COE, JOHN ROUCE
ROUCE6 COE (Benjamin5, Avery4, Daniel3, Timothy2, Timothy1) was born in the fall of 1809 in Worcester County, MD. The Coe name was first carried there by Daniel Coe, who moved to the area in 1733. Before 1735 Daniel purchased a plantation just south of the Delaware line, which eventually became known as "Coe's Addition." On January 2, 1735, he was a testator to the will of Captain William Fassitt, a prominent figure in the early history of the county. Captain Fassitt had a son named Rouse, who afterward lived near the children of Daniel Coe. Rouse became a common given name in Worcester County. Other individuals with the name were Rouse Bowen, Rouse Gray, Rouse Harrison, and Rouse Purnell. Perhaps in no other area was the practice of using surnames as given names and naming children after neighbors and friends more prevalent than in Worcester County and the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia. The name is still spoken with pride in the Worcester area, as though it were an area exclusive; pronounced "Rouzi" by the Shore folk. Mr. Coe's full name may have been John Rouce Coe. After marrying and establishing a family, Rouce, whose name was often spelled Rouse, moved to Pike County, OH, where he settled just south of younger brother Benjamin of Bourneville. After plodding the five hundred miles from his eastern home, Rouce found himself among some of the most picturesque scenes he could ever have imagined. Rolling hills, lush woods and a burgeoning population greeted him in l850s Pike County. Just fifteen miles to the north lay Chillicothe, which some forty years before had been the state capital and principal city of the entire Northwest Territory. It was hard to imagine then, but less than a hundred years had passed since the first white frontiersmen, Simon Kenton, Jonathan Alder and Isaac Zane, had lived just north of the area with the Wyandottes and Shawnees. Only sixty years had passed since Benjamin Logan, Daniel Boone and Anthony Wayne had finally succeeded in subduing such local Indian legends as Little Turtle of the Miamis, Blue Jacket of the Shawnees and Tarhee of the Wyandottes. It had been just forty years since the greatest Indian of them all, Tecumseh, had fallen at the Battle of the Thames. And now another white family had come to live in the woods where they had once roamed. Pike County, where Rouce settled, was created by the Ohio General Assembly, January 1, 1815. The Scioto River runs through the county from north to south. West of the river the land was part of the Virginia Military District, reserved for Virginia's Revolutionary Veterans. East of the River was Congress Lands, surveyed and sold to settlers by the Federal Government. Pioneers arrived in the county shortly after the Shawnee Indians relinquished the area under the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. By 1840 the population had reached 7,536 souls. The geography is mostly rolling hills with fertile farmland along the Scioto. Rouce first shows up on the records of Pike County, March 28, 1855, when he and William Dyche purchased a 201-acre farm, located five miles west of Waverly. Purchased from Reason Sewell, a resident of Benton County, IN, the land was originally surveyed June 1, 1813, for Thomas Mountjoy, part of Virginia Military Warrants 5871 and 6503, and surveys 8575 and 12688. On May 1, 1833, this property had been purchased by Joseph Sewell, father of the above named Reason. Coe and Dyche bought the property for $600 - $300 supplied by each party. Interestingly, Dyche was living in Twin Township, Ross County, in 1850, not far from Bourneville shoemaker Benjamin Coe. Coe and Dyche had apparently entered the partnership in hopes of securing enough land to conduct a successful farming operation. The following February 18th they dissolved their partnership. For his equity in the venture, Rouce received by quit claim deed from Dyche and his wife May, a farm of 101 acres, the southeast corner of the Mountjoy survey. Rouce, in turn, deeded the northwestern corner of the property - 100 acres, more or less - to Dyche. Interestingly, William Coe, oldest son of Rouce, later bought part of the northern section from Thomas Deacon. Both sections were located in Pee Pee Township, near the eastern boundary of Pebble Township. Rouce's neighbor to the east was Jacob J. Edwards, Jr., a Virginian, born July 14, 1816. Originally a settler in Liberty Township, Ross County, in 1837, Edwards apparently found the hills of Pike County a little more to his liking. His wife was Frances Edna Brown, born July 15, 1815, in North Carolina. His brother Pinkem Edwards lived in Waverly. The Edwards farm contained 114 acres, lying to the south of Boswell Run, a branch of the Scioto River, and formed the eastern and part of the northern boundary of the Coe farm. The property south of the Coe farm was owned by Robert Lucas, enterprising businessman, influential state legislator, speaker of the Ohio House, brigadier general in the War of 1812, chairman of the first Democratic National Convention, US territorial governor, and distinguished governor of the State of Ohio. When it was announced that the Erie Canal was to pass through Pike County, Lucas was accused of using his influence in the state legislature to have it pass through his property. And it did. In 1831 he platted the Town of Jasper on his land along the canal, and no doubt enjoyed an increase in his income as the result of the influx of settlers. The canal passed just east of Rouce's land. On March 10, 1865, Rouce sold his farm to Andrew Moore for $600, a profit of $300 realized in ten years. The Pike County tax books list his assets from a high of $211 to a low of $200 during the time he held the farm. His property taxes ranged from $1.53 to $2.13 during the same period. During this time, an Elizabeth Coe, born in Maryland in 1800, lived with the family. She apparently made the trip from Maryland with them, but there is no indication as to her relationship. She was possibly his stepmother, or perhaps an older, unmarried sister. In 1870 Rouce was living beside his daughter Mary Jane Boggs at Mt. Sterling, Madison County. On December 20, 1876, he bought from Andrew Ward a 30-acre farm in Pebble Township, just west of his original land. Ward was not the owner of the property, but managed it as the guardian of Adison and William Miller, minors. A description of the property is given below: ". . . beginning at two white oak trees in the line of Survey 2631 and W corner to Survey No. 8575 thence with the line of last named survey 527 E 66 poles passing a Chestnut down and a burr oak general corner to Survey 8575 to a Sassafras and a white oak Thence S80 west 160 poles to a Stake and white oak bears north 29 links distance 20 inches distance in diameter a N W corner to Survey No. 13971 Thence N I E 38u2 poles to a white oak in the old line thence S 823/4 E 51 poles to two white oaks in the road. Thence North 8Oia E 30rn poles to a hickory and white oak in said road thence 42ia E 69 poles passing a white oak down corner to Survey 2631 at four poles. Thence with the Said line of the same to the beginning contains thirty acres and one Rod and thirty Six poles be the Same more or Less." Rouce agreed to pay Ward $240 for the property, working out terms wherein he would pay for the farm in three installments: $40 due March 1, 1877; $100 due March 1, 1878; and the remaining $100 to be paid March 1, 1879. Charging six percent interest for the extended credit, on February 9, 1877, Ward transferred his interest in the mortgage to Thomas Deacon, a neighbor. Rouce continued on this farm until he reached the age of 82. Finding his age an increasing liability, on November 7, 1891, he sold the farm to his granddaughter's husband William A. Brown. Shortly afterward, December 23, 1891, he and his wife Eliza entered the newly constructed Pike County Infirmary, located a mile or so west of their farm. The infirmary was to be his home for the next two years. He died there on Monday, January 8, 1894. At the February meeting of the infirmary directors - held February 5 - they voted to pay A. Penn $11.80 for two coffins and some repairs; one was noted as being for Rouce Coe. His body was taken for burial to Brown Cemetery, located at the top of a hill, behind the Noname Brethren Church, near Idaho, OH. The funeral was conducted among friends, January 9, 1894.
The January 11, 1894, edition of the Waverly News noted with respect Rouce's passing, one of the county's older and more respected citizens: "Mr. R. Coe, an aged gentleman of the county Infirmary, died at 8 O'clock on Monday morning and was interred in the Brown cemetery on No Name on Tuesday at 5p.m. Mr. Coe had been a resident of Pebble-twp for many years and had a host of friends." Rouce Coe's first wife, Rachel Smith, whom he married April 14, 1836, in Cecil County, MD, died before he made the trek to Ohio. He married (2) September 17, 1871, in Fayette County, OH, Mrs. Eliza A. (McGinnis) Coe, signing his name "John R. Coe" on the marriage license. Born in Ohio in the 1820s, Eliza Coe was the widow of Benjamin Coe of Bourneville. She died at the Pike County Infirmary, November 10, 1899, after entering the infirmary the same date as her husband. On December 3, 1899, the infirmary directors paid John Howell $6.50 for her coffin. She was taken for burial to Roxabell, OH, which lies in Ross County, between Waverly and Washington Court House. Children: i. WILLIAM, b. Dec. 5, 1836, in Maryland; d. Jan. 12, 1905, in Pike County; m. Nov. 2, 1862, Sarah F. Edwards, b. April 10, 1841, d. 1891, daughter of Jacob J. Jr. and Frances Edna (Brown) Edwards. Lived on Boswell Run Road, Pee Pee Township. Nine children born in Pike County. ii. Mary Jane, b. 1841 in Maryland; d. of tuberculosis Feb. 27, 1878, in Union Twp., Madison Co., OH; m. Dec. 12, 1868, in Madison County, George W. Boggs, b. 1844. Listed in the home of Benjamin Coe of Ross Co., OH, in the census of 1850, she appears in the home of Rouce Coe in the 1860 census of Pike County. She lived beside her father at Mt. Sterling, OH, in 1870. Death and census records list her birth as Delaware. Children: Martha, b. 1869; William, b. Aug. 15, 1874, d. April 23, 1875, in Union Twp., Madison County. iii. George W., b. 1843 in Maryland. Still living with his father as a 38-year-old farmhand in 1880, he may be identical with the George W. Coe, b. July 1843, who was living on West Street in Cloverdale, Sonoma Co., CA, in 1900 with a wife Mary J., b. May 1852 in NY. iv. Family records list a son Benjamin and two other sons who went to the Black Hills and were never heard from again. Benjamin Coe of Bourneville, which lies just a few miles north of where Rouce Coe lived in Pike County, had a son Shannon who went to South Dakota, where he died in 1909. He also had a son Benjamin who spent some time in Dakota Territory in the 1860s. It appears the reference in the family records is to these individuals, step-sons of Rouce.
Submitted by the Coe Family
Copyright © 2004
Pike Co. Genealogy Society a Chapter of O.G.S.
P. O. Box 224,
Waverly, Ohio 45690