779, 2457)

Warren married Helen Elizabeth SCHENCK on 20 Aug 1948. Helen (daughter of Roy V. SCHENCK and Laura Helen UNKNOWN) was born on 12 Oct 1920 in Trenton, Butler, OH, USA; died on 5 Sep 2002 in Hospice, Newark, , OH, USA; was buried on 9 Sep 2002 in Blendon Central Cemetery, Westerville, Franklin, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

My Uncle Richard was a most creative soul. He was an actor, playwright, and author throughout his adulthood. He began his love in the drama field as a young child when his mother would take him around to perform in minstrel shows. She would play the piano and he would sing and dance.

He later went to acting school and was considered their most promising student. He was once the lead in a Broadway play but otherwise had less prominent parts. He also wrote screenplays that were considered by major Actors at the time. He many fascinating, successful actresses and actors as friends. He was the kind of Uncle we would all brag about.

He married his childhood friend, Betty Scheibert. They were an exemplary couple whose love seemed to grow stronger through the years. They lived in New York City for most of their adult lives. Betty was a graphic artist for industrial applications. She had had polio as a child. It left her crippled. It didn't stop her from doing anything. Uncle Richard told me often about the time she climbed up a cliff at Highbanks, a park here in Columbus when they were both going to Ohio State University. He was so proud of her. They had a daughter, Jennifer, who became a famous photographer for the March of Dimes. She had the honor of photographing two of our American President's families in the Whitehouse in her career.

Uncle Richard was a sensitive soul called into service in the Korean War. He had many after-effects from that service that took him years to heal from. He was a profuse writer to his wife, Betty. He believed these letters were the basis for the long-running T.V. show called "Mash". His silhouette was captured by a photographer in the doorway of a hut in this war that was used by the AP press and published in many national papers.

He used this photo as the front cover of an autobiography he published about him and his wife, their families, and the town they grew up in. It's called "The Unidentified Soldier in the USO Poster". It can be purchased at Xlibris.com.

Richard married Elizabeth (Betty) Louise SCHEIBERT on 2 Sep 1950 in Franklin, Ohio, USA. Elizabeth was born on 31 Jul 1926 in Middletown, Butler County, Ohio, United States of America; died on 13 Mar 2004 in Brooklyn, Kings County (Brooklyn), New York, United States of America; was buried on 5 Jun 2004 in Woodside Cemetery, Middletown, Butler, OH, USA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Bill, known as "Wild Bill" was a talented carpenter, often working on construction sites, even in large skyscrapers. Specifically, he was a union carpenter with the Southwestern Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters, Local 113. He did a lovely job of restoring old homes that he purchased, lived in and sold. His birth place according to his older siblings was Middletown, Ohio but was Trenton according to his children as per his funeral card and obituary. He graduated from Trenton High School in 1948 and was a member of the Yankee Road First Church of God near his death. He will be remembered by me for his good nature and large smile. He loved to tell stories and enjoyed his family.

Family/Spouse: Phyllis Fay BIRCH. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Family/Spouse: Barney WEST. Barney (son of Cecil WESTERBERG and Blanche MORRISON) was born on 8 Sep 1918 in Seattle, Washington, USA; died on 6 Apr 1981 in Greenbrae, , CA. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]