Isaac Coe

Coe was born near Dover, New Jersey, to Ebenezer and Cleopatra Coe ({{Nee|Conklin}}). He received Christian training growing up. He is a descendant of Robert Coe, a New England Colonist and early politician.

Coe manufactured glass in Utica, New York, before enrolling at Queen's College at age 30 to obtain a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery degree. He graduated in 1815 from the New Medical Institute in New York City, obtaining a Doctor of Medicine. He practiced medicine at Bellevue Hospital, then hospitals in New Jersey and Martinsburg, Virginia, for six years.{{cite book |last=Bartlett |first=J. Gardner |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NWlGAAAAMAAJ |title=Robert Coe, Puritan |publisher=Published for private circulation |year=1911 |isbn=9780598765826}}{{Cite book |last=Kemper |first=G. W. H. |title=A Medical History of the State of Indiana |publisher=American Medical Association Press |year=1911 |location=Chicago, Illinois}}

In 1837, he briefly returned east to study homeopathy at the New York School of Homeopathy.

File:Home_of_Isaac_Coe_on_Circle_Street,_Indianapolis,_Indiana,_c._1840.jpg

File:Cropped 1909, Art work of Indianapolis and vicinity - published in nine parts - DPLA - ded4ea02f5e21205ce5eceb566af1c78 (page 78) (cropped).jpg.]]{{See also|History of Indianapolis}}

Coe arrived in Madison, Indiana, in early 1821, before relocating to Indianapolis in May. He was the town's first physician with a medical degree{{Efn|He was the second practicing physician in the town; the first did not attend medical school.}} and is credited with saving the town from a malaria outbreak that nearly wiped out the town's citizens.{{Cite book |last=Price |first=Nelson |title=Indianapolis then & now |date=2004 |publisher=Thunder Bay Press |isbn=978-1-59223-208-6 |series=Then and now |location=San Diego, Calif}}{{Cite book |last=Minnick |first=Norman |title=The Indianapolis Anthology |date=January 1, 2021 |publisher=Belt Publishing |isbn=9781948742917}} He was a founding member of the Indiana State Medical Society and served as its first chair and its second president. He was a founder and superintendent of the Sunday school, a Bible School for adults, and the first church, Presbyterian Church of Indianapolis, which he designed and planned, and served as an Elder for 30 years. He also led organizing of the state's anti-gambling society, which successfully led to the state's first prohibition on gambling.{{Cite book |last=Esarey |first=Logan |title=A History of Indiana |publisher=Dayton Historical Publishing Company |year=1918 |location=Indiana}}

Coe was a commissioner of Indianapolis,{{Cite journal |date=December 5, 1837 |title=Journal of the House of Representatives of the State of Indiana |journal=Indiana General Assembly House of Representatives |volume=22}}{{Cite book |title=Commemorative biographical record of prominent and representative men of Indianapolis and vicinity |publisher=J.H. Beers & Co. |year=1908 |location=Chicago, Illinois |lccn=16013914}} including the Fund commissioner the Indiana Mammoth Internal Improvement Act. The law added $10 million in funding for public works. Due to the Panic of 1837 and the area's geography, many of the projects failed and the town was nearly bankrupted.Esarey, p. 359{{Cite book |last=Esarey |first=Logan |url=https://catalog.loc.gov/vwebv/search?searchCode=LCCN&searchArg=15005436&searchType=1&permalink=y |title=A history of Indiana from its exploration to 1850 |date=1915 |publisher=W.K. Stewart co |location=Indianapolis |lccn=15005436 |oclc=4865918}}

In his biographical sketch of Coe, Senator Oliver H. Smith said that he laughed at Coe for suggesting the capital of Indiana would someday be home to 5,000 people, which was in the woods at the time. By 1850, the capital had surpassed 8,000, and at the time of his death, more than 20,000. Smith wrote, "few men did as much as the Dr. to form society at Indianapolis".{{Cite journal |last=Visher |first=Stephen S. |date=1942 |title=Indiana's Population, 1850-1940, Sources and Dispersal |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/27787291 |journal=Indiana Magazine of History |volume=38 |issue=1 |pages=51–59 |jstor=27787291 |issn=0019-6673}}

He is buried next to his wife, Rebecca Coe ({{Nee|Cook}}) at the Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis. His homes in the city are now the sites of Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital and The Columbia Club.

He is the namesake of Coe, Indiana, originally called Arcadia.{{Cite book |last=Thompson |first=Charles Nebeker |title=Year Book of the Society of Indiana Pioneers |publisher=Society of Indiana Pioneers |year=1925}}{{Cite book |last=Rice |first=Thurman Brooks |title=One Hundred Years of Medicine |publisher=Indiana State Board of Health |year=1949}}{{cite book |last=Baker |first=Ronald L. |url=https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake |title=From Needmore to Prosperity: Hoosier Place Names in Folklore and History |date=October 1995 |publisher=Indiana University Press |isbn=978-0-253-32866-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/fromneedmoretopr00bake/page/99 99] |quote=...and called Arcadia. |url-access=registration}}

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Category:1782 births

Category:1855 deaths

Category:American frontier

Category:People from Dover, New Jersey

Category:Physicians from Indiana

Category:Presbyterians from Indiana

Category:Rutgers University alumni