Lilburn Warren Coffee - An adventurer

Lilburn Warren Coffee was the youngest son of Lilburn C. and Sarah Hannah Taylor Coffee.

Lib, as he was known to his family, left his father's home in southwest Arkansas sometime before the census in October of 1870. He was born in Sep.1850, and was therefore around 18 or 19 years old when he left Hempstead Co.

He rambled around Texas for several years before landing in Hayes Co. In 1870 he worked for Ezekiel Nance as a farm laborer. In October 1876 he married Margaret Goode, a 21-year old Texas beauty, born May 7, 1855. The couple stayed in Hayes Co. until around 1880 when they moved to Big Spring in Howard Co., Texas. Their first child, a daughter Lula Edna, was born in Hayes County on Nov. 19, 1878. Nine more children, four boys and five girls followed, were all born in Howard Co. between 1880 and 1898. During his lifetime he ranched more than 150,000 acres, and raised cattle, horses and pack mules for the army.

The first child born in Big Spring was a boy, born Jul. 22, 1880, and died Aug. 24, 1880. The others were:

Walter Douglas, born Jul. 25, 1882, died Oct. 29, 1947
Jerry, born Mar. 17, 1884, died Jun. 4, 1959
Rubye, born March 11, 1886, died March 24, 1972
Margaret, born Mar. 20, 1888, died Apr. 25, 1983
Lilburn, Jr., born Oct. 18, 1892, died Nov. 3, 1948
Nellie, born Jun. 12, 1894, died Mar. 20, 1909
Lolis, born Jun. 7, 1896, died Jul. 29, 1985
Lillian Lee, born Jun. 19, 1898, died Dec. 15, 1985

My research has uncovered only one living male descendant of Lilburn Warren Coffee, and he is the grandson of Jerry whose marriage to Martha Elizabeth Olive in 1914 produced Jerry, Jr. Jerry, Jr. married first to Helen Lorayne Donnis which produced a son, Jerry Earl Coffee, born in 1947. Jerry Sr.'s only other son, Leslie James Coffee was killed in 1944 while flying for the US Army Air Force.

Walter Douglas married Sarah Ruth Moore in 1926. That union produced at least two sons, Robert Lee, born 1926, died 1930, and Walter Douglas, Jr., born 1927, died 1985. Although he was married at least once, I have been unable to confirm any children that he might have fathered.

There are no photographs of Lilburn Warren Coffee known to exist.