My Coffin Roots

Interesting information and stories about the descendents of the Dutch Coffins from Fishkill, Dutchess County, New York.

Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Interesting In-Laws




Matilda Waterman (23 Jul 1862 - 13 Mar 1934) is the daughter of Richard Clark Waterman and Catherine Coffin, who is the daughter of Joseph Coffin, son of Edward and Sybil. Matilda married a man named Elijah D. Fulford. E.D. Fulford was considered one of the greats in trap shooting at the turn of the 20th century, especially in the shooting of live birds. In 1895 he was the Grand American Handicap (GAH) champion. He invented the Fulford Single Trigger and the Fulford Live Bird Trap. He was so well known across the country, that when he died, friends sent in money to a sporting newspaper for the erection of a monument in his home town of Utica, New York. Even Annie Oakley sent in a donation. (Thanks to Ken Estes for this information.)


George Jarvis Coffin, son of Lewis Augustus Coffin, M.D., married Louise Raven, sister of Henry Cushier Raven, better known as Harry Raven. As a collector for the Smithsonian institute, he spent years in the wilds of Borneo, Celebes, Africa, Australia, and Greenland. He was renowned for his dissection work, and lectured at New York University and Columbia university. He has written many well regarded articles as a result of his studies. He is best known, however, for one particular primate whom he adopted from the French Cameroun of West Africa. Meshie-Mungkut ("The little swaggerer"), a young chimpanzee, became a part of his family, and went on to become quite a celebrated actress. The Harry Raven page linked above links to a couple of other interesting articles about Meshie in the Raven family. I may even be related to Meshie, as we both are lovers of Ice Cream.




George Jarvis and Louise (Raven) Coffin had a daughter, Nancy Coffin, who married Marion Sims Wyeth Jr., the son (of course) of Marion Sims Wyeth, a renowned architect and designer of over 100 homes in Palm Beach, Florida. Wyeth graduated from Princeton in 1910, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1914. Among his works are the Florida Governor's mansion, and Mar-a-Lago, for Marjorie Merriwether Post, which Donald Trump bought in 1985 for $10 million. Wyeth popularized the Mediterranean Revival style throughout Florida, and was the first Palm Beach architect to be elected a fellow of the American Institute of Architects.

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