The Coe Family and Coe Ridge

In 1784 John Coe, my 5th great grandfather, was born in Surry County, North Carolina. He married Nancy Scott in 1806, they had 2 daughters Mary (1806) and Fannie (1809). In 1809 John migrated west, first to Tennessee, then in 1811 he settled in Kentucky on Kettle Creek, just about a mile east of the Cumberland River. They had 4 more children after that, Jesse (1811), Jemima (1813), John Jefferson (1820), and Malinda (1828.) After John Coe’s death in 1854 his son Jesse took over the plantation.

John Coe's former home

But this story isn’t really about John or his family. This story is about John’s former slaves.

Back in those days, large plantation owners like the Coes owned slaves. When John Coe and his family settled in Kettle Creek they brought along with them a slave woman named Betty, and her 2 sons, Ransom and Ezekiel. John had purchased Betty and her sons from a Cherokee man only known in records as “Mahster Stove.” Ransom and Ezekiel were the result of a relationship between Betty and Mahster Stove. Legend has it that the Indian blood in Ezekiel “was the reason for the “bad streak of meanness” in the future generations.

After the end of the Civil War and the end of slavery the former slaves took on the surname Coe after their former master who they all greatly respected. "We could not have had a better master. He was kind and good to all of us. We was taught to love Master Coe and all his family. I have loved him, and I loved all his family, his children and his grandchildren . . ." *written in the book “Coe Ridge Saga.”*

Ezekiel, or Zeke as he was well known as, was close to John Coe, and they had a mutual respect for each other. John allowed Zeke to plant tobacco on the Coe Plantation for two decades, saving any money he made to purchase his freedom. During this time though Zeke had married another of John Coe’s slaves named Patsy Ann in what they called a broomstick wedding. In some African American communities, marrying couples will end their ceremony by jumping over a broomstick, either together or separately. This practice is well attested for as a marriage ceremony for slaves in the southern US in the 1840s and 1850s who were often not permitted to wed legally. John Coe actually performed the ceremony himself.

The plantation where Ezekiel and Patsy lived and worked

The couple had 12 children, Mary, Thomas, William, Ezekiel, Michael, Jemima, Joseph, John, Sarah, Calvin, and Susan, as well as a child who died at birth. (There is also rumor that Patsy had another son with a white man, but the child was supposedly sold to another family and never heard from again.) When John Coe had died in 1854 he left in his will that the children would stay with their mother until the death of John’s wife Nancy at which point Patsy and the children would all be split between John’s living children. In 1858 Nancy had joined John in death and the family of slaves had been separated. Despite his best efforts Zeke would never be able to save enough to money to buy his and his family’s freedom.

Fortunately for them though the North won the Civil War and freedom came automatically. Zeke was able to take all the money he had saved and bought a bit over 300 acres of land on the back of the Coe plantation in 1866. This land became known as Coe Ridge. Now came the task of reuniting his family, and that’s just what he did. Zeke traveled over 200 miles to find all his children who were scattered throughout Kentucky and Tennessee. All were reunited except the child that Patsy supposedly had with a white man (if he truly existed.)

Eventually more blacks, mulattoes, and outcasted whites settled at the Coe Ridge Colony. The land, which was filled with plenty of timber, was perfect for building homes and earning extra money, as did farming and gathering of wild chestnuts which also provided food. The men on the ridge built the homes for the families, usually one room log cabins until families grew and more rooms were added on.

The children of Coe Ridge School

From the start of their emancipation in the late 1860s to the 1880s the colony grew prosperous and lived peacefully. However some white residents that lived nearby became resentful, tensions mounted and several of the white neighbors began harassing children of the colony and the fighting led to several people being killed on both sides of the conflict. The trouble continued until the 1920s.

But despite the racial tensions between the Coe Ridge Clan and some ruffian white rednecks the colony on Coe Ridge lasted almost 100 years. Though Zeke died sometime before 1900 and Patsy in 1907 the rest of the Coe family remained on the ridge for almost a century, farming and logging prior to the Great Depression. They later took on the business of running moonshine and other activities that brought federal agents and law officers to the area. By 1958 the Coe Ridge Colony was pretty much abandoned. But the legend of one former slave who made a safe haven for people who would would otherwise have had nowhere else to go, still remains.