James D. Coffin
A very nice and helpful Coffin cousin, Dorothy Brickhouse, sent me a fax of some papers regarding the Civil War service of her great-great-grandfather, James D. Coffin. It appears that James was a week shy of his seventeenth birthday when he enlisted as a private in Company D of the 2nd regiment of the New York Heavy Artillery Volunteers, on 29 Feb 1864. On May 9th of that year, at Spotsylvania, Virginia, he was shot in the left hand, and lost his left forefinger. On December 9 of the same year his regiment was engaged in a skirmish with the enemy on Vaughan Road, towards Hatcher's Run, Virginia, when James received a gunshot wound to his right arm, resulting in the amputation of that arm. He was discharged from Jarvis General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on March 30th, 1865.
James returned to his father's farm in Newport, New York, and in 1870 married Huldah Nichols. They had a son, Leon H. Coffin, the following year, but Huldah passed away before the child reached his first birthday. Some time afterwards he left his son Leon with his parents, Worden and Elizabeth Coffin, and went out to the Black Hills of North Dakota, in the Deadwood area, and became involved with mining operations. In July of 1876, he was elected recorder of Lead City, and is also listed as one of the founders of that 'city'. Page 82 of Gold, Gals, Guns, Guts: Deadwood-Lead '76 Centennial (Bob Lee, 1976) puts it this way: "The new town was called Lead City and two officers were elected - Robert Charles "Smokey" Jones as secretary and James D. Coffin as city recorder. No other officers were chosen since the miners, inasmuch as any civic acts would be without legal status, thought it would be better to let local unwritten mining laws govern disputes." He was also Vice-President of the Caucasian League in that area.
James died suddenly on 21 Nov 1879 of Pneumonia at the young age of 32. His grandson, Leo Worden Coffin, married Myrtle Mykel, and together they had 18 children, many of which grew up in Herkimer County, New York. The early Deadwood newspapers contain several articles concerning James D. Coffin, which I am in the process of ordering.
A very nice and helpful Coffin cousin, Dorothy Brickhouse, sent me a fax of some papers regarding the Civil War service of her great-great-grandfather, James D. Coffin. It appears that James was a week shy of his seventeenth birthday when he enlisted as a private in Company D of the 2nd regiment of the New York Heavy Artillery Volunteers, on 29 Feb 1864. On May 9th of that year, at Spotsylvania, Virginia, he was shot in the left hand, and lost his left forefinger. On December 9 of the same year his regiment was engaged in a skirmish with the enemy on Vaughan Road, towards Hatcher's Run, Virginia, when James received a gunshot wound to his right arm, resulting in the amputation of that arm. He was discharged from Jarvis General Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland on March 30th, 1865.
James returned to his father's farm in Newport, New York, and in 1870 married Huldah Nichols. They had a son, Leon H. Coffin, the following year, but Huldah passed away before the child reached his first birthday. Some time afterwards he left his son Leon with his parents, Worden and Elizabeth Coffin, and went out to the Black Hills of North Dakota, in the Deadwood area, and became involved with mining operations. In July of 1876, he was elected recorder of Lead City, and is also listed as one of the founders of that 'city'. Page 82 of Gold, Gals, Guns, Guts: Deadwood-Lead '76 Centennial (Bob Lee, 1976) puts it this way: "The new town was called Lead City and two officers were elected - Robert Charles "Smokey" Jones as secretary and James D. Coffin as city recorder. No other officers were chosen since the miners, inasmuch as any civic acts would be without legal status, thought it would be better to let local unwritten mining laws govern disputes." He was also Vice-President of the Caucasian League in that area.
James died suddenly on 21 Nov 1879 of Pneumonia at the young age of 32. His grandson, Leo Worden Coffin, married Myrtle Mykel, and together they had 18 children, many of which grew up in Herkimer County, New York. The early Deadwood newspapers contain several articles concerning James D. Coffin, which I am in the process of ordering.
posted by mycoffinfamily | 4:42 PM
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