David Emily "Dee" Coffman

David Emily "Dee" Coffman

VirginiaConfirmed

1857–1938

Born

8 August 1857, Page County, Virginia

Died

28 April 1938 at Merkel, Taylor County, Texas

Buried

Dudley Cemetery, Callahan County

Parents

David Carl Coffman & Emily M. Thornhill

Married

Mary Jane "Mollie" Wright

Sources

14

Images

3

Life in the order the records give it

Birth1857

Born 8 August 1857, Page County, Virginia

the Page County birth register, which indexes the family under KAUFMAN while every census writes Coffman S82

Death1938

Died 28 April 1938 at Merkel, Taylor County, Texas, aged 80, widowed; buried Dudley Cemetery, Callahan County

his Texas death certificate no. 20503, which names his father as David Coffman and leaves his mother's name blank S20. FindAGrave's "Callahan County" is the cemetery's county, not the place he died.

Burial1856

The year 1856, long carried here, came only from an unsourced memorial. The birth register, the death certificate's stated age, and a family record typed by his grandson Robert William Coffman all give 1857 S72. Corrected 16 September 2026.

Photograph2026

🆕 He and Mollie are now placed in their own family photograph, 18 September 2026. Virginia "Ginger" Coffman returned a labelled copy of the group photograph held under their names, captioned in her own hand "Dee Coffman Family / Circa 1924", with fourteen faces named S108: Dee seated at the centre with the white moustache and Mollie seated beside him; standing behind them James Burton Coffman, Robert William Coffman, Sue, Lucy, Lydia Mae and Lee Coffman; seated to the left of centre James David Coffman; and among the children Lydia Francis Coffman, Ila Belle Coffman, Horace Glenn Coffman, David Coffman and Jesse Coffman. Ten of the fourteen are new

four had been picked out on 16 September by Earl's uncle David Coffman. This adds to the record; it corrects nothing: the photograph was always this family's. The names are family testimony Probable confirm or correct →, and her circa 1924 narrows the page's old estimate of 1923–1930 without turning into a document. One small echo: the boy she names Horace Glenn Coffman is almost certainly the "1 Horace Coffman (one and only)" counted in red ink on Robert William Coffman's own notes sheet S103 — two family sources, decades apart, touching the same child.

Census1870

🆕 His census trail, 1870–1930, added 24 September 2026. In 1870 he was 12 and at school in his father's household at Luray S344. In 1880 he was a share tenant farming 60 acres in Precinct 7, Dallas County, four dwellings from his father-in-law Dr James W. Wright S345S346. In 1910 he was renting near Abilene, and Mollie reported 10 children born, 7 living

among them Daisy and Dee Carl, who are not on the 1924 photograph S347. By 1920 he owned a mortgaged farm in Precinct 7, Taylor County S348, and in 1930 his own home on RFD 2 Abilene, with Mollie's widowed brother James B. Wright living with them S349. Their daughter Daisy Holly, born 5 April 1896, died at Abilene on 17 March 1934, nine months before her mother S350.

Family parents, marriages, children, siblings

Parents1883

🆕 His father's will (Page County Will Book P–S, p. 158, proved 28 February 1883) names him as David E. Coffman, one of five children. That makes three documents for his parentage S489S82S20. added 25 September 2026.

Marriage1878

Married Mary Jane "Mollie" Wright on 27 October 1878 at Dallas S72

Parents1812

Parents David Carl Coffman (13 Dec 1812 – 25 Jan 1883, Luray) and Emily M. Thornhill (7 Apr 1820 – 21 Jul 1868, Hawksbill), both of Page County, Virginia

the birth register names David C. and Emily M. S82 and their chalked gravestones supply the dates S83. His middle name is his mother's given name; she died when he was ten.

Photos & documents 2 photos · 1 document

Photos (2)

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Documents (1)

Documents · 1 page image all documents

Retrieved from the UNT Libraries' Portal to Texas History, or — for the University of Texas Cactus yearbooks — from Texas ScholarWorks. Each thumbnail opens the full page scan, which can also be downloaded. The quoted text is the OCR that ships with the scan, copied verbatim; the page image is the authority.

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D. E. Coffman & Mary Jane Wright — family record typescript (G4)

Family record · undated

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In the record Generation 5 — the immigrants and the frontier

1. S20FindAGrave memorial 53748559, David Emily "Dee" Coffman (1857–1938) — findagrave.com/memorial/53748559.
2. S72Coffman and Bowles family record — typescript, undated. Four typed sheets compiled within the family and kept by Robert William Coffman (1906–1990), Earl's grandfather; passed to his son David and photographed 16 September 2026. Covers David Emily "Dee" Coffman & Mary Jane Wright, William Anderson Bowles & Iona Belle Brock and their eighteen children, and James Daniel Bowles & Lydia Williams and their ten. Family testimony, not a vital record — weighed as such. It agrees with the registers on Lydia Mae Bowles's birth to the day and on Iona Belle Brock's dates exactly, and it supplies two marriage dates and twenty-two names that no record here had. It also contradicts itself on William Anderson Bowles's birth year (1858 on one sheet, 1859 on another) and gives Mary Jane Wright's death as 1934 against 1935 elsewhere. Those conflicts are recorded, not resolved.
3. S82David Emily "Dee" Coffman — Page County, Virginia birth register, 8 August 1857. Virginia, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Birth Records 1853–1896, FamilySearch ARK 1:1:6K1Q-DYSJ, with the same original entry indexed twice more — Virginia, Births and Christenings 1584–1917, ARK 1:1:XT4Y-1S9, and Virginia, Vital Records 1715–1912, ARK 1:1:XSVY-N9PV. Retrieved 15 September 2026. The child is entered as David E. Kaufman; the parents as David C. and Emily M. The register indexes this family as KAUFMAN while every census writes COFFMAN — that spelling split is the whole reason the wall stood, because a search on Coffman against Page County returns nothing but Shenandoah drift. ⚠️ The three indexings disagree on the year: 1857 in the Bureau register, 1858 in the christenings collection. The page follows 1857, which the stated age of 80 on his 1938 death record and the family typescript both support. The register gives the parents by given name and middle initial only; "Thornhill" is not in this record and comes from the censuses and her gravestone.
4. S83David C. Coffman and Emily M. Thornhill Coffman — gravestones, Page County, Virginia. Two chalked headstones photographed 12 August 2015 and held in the Coffman family tree shared with Earl by his uncle David; read here from the full-resolution images, 16 September 2026. OUR FATHER / DAVID C. COFFMAN / BORN Dec. 13, 1812 / DIED Jan. 25, 1883 / Aged 70 yrs. 1 mo. 12 ds. and OUR MOTHER / EMILY M. COFFMAN / wife of DAVID C. COFFMAN / BORN April 7, 1820 / DIED July 21, 1868 / Aged 48 yrs. 3 mos. Both stones close to the day on their own arithmetic, so the dates are corroborated by the monuments themselves and not only by a tree. Emily's carries the phrase "wife of David C. Coffman" — a contemporary physical object tying the couple together, independent of any index. Her death in July 1868 is also why Dee, born 1857, carries his mother's given name as his own middle name: she died when he was ten.
5. S103Robert William Coffman — four pedigree sheets, Genealogical Society of Utah forms (copyright 1936). Compiled by Robert William Coffman (1906–1990), Earl's maternal grandfather; kept after his death by his son David Coffman, who photographed and sent all four to Earl on 18 September 2026. Blue-ink cursive throughout, with a later layer of pencil block capitals on the right-hand column of Chart 1 and red annotations in a third hand. All four images are on this page. FAMILY TESTIMONY, and graded as such — a pedigree chart is not a record. Its value here is that it is testimony from inside the family, written down by a careful man with the 1940 Kauffman-Coffman book open beside him, and it carried two facts nothing else on this page had: the names PETER H MARTIN and JANE BELL [S105][S106], and the wedding date 5 Mar 1799 [S104]. ⚠️ Where the sheets disagree with a record, the record wins on this page, and three such places are printed rather than hidden: the chart's 1888 birth and "Columbus" for James Harris Timberman Jr. against his Ohio certificate's 23 Oct 1886 and Cambridge [S79]; its "Martin Coffman d. 1809" against the county's 1805 will; and its Martin against the 1799 bond's "Geo." ⚠️ Chart 3 (the Swiss Kauffman generations) and the surname-study sheet are published as documents and NOT as descent. The Swiss chain carries no citation of any kind, and the surname sheet — Kauffmans on the councils of Berne, Zurich, Solothurn and Lucerne, 1303–1582 — has nothing on it connecting any of those men to this family. ⚠️ The sheets arrived through a phone and cap at 720 × 1280 pixels; a chart field is 12–20 pixels tall at that size, which is why several readings are graded Probable. A re-photograph at full resolution would close about a dozen of them.
6. S108Dee Coffman family photograph, circa 1924 — names supplied by Virginia "Ginger" Coffman. A copy of the group photograph already published here, with names typed onto fourteen of the faces and captioned in the image itself “Dee Coffman Family / Circa 1924.” Compiled by Virginia "Ginger" Coffman (Earl's aunt, daughter of Robert William Coffman) and relayed by Earl on 18 September 2026. The labelled image is on this page. Names given: James Burton Coffman, Robert William Coffman, Sue, Lucy, Lydia Mae, Lee Coffman, James David Coffman, Dee Coffman, Mollie Wright Coffman, Lydia Francis Coffman, Ila Belle Coffman, Horace Glenn Coffman, David Coffman, Jesse Coffman. FAMILY TESTIMONY, and graded as such. A relative naming relatives she knew is good provenance; it is not a record, and no document here names a face. This is an addition, not a correction — the photograph's attribution to Dee and Mollie Coffman's family was never in question, and is unchanged. Its weight is that it answers a question this page had been carrying since 16 September: which figures are Dee and Mollie. Ten of the fourteen names are new; four agree with the identifications Earl's uncle David Coffman gave two days earlier. Mary Jane "Mollie" Wright has no other photograph anywhere in this record, so the detail on her card is cut from this frame and labelled as a detail. ⚠️ Her circa 1924 is the family's attribution and sits inside this page's earlier 1923–1930 estimate; the photograph still carries no date of its own.
7. S3441870 U.S. Federal Census — David C. Coffman household, Luray Twp., Page Co., Virginia. Ancestry record 40335323. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David C. Coffman, 57, farmer, real estate $8,500, personal $2,000; Annie R. 22, Jane C. 20, and David E., 12, at school. The index's “Malinda Coffman 60” and “Lucy Coffman 15” are two Black domestics in the household; no surname is written for them on the image, and they are not carried as Coffmans.
8. S3451880 U.S. Federal Census — Precinct 7, Dallas Co., Texas: David E. and Mary J. Coffman. Ancestry record 7452380. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David E., 23, farmer, b. Va.; Mary J., 21, b. Tex. of Tennessee parents — twenty months after the wedding. Four dwellings up the same page: Dr James W. Wright, 55, physician, Lucy C., 48, and their children Jesse, 10, and Kate, 7. The first census to show the Wright family itself.
9. S346U.S., Selected Federal Census Non-Population Schedules — 1880 Agriculture, Precinct 7, Dallas Co., Texas, p. 2 line 4. Ancestry record 3811440. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David E. Coffman, share tenant (“rents for shares of products”): 60 acres tilled, 50 in woodland; farm $150; 2 horses, 2 milch cows; 1879 crops of wheat, oats, corn and 3 acres of cotton (2 bales). James W. Wright owns the farm on line 2 (100 acres tilled, $5,600). Read together with the population schedule, S345.
10. S3471910 U.S. Federal Census — Abilene Ward 3, Taylor Co., Texas, ED 266, sheet 16B. Ancestry record 28640074. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David E., 52, farmer, renting; Mary Jane, married 31 years, mother of 10 children, 7 living; at home Jessie Lee 19, Sue 16, Daisy 14 and Dee Carl 12. Mary Jane's age is written 58, an enumerator slip; her 1859 birth stands.
11. S3481920 U.S. Federal Census — Justice Precinct 7, Taylor Co., Texas, ED 272, sheet 14A. Ancestry record 13175075. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Enumerated 26 Jan 1920, one sheet before the Bowles household (S188). David E., 62, farmer, owns a mortgaged farm; Mary J., 60, b. Tex.; James B. Wright, 64, single, entered as “Brother” — Mollie's brother. The index's “Mary S” is a misread of J.
12. S3491930 U.S. Federal Census — Precinct 7, Taylor Co., Texas, ED 221-31, sheet 4A (RFD 2 Abilene). Ancestry record 60799483. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed David E., 73, owns his home, first married at 21; Mary J., 70, first married at 19; James B. Wright, 74, brother-in-law, widowed. The index's “working on own account” is wrong; the image gives Dee's occupation as None.
13. S350Texas, U.S., Death Certificates — no. 15321, Daisy Holly, 1934. Ancestry record 81672982. Image examined, read 24 September 2026. Confirmed Daisy Holly, born 5 Apr 1896, Texas, died 17 Mar 1934 at 834 Ambler Ave., Abilene, of lobar pneumonia after influenza; husband and informant Owen Holly; father D. E. Coffman, b. Va.; mother Mary J. Wright, b. Tex.; buried Abilene, 18 Mar 1934. A daughter's certificate, attached to her father's hint. The stated age of 36 is the clerk's arithmetic.
14. S489Virginia, U.S., Wills and Probate Records — Page County Will Book P–S, p. 158: will of David C. Coffman, proved 28 February 1883. Ancestry record 2168515. Image examined, read 25 September 2026. Confirmed “I David C. Coffman of the County of Page”: one third of his personal property, and the income of a third of his land for life, to “my beloved wife Mildred F. Coffman”; the residue equally among “all my children, viz: Susan M. France wife of R. Lee France, Annie B. McKim wife of A. W. McKim, Jane C. Chapman wife of John N. Chapman, William S. Coffman, and David E. Coffman”; executor his son-in-law A. W. McKim. Signed 13 February 188[?], witnesses Samuel Spitler and Wm. L. Hudson; proved 28 February 1883 in the Page County court. The last digit of the signing year is lost at the page edge. The first document to name all five children together, and the third, after S82 and S20, to tie Dee to David C.