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| Salathiel "Sales" Coffey & wife Eva Phylena Conner |
"Sales" Coffee was born Dec. 13, 1876 in Collin Co., TX to William Stanley and Sarah Elizabeth Lucas Coffey.
While many others in this family often spelled their surname Coffee. Except for the photo below, he seems to have always been a Coffey.
His father, was a Kentuckian, born there on Jul. 9, 1842. He rode to Texas with his father and the rest of their family in 1855. They settled in the area around Allen, in Collin Co. William married Sarah Lucas, a sister to Gabe Lucas, a colonel in the CSA. William fought with the CSA for the duration and was wounded three times.
Like others of the time and place, William was a farmer. However, when he was around 55 years old in 1897, he was elected sheriff of Collin Co. and maintained the peace in that county for the next three years. His wife having died around 1900 may have been the reason he didn't pursue being a lawman again. In 1910 and 1920 he lived with Silas Walker in Collin county and died there on Jun. 23, 1922 of chronic heart disease. Silas' wife, Alwilda Davis Coffey was his sister.
It was this William Coffey and his brothers that I wrote about some time back, recognizing that he, brother Z. T. and Mint W. all died within 72-hours of each other.
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| Newsprint Photo |
Sales was the seventh of 10 children born to William and Sarah Lucas Coffey and, in 1900, he married Eva Phylena Conner, a daughter of Julius Augustus and Mary Hinman Conner. Eva was born Mar. 15, 1881 in Sulphur Springs, Hopkins Co., TX and died in Amarillo on Dec. 21, 1945. The above photo is believed to have been taken in 1937 at one of the annual Coffee Family reunions held in Texas unto today. The photo to the left accompanied his obituary.
Many of the ancestors of the Coffey/Coffee families that attend were natives of Logan and Russell counties in KY while many of their ancestors came from Wilkes Co. in North Carolina.
Most of those who attend the annual gathering in Texas are descendants of James Coffey and his wife, Elizabeth "Betsy" Coffey Coffey. James is thought to be descended from Joel and Martha Stepp Coffey, a son of the still mythical Chesley and Jane Cleveland Coffey. Elizabeth is thought to be a daughter of Nathan and Mary Saunders Coffey. Nathan is said to be a brother of Joel,
Sales descended from Chesley through his son Salathiel through Elias who married Mary Coffey, another daughter of Nathan and Mary Saunders. Their son, also named Salathiel, married Nancy Dunbar. and their son was William Stanley Coffey.
Sales had been a deputy sheriff in Cottle and in Briscoe counties in Texas. He had also been a police officer in Amarillo where he had been assigned to several jobs, including desk sergeant, a plain clothes officer and a "night scout car" officer. When he died on Dec. 27, 1944 he had been residing in Amarillo for 18 years. A news item announcing his death recorded that he had moved to Amarillo from Silverton, TX and had been in the insurance business for the four years preceding his death. Sales was also a veteran of the Spanish-American War.
He was survived by his wife and three daughters: Mrs. Walter L. Bain of Phillips, TX; Mrs. Fred Trees of Houston and Mrs. E. T. Gilkerson of Fresno, CA. Will, his only surviving son was serving in the US Navy at the time. Two other sons, Elmer and Amos had died as youngsters.
He was buried on Dec. 30 at the Llano Cemetery in Amarillo, just across the county line in Randall county. Eva followed him to the grave almost one year to the later, on Dec. 21, 1945. She was also buried at Llano.
