Abel W. Coffin, Jr.^{[1, 2, 3, 4, 5]}

1828 - 1866  (38 years)

• Name	Abel W. Coffin
  Suffix	Jr.
  Born	1828	Pennsylvania, USA   [6]
  Gender	Male
  Died	1866	Wiess Bluff, Jasper county, Texas, USA
  Buried	Wiess Cemetery, Wiess Bluff, Jasper county, Texas, USA
  	"My Dear Husband" with the letters "FLT" inscribed into the links of a chain inscribed on the tombstone by his wife, Pauline Wiess Coffin.  The letters F.L.T.in three links of a chain is a symbol of  the  Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) meaning "Friendship, Love, and Truth".  This organization took care of widows and orphans, and in general, did good works.
  Notes	An early Sabine hardware dealer, ship carpenter, and steam boatman, Coffin participated in the offshore battle that resulted in the capture of the blockaders.  On 1850 census Jefferson Co TX, he is living with his father in the house of his sister Clara and husband J.M. Ketchem. He is listed as: Abel, ship carpenter, age 24 born in Penn.  He and his first wife, Belinda Bartlett Brown, lived in Sabine Pass until her death.  He subsequently married Pauline Wiess in 1858.     W.T. Block, historian, writes "Abel Coffin was born in Pennsylvania in 1826, and was descended from a long line of Nantucket, Massachusetts, shipbuilders. He arrived at Sabine Pass with his parents in 1849, where he worked as a ship carpenter at first, and later switched to steamboat engineer. After their marriage on October 14, 1858, Pauline and Abel Coffin continued to reside at Sabine Pass until the yellow fever epidemic and Union Navy occupation of September, 1862, at which time they returned to Wiess Bluff with their children Mary and Arthur. Abel Coffin died at Wiess Bluff in 1866. .... (he) changed to steamboat engineering because, in 1850, such employment paid $25 weekly whereas ship-carpentering paid only $15."     In the 1860 Sabine Pass census, Abel Coffin was listed as being a stove dealer and tinner with personal assets of $3,600. In 1852, he was elected justice of the peace in Jefferson county. ... Abel Coffin's brothers-in-law, Orrin Brown and Isaiah Ketchum, were partners in Spartan Mill Company, Jefferson county's first steam sawmill, built in 1846.     On April 20, 1861, Abel Coffin enlisted in Sabine Pass Guard, a newly-organized militia company, which eventually became artillery Company B, Spaight's Battalion, Texas Volunteer Infantry.     The following account of this affray was pencilled by Abel Coffin on a flyleaf of a copy of Macaulay's "Essays," the only memento from the captured blockades Morning Light that he succeeded in obtaining. William Wiess managed to obtain two blankets from the ship, while his brother Mark got a suit of clothes, both being prized possessions at that time.   "On the morning of the 21st of January, 1863, the blockading force off Sabine entrance consisted of the clipper bark "Morning Light," of 1,000 tons, carrying four iron 32-pounder guns in each broadside and an inch and a quarter Butler gun aft, with 120 men, and a tender, the schooner "Velocity" of about 100 (actually, 200) tons with two 12-pounder brass boat howitzers and some ten or twelve men. The river steamers "J. H. Bell" and "Uncle Ben," having been clad with cotton, arrived at Sabine Pass on the evening of the 20th, the former carried a 6-inch (64-pounder Columbiad) rifle forward and a crowd of men (infantry, cavalry, and artillery), amounting to some 250. The latter had two iron 12-pounders forward and about the same number of men as the "Bell" and of the same sort.     The morning of the 21st, clear and calm, found all in readiness, and we proceeded to attack the blockaders under the nominal command ' of a drunken military officer (Major O. M. Watkins). The "Bell" was in command of Charles Fowler; the "Ben" in charge of William Johnson, both good seamen and brave officers. After a running fight of more than an hour (to a point 30 miles at sea), both vessels surrendered, and both would have been brought in safe but for the drunken interference of the above-mentioned military officer. The "Velocity" was brought in (to Sabine), and the "Morning Light" was burned on the bar.     This book was the only valuable part of the prize that I was able to obtain, being at the time engineer on the steam tender "Sunflower".             Abel Coffin During the battle, Coffin shipped as a pilot on the "Josiah Bell" as did Capts. Peter Stockholm, Lewis King, and I. R. Burch. The Handbook of Texas Online article on cattle brands http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/auc01 describes Abel Coffin's unique brand "A. Coffin of Port Lavaca used a representation of a coffin with a large A on it."
  Person ID	I1453	mykindred
  Last Modified	Jul 18, 2013

  
  

  Father	Abel Coffin,   b. Jun 23, 1792, Massachusetts, USA ,   d. 1862, Sabine Pass, Jefferson county, Texas, USA  (Age 69 years)
  Mother	Mary Anne Miller,   b. circa 1792, Pennsylvania, USA ,   d. Sep 1867, Sabine Pass, Jefferson county, Texas, USA  (Age ~ 75 years)
  Married	Jan 20, 1820
  Notes	- 1850 census, TX, Jefferson, (M432-912, 238) Oct. 23, 1850, lines 17-26, HH 203/203 J.M. KETCHEM, 28, M, Carpenter, $1333 real estate, Penn Clara C KETCHEM, 25, F, Ohio Mary T (or F) KETCHEM, 2, F, Penn Abel C KETCHEM, 9/12, M, Do (ditto) Benj. GRANGER, 31, M, Carpenter, $1333 real estate, N York M.B. ATKINSON, 30, M, ditto (carpenter), Georgia Abel COFFIN Sr, 50, M, ship carpenter, Mass Abel COFFIN jr, 24, M, ditto (ship carpenter), Penn Wm BURGETT, 34, M, Painter, Vermont James BROWN, 27, M, Sailor, Rusia (?) - 1860 census; pct ??85, TX, Jefferson, Sabine Pass, p. 432 July 10, 1860, HH 324/324 Abel COFFIN, 70, ship carpenter, b. Massachussetts Mary A. COFFIN, 68, house keeper, b. Penn George GUPTILL, 30, sea man, b. Mass Anama(??) GUPTILL, 21, housekeeper, Ohio (Emma Coffin GUPTILL) Tristram GUPTILL, 18 or 78, labourer, Penn John H. ARMAGSS???, 41, house carpenter, Maryland H.H. VOGSBURGH, 45, (can't read occupation), New York John COUCH, 42, carpenter & ????, England D.V. CANOVER, 25, carpenter, Ala William SEYMOR(??), 28, machinist, Ala Thomas SNOW, 30, merchant, Ala - household of William HARRIS immediately preceding -- # 323/323 following housholds 325/325 -- J.T. FULLER 326/326 -- Otis McGAFFEY 327/327 -- J.R. BIRCH 328/328 -- S.K. BURCH 329/329 -- K.D. (S??) KEITH 330/330 -- John HOGSKISS ??? 331/331 -- J.T.S. HOLLMAN (??) - 332/332 -- Abel COFFIN Abel COFFIN, 32 Tinner & ??? dealer, Penn Polena COFFIN, 23, housekeeper, Tex Mary COFFIN, 9 Arthur W. COFFIN, 1 Martha COFFIN, 20, spinster - 333/333 -- R.E. BOLTON 334/334 -- John GIBNEY?? -
  Family ID	F15766	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Belinda Bartlett Brown,   b. Maine, USA ,   d. Bef 1858, Sabine Pass, Jefferson county, Texas, USA
  Married	Jan 23, 1851	Orange, Orange county, Texas, USA   [2]
  Children	+ 1. Mary Ann Coffin,   b. Dec 29, 1851, Sabine Pass, Jefferson county, Texas, USA ,   d. Nov 20, 1928, Beaumont, Jefferson county, Texas, USA  (Age 76 years)
  Family ID	F2740	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 2	Pauline "Sissy" Wiess,   b. May 14, 1837, Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches county, Texas, USA ,   d. Dec 13, 1930, Wiess Bluff, Jasper county, Texas, USA  (Age 93 years)
  Married	Oct 14, 1858	Jasper county, Texas, USA
  Notes	W.T. Block wrote http://block.dynip.com/wtblockjr/history.htm> "During an interview with Arthur Coffin of Wiess Bluff in 1973, the writer was informed that Sam Houston spent the night on two occasions at the old Simon Wiess home there, Wiess Bluff being an old steamboat stop on the Neches River, sixteen miles north of Beaumont. Wiess had known Houston in Nacogdoches as early as 1835.  Coffin's grandmother, Mrs. Pauline Wiess Coffin, was born in Nacogdoches in 1837, but she had lived in the old Wiess home for ninety years, from 1840 until 1930.  She could remember General Houston from days when she was a little girl.  However, the times that he visited there must have been subsequent to 1846.  Steamboat passenger service on the Neches did not begin until 1846, the year that the "Angelina" made its maiden voyage from Pattonia, Nacogdoches County, to Sabine Pass. Occasionally, deep-sea schooners may have traveled as far inland as Wiess Bluff, but generally wind velocity sufficient to fill schooner sails ended whenever the timberline was reached. 1850 census, TX, Jefferson cty, (M432-912, 238) Oct. 23, 1850, lines 17-26, HH 203/203 J.M. Ketchem, 28, M, Carpenter, $1333 real estate, Penn Clara C  "  , 25, F, Ohio Mary T (or F) " , 2, F, Penn Abel C  "  , 9/12, M, Do (ditto) Benj. Granger, 31, M, Carpenter, $1333 real estate, N York M.B. Atkinson, 30, M, ditto (carpenter), Georgia Abel Coffin Sr, 50, M, ship carpenter, Mass Abel Jr, 24, M, ditto (ship carpenter), Penn Wm Burgett, 34, M, Painter, Vermont James Brown, 27, M, Sailor, Rusia (?) 1860 census, TX, Jefferson, Sabine Pass, pct 5, p. 56, (p. 432) JUL 10, 1860, HH 332 Abel Coffin, 32, M, W, Tinner & store dealer, (no real estate value given), $3600, Penn Polena, 23, F, W, housekeeper, Tex Mary, 7, F, W, Tex Arthur W., 1, M, W, Tex Martha Coffin, 20, F, W, Spinster??, Ohio living near: - S.K. Burch (44) & Caroline (#328) - K.D. Keith (#329)
  Children	+ 1. Arthur W. Coffin,   b. Jul 29, 1859, Texas, USA ,   d. Jan 14, 1892, Round Rock, Williamson county, Texas, USA  (Age 32 years)
  Family ID	F548	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

• Photos

  Coffin, Abel (1828-1866)

  
  

  Headstones		Wiess Cemetery, Wiess' Bluff, Jasper county, Texas
  		Coffin, Abel

  
  

• Sources

  [S574] Block, William.T. http://www.wtblock.com/wtblockjr/History%20of%20Jefferson%20County/Chapter%203.htm [S75] From Cotton Bales to Black Gold, p. 46. [S953] Munro, Jeff, telephone conversation of Jeff Munro and Tom Cloud, OCT 21, 2003. [S6] Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, J.H. Brown. [S2128] A Brief History of Wiess Bluff, Texas. [S136] 1860 US federal census.