James Bert "Jim" Blunt, Jr.

This photo is from my personal family collection.[1]  He is James Bert "Jim" Blunt, Jr., son of Jim, Sr. and his wife Alpha Anne Delafield.  Jim, Jr. was born Oct. 18, 1882 in Sarepta, Webster Parish, LA and died on Aug. 24,1933 in Rush Springs, Grady Co., OK.

He married Miss Isabelle Allison in Rush Springs on Mar. 12, 1911.  She was born Nov. 14, 1892 in Chockie, Atoka Co. OK to Charles Edward and Irene E. Glossup Allison.  She died in Jacksonville, Cherokee Co., TX on May 12, 1967.  Both are buried at Rush Springs Cemetery.

Jim, Jr. was to me both a first cousin, twice removed and, a second cousin, twice removed.  On the Blunt side, he descended from Hugh R. Blunt (1822-1877) and his wife Mary Ann Bishop.  Hugh was also married to Mary Ann's younger sister, Bonita Bishop from whom I descend.  And, we both descend from James R. and Peninah Walker Bishop of Lawrence Co., MS.

My descent from Hugh and Beneta is through their daughter, Amanda (1859-1936).  She married James Monroe Braley and their daughter, Ora (1884-1984) married A. L. Coffee and were my paternal grandparents.

I like this photo for a several reasons.  First, it is large, in focus and without defect (spots, folds, etc.).  Another reason is his clothing.  He is wearing a conventional necktie, white shirt and suit.  His hat sits back on his head, giving full exposure to his face.  It was probably taken in the mid-to-late 1920's.

He is wearing leather wrist cuffs and gloves.  The flashlight, along with his watch and fob must have been prized possessions. I have seen portrait-like period photos in which the men were displaying pistols or rifles but, I have never seen one with the subject holding a flashlight.  The mustache was de rigueur.

Jim, Jr and Isabelle had four children:

Myrtle (1912-1999) who married Verdie Hiram Morris and had children James Vernor and Joyce.

Hazel Relura (1913-1994) who married Clarence David Roberts and had children James Bert and Clarence David.

Clifford Edward "Cliff," (1916-1997) who married Mary Louise Fausett.  No known children.

DeAlva (1928-living) who married Robert Eugene Eitelman (1926-1986).  Four chidlren, three still living.  Their first, James Robert was born Oct. 19, 1947 and died the next day.

Jack

[1] I received the photo through a cousin who received it from Jim Jr's daughter, DeAlva.

Wesley W. Coffey - Request for Help

My original blog on Wesley W. Coffey.

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Today I received the following e-mail from Hal Shaw.  Please contact him directly if you can help with his request:

Dear Sir.

I am Hal Shaw,  I am looking for a photo of Wesley Coffey.  Wesley was Worshipful Master of the Spencer Masonic Lodge #95 in 1899.

The lodge has photo of all the Worshipful Master  hanging on the wall of honor from 1849 to the present, that is all but 7.  We are trying to complete the wall of honor, by locating the missing photos.

We are missing a photo of of the following gentleman:

John W. ALLISON, master 1849,

E. S. HOWE who was master in 1850 ( I noticed you are also working on the Howe family, I am not sure if E.S. Howe is related to Laura Howe 1843- 1940  or her father Amos Price Howe 1790- 1871.  Maybe you know the answer to this)

Isaac Johnson, master 1851

Lewis Stay, master 1868

A. J. Richards, master 1881,

Edward C Steel, master in 1889.

WESLEY W. COFFEY, master in 1899.

If you can help with a photos or know of anyone who might be able to, please let me know.
email is Shaws at comteck.com or 7121 Hickson Hill Road, Poland, IN 47868 [replace "at" with "@" to e-mail Mr. Shaw.]

In your blog or newsletter, you ask for burial place for Wesley Coffey.  He is buried in Riverside Cemetery in Section D, Spencer, Owen County IN.  His son Robert Coffey is also buried with him. Robert born and died 1880.

I did see on the internet at a Jean Birston  posted she had a picture of Wesley, but her emails come back as undeliverable.

Thank you in advance for any help.

Hal Shaw

John H. & Miriam Coffey Sanders

John and Miriam were the parents of Newell Sanders, written about in an earlier blog.  At the time, I did not have a whole lot of information on the descendants of John and Miriam.  Newell appears to be the only son or child that survived from that union.  Hopefully, what I add here will be of some use to readers who have an interest in this family.

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Newell Sanders' mother, Miriam Coffey, was a daughter of the Rev. Reuben A. and Martha "Polly" Dowell Coffey.*  She was born to them on Dec. 26, 1822 in Watauga Co., NC and died in Chattanooga, Hamilton Co., TN on Nov. 12, 1885.  The marriage between her and John Sanders, Jr. occurred on Sep. 30, 1849 in Owen Co., IN.  John H. Sanders, Jr. was born on Jan. 20, 1824 in IN and died there on Oct. 2, 1851.  The only census that the couple appeared in was the 1850 of Owen Co.  That records shows a child named John M., age 6, born in IN.  I believe this child to be John's by an earlier marriage and not with Miriam.

Miriam married for a second time on Dec. 31, 1857 in Clay Twp., Owen Co.  This husband was John Hamilton Buchanan, born Mar. 9, 1831 in KY, died Jul. 12, 1890 in Hamilton Co., TN.  The 1860 census of Owen Co. shows children Adelaide, age 10, William D., age 8, Newell Sanders, age 9 and Judson Buchanan, age 1.  Newell of course was Miriam's first child; Judson was her second. It is unclear what became of the child John M. Sanders that appeared in the 1850 census.  In 1870, a daughter named Marietta, age 5, appears in the household with John and Miriam but nothing else has been found.  I suspect that she died young.

This family remained in Owen Co. at least through the 1870 census but, by 1880 they had relocated to Chattanooga in Hamilton Co., TN.  Newell had graduated from Indiana University in 1873 and married Corinne Dodds, also a Indiana U graduate (Bachelor of Science) in about 1873.  In 1877 the couple moved from Indiana to Chattanooga where he began to successfully manufacture plows. The Buchanan family followed and Judson eventually went into the plow making business with his half-brother.

Judson married Mary Angie Coffey, a second cousin and daughter of Alfred Alphonso and Julia Ann Dawkins Coffey.  Alfred was a son of Elijah and Polly Hull Coffey.  Elijah and Reuben were brothers, sons of Thomas and Sally Fields Coffey.  Judson died on Jan. 27, 1842 in Chattanooga.  Angie died there on Nov. 9,1932 and both are buried there at Forest Hills Cemetery. Their children were:  Raymond, 1886-1887; Corliss, 1889-1947; Evelyn, 1892-1927; Robert, 1893-?; and James, 1900-1922.  With the exception of Robert, for whom I have found no death/burial info and, Evelyn who is buried with her husband at Arlington National Cemetery, all of the others are buried at Forest Hills.

Judson's daughter Evelyn married Homer David Cogdell of Bullock Co., AL c1918, or earlier.  David apparently had some connection with the plow company because he is known to have traveled, and at least once to Europe.  After Evelyn died, he moved with Caroline, their only child, to Sioux Falls, SD where in 1930 he reported his employment as a salesman of farm utensils.  He was then 42 years old and unmarried.  Caroline was 10 years old.  On Mar. 14 of the following year he married Mary Helen Elliott of Sioux Falls.  There is a passenger record which shows this couple returning from Le Harve in France to the Port of New York on Feb. 17, 1938.  With them was one child, Helen Janet, born May 8, 1936, "abroad to American parents."  Homer died on Oct. 8,1956 in Alexandria, VA was was buried at Arlington.  He had served as a Captain in the US Army during WW1.  I have no information on the death or burial location of Mary Helen.

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Newell and Corinne, a daughter of Clelland Finley and Mary Elizabeth Orchard Dodds, lived on Lookout Mountain in Hamilton Co., TN.  They were the parents of six children.  It appears that only three of them lived to adulthood.

They were:

Wendell, born Jan. 15, 1875 in Indiana, died Apr. 30,1892 in Hamilton Co., TN.  He is buried at Forest Hills.

Norinne, born Dec. 17, 1876 in Indiana, died Jul. 3, 1939 at Lookout Mountain, married John Harvey Anderson.  He was born Feb. 9, 1874 (place not known to me) and died on Jan. 7, 1966 in Hamilton Co.  Both are buried at Forest Hills.  They are known to have at least one child, John, Jr., born prematurely and died on Apr. 15, 1915.  He is also at Forest Hills.

Mildred, born May 1879.  No further information.

Sherman, born Aug. 18, 1882 in TN, died in Chattanooga onOct. 2, 1927.  Sherman was married but I do not know his wife's name.  He died at age 45 from acute appendicitis and was buried at Forest Hills.

Dorothy, who was called Dot, was born Oct. 24, 1886 and died on Jan. 4, 1894 in Chattanooga.  She is buried at Forest Hills as well.

The last child I know of was Pansy, born in June, 1890 in TN, died Jun. 4, 1944 at Vanderbilt University Hospital in Nashville.  She married Ben Matthews Allison c1910 and gave birth to at least two children, both sons. Joe Hill was born in 1913 and died in 1979.  Ben Matthews, Jr. was born Aug. 24, 1914 and died Sep. 17, 2004.  Joe's wife was Mary Cummings.  I do not know where Mary Cummings Allison is buried.  The rest of this family rest at Forest Hills.

"Sanders, Newell, a Senator from Tennessee; born on a farm near Bloomington, Owen County, Ind., July 12, 1850; attended the rural schools; graduated from Indiana University at Bloomington in 1873; owned and operated a book store in Bloomington, Ind., 1873-1877; moved to Chattanooga, Tenn., in 1877 and became a manufacturer of agricultural implements; member of the school board 1881-1882; alderman 1882-1886; president of the Chattanooga Plow Co. 1882-1901; member of the board of directors of the Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway; appointed as a Republican to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Robert L. Taylor and served from Apr. 11, 1912, to January 24, 1913, when a successor was elected; was not a candidate for election; chairman, Committee on National Banks (Sixty-second Congress); continued his former manufacturing pursuits; died at his home on Lookout Mountain, Tenn., January 26, 1939; interment in Forest Hills Cemetery, Chattanooga, Tenn."**

Click on the "earlier blog" link at the top of this page to read more about Newell and Corinne.

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*More blogs about Reuben and Polly can be found by using the search block in the sidebar.
**Mitchell Chapple, Editor, National Magazine: An Illustrated American Monthly, vol. 36, April, 1912 - Sept., 1912 (Boston, MA: Chapple Publishing Co., Ltd., ~Oct., 1912), Page 413. [There are many sources of information on Newell.  Search for him in Google Books.

Newell and Corinne Dodds Sanders

"Newell Sanders, manufacturer and United States Senator, 1912, 1913, was born in Owen County, Indiana, July 12, 1850, the son of John Sanders and Miriam Coffey Sanders, grandson of John Sanders and Nancy Briscoe Sanders and great grandson of Henry Sanders and Dicey Blake Sanders, South Carolina. Henry Sanders was a Baptist preacher and a Revolutionary soldier. Mr. Sanders' maternal grandfather, Reuben Coffey was a pioneer Baptist preacher and in 1834 was one of the founders of Franklin College, the Baptist college of Indiana. Mr. Sanders' parents and grandparents were among the numbers of Southerners who settled in southern Indiana about 1830.

"Newell Sanders entered Indiana State University at Bloomington where he graduated in 1873 with a degree of B.S. After conducting a book store in Bloomington from 1873 to 1878 he decided to enter the manufacturing field. He spent a year in northern shops gaining experience and settled in Chattanooga on the advice of Gen. John T. Wilder in 1878. He opened a factory to manufacture plows. This was the first factory in the South to make improved plows. In 1883 the business was incorporated as the Chattanooga Plow Company with Newell Sanders as president and general manager. Under his management it developed rapidly, doing a large domestic business and enjoying an extensive export trade. In 1901 he established the Newell Sanders Plow Company of which he was sole owner. In 1915 he again became president of the Chattanooga Plow Company, a position he retained until 1919 when he sold the company to the Internal Harvester Company. He sold the Newell Sanders Plow Company in 1927 and retired from business after having manufactured plows in Chattanooga for fifty years.

"His business interests, however, have not been confined to plow manufacturing. He organized the Chattanooga Steamboat Company in 1891 for the purpose of operating a line of boats on the Tennessee River to St. Louis and served as its first president. He was the first president of the Tennessee River Improvement Association and appeared many times before Congress in that interest. He was president of the National Association of Agriculture Implement and Vehicle Manufacturers from 1907 to 1909 and vice president of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers 1927, 1929. He is a director of the Hamilton National Bank and of the Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway.

"Mr. Sanders served as chairman of the Tennessee Republican State Committee 1894-1896 and again in 1906-1912. In both these periods Republican governors of Tennessee were elected. He was a member of the Republican National Committee, 1912-1916, and a delegate to the Republican National Conventions of 1900, 1904, 1908, 1912, 1916, 1920 and 1924. He was appointed by the Governor of Tennessee to the United States Senate and was the first Republican Senator from Tennessee in forty years. He took his seat April 8, 1912, his successor taking his seat in February, 1913. He led the prohibition movement in Tennessee which became a dry state before the national prohibition amendment was passed. In the Senate he was the leader in the passage of a law against the shipment of intoxicating liquor from 'wet' states into 'dry' states.

"Mrs. Newell Sanders was Miss Corinne Dodds of Bloomington before her marriage. The marriage took place October 28, 1873. She was a graduate of the Indiana State University of the Class of 1873. She was active in church and Red Cross work and was president of the Chattanooga Free Kindergarten Association during its long existence. She was the first woman in the Southern states to vote**. Mr. and Mrs. Sanders traveled together extensively in this country and abroad. They were four years in the same class in college, receiving the same training and acquiring the same ideals and success has been result of their joint efforts. The credit is due as much to one as to the other. Mrs. Sanders died in 1929. Their children are Norinne who married James Harvey Anderson; Mildred who married Walter Blair Wright; Pansy who married Ben Matthews Allison; Wendell who died at the age of seventeen; Dot who died young and Sherman who died in 1927 at the age of forty-six.

"Mr. Sanders home is on the east brow of Lookout Mountain next to the Lookout Mountain Incline. Since his retirement from business Mr. Sanders has given his time to the development of the Chattanooga-Lookout Mountain Park, on the sides of Lookout Mountain, and to other public affairs"

[Newell Sanders was the son of John and Miriam Coffey Sanders. Mirian was a daughter of the Rev. Reuben A. and Martha "Polly" Dowell Coffey.  Newell was born Jul. 12, 1850 and died Jan. 26, 1939 in Chattanooga.  Corinne died in 1929.  He is buried at Forest Hills Cemetery in Chattanooga and Corinne is probably there with him.]

**Interesting!  I wonder how this is known?

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Thanks to Richard Beu for providing this news article and photo, proving that Mrs. Sanders was the first woman to vote in the state of TN.  His GG-grandfather was I.E. Ireland, also pictured. Unfortunately, the date this was published in this Chattanooga newspaper was not preserved on the clipping I received.

Source:  Zella Armstrong, Author, The history of Hamilton County and Chattanooga, Tennessee: Vol I, 2 volumes (Johnson City, TN: The Overmountain Press, 1992), .  Photos from the source credited to Judd.  The book is available at Amazon.com, as well as other on-line book sellers.  It can probably be found on Amazon at this link:  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0932807917