Nathaniel Coe

{{Short description|American pioneer and politician (1788–1868)}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Nathaniel Coe

| image = Nathaniel Coe, Black and white sketch, c. 1850.jpg

| caption = Sketch of Nathaniel Coe, {{circa|1850}}

| birth_name =

| birth_date = {{birth date|1788|9|6}}

| birth_place = Morristown, New Jersey, US

| death_date = {{death date and age|1868|10|17|1788|9|12}}

| death_place = Hood River, Oregon, US

| education = Juris Doctor

| occupation = Public official

| known_for = Founding Hood River, Oregon

| spouse =

| children = 6

| parents =

| office1 = Special Postal Agent for the Pacific Northwest

| nominator1 = Millard Fillmore

| termstart1 = 1850

| termend1 = 1854

| office2 = Member of the New York State Assembly (Allegany Co.)

| termstart2 = 1843

| termend2 = 1847

| signature = Nathaniel Coe Signature.png

| relatives = Descendants of Robert Coe

| party = Whig (until 1856)

}}

Nathaniel Coe (September 6, 1788 – October 17, 1868) was an American pioneer, Whig politician, War of 1812 veteran, and frontier agriculturist who founded Hood River, Oregon. He was considered a radical for his strong opposition to slavery and support for progressive legislation for women's rights. Coe served in municipal, every level of state, and executive government offices, both through appointment and election. He was elected to serve four terms in the New York State Assembly. In 1850, Coe declined a nomination to serve on the United States Senate to instead accept President Millard Fillmore's appointment as the Special Postal Agent for the Pacific Northwest.

After settling in Oregon Territory, he developed the Hood River Valley's thriving fruit industry and served as the first chair of the Hood River County School District.

Early life and family

Coe was born on September 6, 1788, in Morristown, New Jersey, to Joel and Huldah Coe ({{Nee|Horton}}).{{cite book |last=Bartlett |first=J. Gardner |url=https://archive.org/details/robertcoepurita00bartgoog |title=Robert Coe, Puritan |publisher=Published for private circulation |year=1911 |isbn=9780598765826| pages=180 }} Coe is the fourth great-grandson of public official Robert Coe, the colonial public official, and the fifth great-grandson of Barnabas Horton, another colonist who built the first buildings on Long Island and the progenitor of the family that founded Tim Hortons.{{Cite book |last=Horton |first=Geo F. |title=Horton Genealogy or Chronicles of the Descendants of Barnabas Horton, of Southold, L. I., 1640. |publisher=The Home Circle Publishing Co |year=1876}}{{Cite book |last=Dinan |first=Jacqueline |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/915149624 |title=In Search of Barnabas Horton: From English Baker to Long Island Proprietor, 1600-1680 |date=2015 |publisher=Pynsleade Books |isbn=978-0-9862335-0-0 |edition=First |location=New York |oclc=915149624}}{{Cite news |last=Coon |first=T. R. |date=September 30, 1915 |title=Story of Nathaniel and Mary Coe |work=Hood River Glacier}} Mount Coe and Coe Glacier are named for his son, Henry, who platted the town.{{Cite web |title=Glacial History of Mount Hood in Oregon |url=https://us.ukessays.com/essays/geography/glacial-history-mount-hood-oregon-9576.php |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=us.ukessays.com |language=en-us |archive-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240708183154/https://us.ukessays.com/essays/geography/glacial-history-mount-hood-oregon-9576.php |url-status=live }}{{Cite journal |last=McArthur |first=Lewis A. |date=1926 |title=Oregon Geographic Names |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20610340 |journal=The Quarterly of the Oregon Historical Society |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=131–191 |jstor=20610340 |issn=2153-1706 |access-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-date=December 15, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221215200056/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20610340 |url-status=live }} Coe is the great-grandfather of Sidney Howard, the screen writer of Gone with the Wind.{{Cite episode |title=Tony Goldwyn's Political Roots |series=Who Do You Think You Are? |series-link=Who Do You Think You Are? (American TV series) |network=TLC |date=April 14, 2015 |season=5 |number=10}} Their genealogy was featured in an episode of Who Do You Think You Are? on TLC starring his third great-grandson, actor Tony Goldwyn.

In 1795, his family relocated to Scipio in rural Upstate New York, where he grew up.{{Cite news |last=Frost |first=Marjorie Conrad |date=October 20, 1960 |title=Woman Says |work=Nunda News}} Coe was well educated, studying at Aurora Academy in Aurora, Erie County, New York, and receiving the title of esquire with a law degree.{{Cite web |title=Nathaniel Coe family photograph albums - Archives West |url=https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv15075 |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=archiveswest.orbiscascade.org |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:80444/xv15075 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=November 29, 2012 |title=Learning History Through Yoga |url=https://nwsidebar.wsba.org/2012/11/29/farrell-yoga/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=NWSidebar |language=en-US |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://nwsidebar.wsba.org/2012/11/29/farrell-yoga/ |url-status=live }} He served in the military, rising to the rank of captain, and fought in the War of 1812.{{Cite book |title=Documents of the Senate of the State of New York |publisher=New York (State). Legislature. Senate. |year=1902 |volume=10}} In 1818, he returned to his family who had relocated to Nunda, New York.

Originally intent on becoming a lawyer, Coe instead joined the Baptist ministry and traveled through the south working as a surveyor and in sawmills. He worked as a penmanship teacher using the Lancasterian System in New Orleans for eight years.{{Cite book |title=Centennial History of the Town of Nunda |publisher=Rochester Herald Press |year=1908 |editor-last=Hand |editor-first=Henry Wells}}

File:Mary_Coe_(nee_White),_c._1854.jpg

In 1828, Coe returned to settle in Nunda, where he was later appointed the clerk of the village.{{Cite web |title=Livingston County NY Town Histories |url=https://genealogytrails.com/ny/livingston/historyoftownspg2.html |access-date=July 10, 2024 |website=genealogytrails.com |archive-date=August 24, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240824200741/https://genealogytrails.com/ny/livingston/historyoftownspg2.html |url-status=live }} There he met and married Mary White, a poet and literature scholar. They had four sons and two daughters. Both daughters died in childhood in Nunda.{{Cite news |last=Crandall |first=Lulu D. |date=January 22, 1925 |title=Story of Indian Warfare |work=The Dalles Chronicle}} Coe founded one of the first churches there in 1819,{{Cite book |title=History of the Genesee Country |publisher=The S.J. Clarke Publishing Company |year=1925 |editor-last=Doty |editor-first=Lockwood R. |volume=II |location=Chicago, Illinois}} which was converted into the Nunda Literary Institute in the 1840s.{{Cite web|title=Nunda Literary Institute|url=https://www.dakehome.com/NundaAcademy.htm|access-date=July 10, 2024|website=www.dakehome.com|archive-date=July 10, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240710030809/https://www.dakehome.com/NundaAcademy.htm|url-status=live}}

Political career

{{See also|List of people who have served in all three branches of a U.S. state government}}

Coe became a politician serving Allegany County, New York, with an appointment as justice of the peace, and three successful elections to the New York State Assembly in 1843, 1844, and 1845. He also represented Livingston County, New York, for one term in the state legislature in 1847.{{Cite web |title=History of Allegany County NY |url=https://genealogytrails.com/ny/allegany/history.html |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=genealogytrails.com |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://genealogytrails.com/ny/allegany/history.html |url-status=live }} His politics were extremely progressive for the time period. He was a member of the Whig Party and strongly anti-slavery and fought for the equal rights of women. He was considered by many of his peers to be a radical, but was esteemed and well-respected.

In the 1830s, the Coes hosted a gathering for a "female society supporting moral purity"—the American Female Moral Reform Society (FMR)—an early women's rights advocacy group against rape culture and misogyny billed as "anti-seduction" to protect women.{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Julie |date=January 11, 2021 |title=Amelia Norman and the Law of Seduction |url=https://thepanorama.shear.org/2021/01/11/amelia-norman-and-the-law-of-seduction/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=The Panorama |language=en-US |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021838/https://thepanorama.shear.org/2021/01/11/amelia-norman-and-the-law-of-seduction/ |url-status=live }} They then formed the Nunda chapter of FMR.{{Cite book |title=Advocate of Moral Reform |publisher=New York Female Moral Reform Society |year=1836}} At the time, men who raped women were not charged with a crime and the victims were deemed unfit for marriage and often had no choice but to enter the sex industry as prostitutes. During the 71st session of the Assembly, Coe introduced the first-of-its-kind anti-rape bill "An act to punish seduction", which passed into law on March 22, 1848.{{Cite book |title=Journal of the Assembly of the State of New York |publisher=New York (State). Legislature. Assembly |year=1844 |location=New York (State)}} The Married Women's Property Act was passed into law the following month, and in Seneca, New York, a few months later, women demanded the right to vote for the first time.

Coe was appointed to state auditor of New York.{{Cite web |last=Farrell |first=Timothy MB |date=November 27, 2012 |title=Kaleidoscope: Hood River history told by yoga |url=https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/gorge-life/kaleidoscope/kaleidoscope-hood-river-history-told-by-yoga/article_820f8e7d-8449-5419-a888-fa10c25d2fa8.html |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=Columbia Gorge News |language=en |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021839/https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/gorge-life/kaleidoscope/kaleidoscope-hood-river-history-told-by-yoga/article_820f8e7d-8449-5419-a888-fa10c25d2fa8.html |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |year=2006 |title=Nathaniel Coe Family Papers, Mss 431 |url=https://archiveswest.orbiscascade.org/ark:/80444/xv00355/op=fstyle.aspx?t=i&q=0&f_mattypes=Diaries. |access-date=2024-09-15 |website=Oregon Historical Society Research Library}} In 1850, he was nominated to represent New York in the United States Senate, but he declined.{{Cite news |date=May 24, 1923 |url=https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1923-05-24/ed-1/seq-7/|title=Life of a Boy in Pioneer Days |work=Hood River Glacier}} Instead, he accepted the nomination to serve as the Special Postal Agent for the Pacific Northwest from President Millard Fillmore. Coe first arrived in Oregon in Portland to survey the Umpqua and Rogue River for the Post Office Department a year prior to his family's settlement in the Hood River Valley.{{Cite news |last=Coe |first=Nathaniel |date=July 3, 1852 |title=Umpqua and Rogue River Valleys |work=Oregonian}} There were very few roads and travel was mostly along waterways. The federal government invested heavily into the development of the Post Office Department in the area for the potential for growing businesses in Oregon and California and the importance of timely delivery of correspondence.{{Cite journal |date=October 2015 |editor-last=DeBlois |editor-first=Diane |editor2-last=Harris |editor2-first=Robert Dalton |title=1850s Oregon Territory P.O.D. Special Agent |journal=Postal History Journal |volume=162 |issn=0032-5341}} His work stretched across all of Washington and Oregon territories to just east of the Rocky Mountains by waterway on the steamer Canemah and horseback.{{Cite web |last=Hedges |first=Joseph E. |date=June 2, 1864 |title=Clackamas-Marion-Multnomah County OR Archives Biographies |url=http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/clackamas/bios/hedges354gbs.txt |website=usgw archives |publisher=The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company |access-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/http://files.usgwarchives.net/or/clackamas/bios/hedges354gbs.txt |url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, April 02, 1903, Image 3 « Historic Oregon Newspapers |url=https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1903-04-02/ed-1/seq-3/ |access-date=July 9, 2024 |website=oregonnews.uoregon.edu |archive-date=July 8, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240708215638/https://oregonnews.uoregon.edu/lccn/sn97071110/1903-04-02/ed-1/seq-3/ |url-status=live}} The Canemah had a fatal accident when a flue exploded on August 8, 1853, killing a passenger. It sank the following September, was decommissioned and taken to Vancouver.{{Cite book |last=Wright |first=E. W. |title=Lewis & Dryden's Marine History of the Pacific Northwest |publisher=Publisher:Lewis & Dryden Printing Company |year=1895}} Coe established the first post office at The Dalles.{{Cite web |title=Timeline – Historic The Dalles |url=https://historicthedalles.org/history/timeline/ |access-date=July 9, 2024 |language=en-US |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://historicthedalles.org/history/timeline/ |url-status=live }}

File:Coe_House,_Hood_River,_Oregon,_bef._1903.jpg]]

Founding of Hood River

In 1853, upon Democrat Franklin Pierce's presidential election, a Democratic postal agent was appointed and Coe and his family platted and cultivated the Hood River, donating their government land grant for the establishment of Hood River.{{Cite book |last=Bancraft |first=Hubert Howe |title=History of Oregon |publisher=The History Company, Publishers |year=1888 |volume=II |location=San Francisco, California}}{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://cityofhoodriver.gov/community/history/ |access-date=July 9, 2024 |website=City of Hood River |language=en-US |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://cityofhoodriver.gov/community/history/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=November 18, 2015 |title=They Cooked a Swan, Called it Turkey |url=https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/gorge-life/history/they-cooked-a-swan-called-it-turkey/article_119a1679-76da-58f5-b53c-5319f8280512.html |access-date=July 9, 2024 |website=Columbia Gorge News |language=en |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://www.columbiagorgenews.com/gorge-life/history/they-cooked-a-swan-called-it-turkey/article_119a1679-76da-58f5-b53c-5319f8280512.html |url-status=live }} They planted the first orchards filled with 300 trees and bushes of apples, pears, apricots, strawberries, peaches, and plums. The first year of harvesting bore {{convert|1000|lb}} of peaches.{{Cite book |last1=Marbach |first1=Peter |title=Hood River Valley: land of plenty |last2=Cook |first2=Janet |date=2003 |publisher=Beautiful America Pub |isbn=978-0-89802-768-6 |location=Woodburn, OR}}

His wife Mary led an initiative to change the name of the Dog River in Oregon to its current name, Hood River, for nearby Mount Hood, which she thought was more respectable.{{Cite journal |date=1962 |title=News Notes |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20612716 |journal=Oregon Historical Quarterly |volume=63 |issue=4 |pages=358–366 |jstor=20612716 |issn=0030-4727 |access-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021838/https://www.jstor.org/stable/20612716 |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |last=Turnquist |first=Kristi |date=April 5, 2015 |title='Scandal' star Tony Goldwyn explores Oregon roots in 'Who Do You Think You Are?' |url=https://www.oregonlive.com/movies/2015/04/scandal_star_tony_goldwyn_trac.html |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=oregonlive |language=en |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://www.oregonlive.com/movies/2015/04/scandal_star_tony_goldwyn_trac.html |url-status=live}}{{Cite news |last=Lockley |first=Fred |date=August 16, 1920 |title=Observations and Impressions of the Journal Man |work=The Oregon Daily Journal}} The name had come from the Lewis and Clark Expedition who had named it "La Biche", which had been misinterpreted to be the Old English word "bicce", a vulgar slur for female dog. Another story was of an early group of explorers who had been so starved for food that they began to eat dogs while they camped there.{{Cite book |first= |title=Oregon Trail: The Missouri River to the Pacific Ocean |publisher=Scholarly Press |year=1972 |isbn=9781603540650}} It was officially changed in 1858.{{Cite book |last=Marschner |first=Janice |url=https://www.worldcat.org/title/166391110 |title=Oregon 1859: a snapshot in time |date=2008 |publisher=Timber Press |isbn=978-0-88192-873-0 |location=Portland |oclc=166391110}} The rest of the valley took on a similar name and the success of fruit growing led to the formation of the Hood River Fruit Growers Union, the first agricultural cooperative in the Pacific Northwest.{{Cite web |date=September 1, 1989 |title=National Register of Historic Places |url=https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fb41ebdf-95e8-4c31-8b54-5b3bc7e82036 |website=National Park Service |access-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/fb41ebdf-95e8-4c31-8b54-5b3bc7e82036 |url-status=live }} The area became an agricultural cradle when the first commercial orchard was planted in the 1880s.

The first building in the town was the school, now the site of the Mt. Hood Hotel. In 1865, Coe served as the Hood River County School District's first chair and held the first meeting in his home.{{Cite web |last=Babitz |first=Arthur |date=February 12, 2015 |title=School District No. 14 |url=https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/school-district-no-14/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=The History Museum of Hood River County |language=en-US |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://www.hoodriverhistorymuseum.org/school-district-no-14/ |url-status=live}}

Tensions with the Klickitats

File:Buildings at Fort Dalles, The Dalles, Oregon, 1897 (AL+CA 1585).jpg, 1897]]

In the early 1800s, following the Lewis and Clark encounters, the Klickitat people used their power in numbers to levy a tax on settlers passing through Wishram village eventually opening depots for collecting furs. The Klickitat were skilled and by 1843 had developed working relationships with the settlers, hiring out farmhands and scouting in the war for hostile tribes.{{Cite journal |last=Coon |first=Delia M. |date=1923 |title=Klickitat County: Indians of and Settlement by Whites |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40474726 |journal=The Washington Historical Quarterly |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=248–261 |jstor=40474726 |issn=0361-6223 |access-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-date=July 9, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240709021837/https://www.jstor.org/stable/40474726 |url-status=live }}

In 1850, the Donation Land Claim Act was passed as an incentive for settlers to move west and homestead with a guaranteed donation of {{convert|640|acre}} per family.{{Cite web |last=Scott |first=John |title=Oregon Donation Land Law (ODLL) |url=https://www.willametteheritage.org/assets/LaRC/bios_histories/Oregon_Donation_and_Land_Law.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150908110408/http://willametteheritage.org/assets/LaRC/bios_histories/Oregon_Donation_and_Land_Law.pdf |archive-date=September 8, 2015 |website=Williametteheritage}} Natives were dispossessed of their lands and pushed onto reservations to make room for settlers.{{cite web |last1=Coleman |first1=Kenneth R |title=White Man's Territory |url=https://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/owe-spring-2018/white-mans-territory-kenneth-r-coleman/ |access-date=July 8, 2024 |website=Oregon Humanities |archive-date=July 18, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240718012237/http://www.oregonhumanities.org/rll/magazine/owe-spring-2018/white-mans-territory-kenneth-r-coleman |url-status=live }} In some cases, the Klickitat fought for their land rights in court and won. The Tututni tribe from Rogue River grew increasingly hostile. In 1853, a group of Klickitat, their Chief Quatley, and Joseph Lane held a conference with the Tututni in which arms were called and Quatley and Lane held the Tututni chief hostage while they signed a peace agreement. The native rights to land, including those won in court, were not upheld by the government. In 1855, the Klickitat were ordered north of the Columbia River and east of the Cascade Range into Eastern Washington. Later that year, the Walla Walla Council was called to make peace between the settlers and the tribes. The Klickitat refused to attend, but Chief Kamiakin's signature on the treaty forfeited their rights to their lands.{{Cite web |title=Umatilla Relationships with US - Making Treaties |url=http://www.trailtribes.org/umatilla/making-treaties.htm |accessdate=December 14, 2015 |website=www.trailtribes.org |archive-date=March 3, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303171110/http://www.trailtribes.org/umatilla/making-treaties.htm |url-status=dead }}

The implications of the council ignited the high tensions between natives and settlers in the area into the Rogue River Wars and the Yakima War. Coe fled the area with his family and joined the other settlers and some of the Klickitat at Fort Dalles, where they stayed until it was safe to return to the area around 1859. Coe died on October 17, 1868.Thompson, Albert J. (April 1923). [http://www.jstor.org/stable/40474887 "Memories of White Salmon and Its Pioneers"]. The Washington Historical Quarterly. 14 (2): 111.