Marion Co TOC

NOTE !! This is a compilation of information only, and the reader must allow for errors. Because of past courthouse burnings, a large majority of coker information comes only from stories handed down through families and acquaintances. This genealogy is meant to be used simply as a guide. For additional information on the Cokers, look at the book on Marion County, AR families at the Marion County library.

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CHARLES COKER, son of Buck Coker

b. ca. 1800 GA

d. after 1860, Marion Co., AR

m. (1) Elisabeth "Betsy" FRIEND, dau. of Jake & Polly Friend,

(2) Lucinda "Elizabeth" TRIMBLE, born ca 1803 Missouri

(3) Cynthia B. ____?, b. ca 1835 TN

[Cynthia's shown on the 1860 Marion Co., AR census (Sugar Loaf Twp), household 937.]

S.C. Turnbo, in his writing entitled "Chased by a Band of Indians," stated:

"Soon after the death of his wife Joe [Coker] married a Cherokee Indian woman named Aney (not Annie), but during the year previous to his marriage to this woman he sent his children and Negro slaves to white River in charge of his brother, Charles Coker, who reached the Sugar Loaf country in 1813 and as we have said before Joe Coker himself came here in 1814. His father, William (Buck) Coker, pitched his tent on the north bank of White River January the 8th, 1815."

The only problem with S.C. Turnbo's statement about Charles caring for Joe's kids and arriving in the Sugar Loaf country (Arkansas) by 1813, before his brother and father's arrival, is that Charles himself would have only been about 13 years old.

Charles Coker had a farm near Lead Hill, now located in Boone Co., AR. Information from J.F. of Elkins, AR (in 1980), states:

"Charles Coker Farm - Buck Coker was first burial here in 1855. Charles' son, Lenard, was the second burial. Charles Coker lived on West Sugar Loaf Creek."

Sometime after Charles' death, Robert & Cassia (Orr) King resided "on the farm on West Sugar Loaf Creek known as the Charles Coker land . . . ." (S.C. Turnbo story, "She Remembers When the Land Office was Established at Springfield, MO.")

Other than the census records and those of S.C. Turnbo's writings, we have very little to go on with regard to Charles and the exact identities of his children. He had several, but there is some confusion as to which child belonged to which mother.

J.F.'s research states: "Charles Coker born 1800 - Georgia, married first Lucinda Trimble (Elizabeth), married second Elizabeth Friend (b. ca. 1803) (Betsy)."

However, S.C. Turnbo states differently. In "A Panther Gets Among Bone's Sheep," he wrote:

. . . After [Josiah] Bone left his claim Henry Wiggins occupied it. Wiggins married Mary Coker in 1847. She was a daughter of Charles Coker and was born in the Sugar Loaf country in 1831. Her mother, Elizabeth Coker, was a daughter of Jake Friend and was Charles Coker's first wife.

S.C. Turnbo mentioned Jake Friend in "Attacked By A Small Band of Indians":

A number of years before Marks and Kelly built a little mill at the mouth of Little North Fork in Marion County, Ark., Jake Friend and Polly Friend, his wife, lived here. . . . When Mr. Friend came to the mouth of Little North Fork he planted a quantity of peach and apple seeds that he had brought with him. When the young scions were old enough to transplant he put them out and the scions grew to be fine fruit trees and this orchard bore tine fruit and was noted one for many years. During Mr. Friend's residence here a band of drunken Indians entered the cabin one day to massacre the family, but before the Indians were able to make a beginning of their bloody work they were foiled by one of the white men who was in the house who snatched up a billet of wood and knocked the leader of the Indians down and the others Indians left the cabin in haste. . . .

On the 1830 Izard Co., AR federal census, Charles Coker's household consisted of:

1 male 20 to 30 (1800 to 1810)

1 male 10 to 15 (1815 to 1820)

1 male 5 to 10 (1820 to 1825)

1 male under 5 (1825 to 1830)

1 fem 20 to 30 (1800 to 1810)

2 fem under 5 (1825 to 1830)

The 1840 Marion Co., AR, Sugar Loaf Twp., p. 46, lists Charles Coker's household as:

Males: 2 age under 5

2 age 5 to 10

3 age 10 to 15

1 age 30 to 40 (Charles)

Females: 2 under 5

2 age 5 to 10

2 age 10 to 15

1 age 30 to 40

The 1850 Marion Co., AR federal census lists Charles' household:

No. 149 Charles Coker 50 Ga

Elizabeth 47 Mo

Elizabeth 16 Ark

Mahala 14 Ark

Malinda 11 Ark

Joseph 7 Ark

Loucinda Nepps 26 Ark

Henry 5 Ark

Jackson 4 Ark

Charles 1 Ark

CHARLES COKER'S KNOWN CHILDREN:

1. WILLIAM "WAGONEER BILL" COKER, b. abt 1818, AR, married about 1845 to Sarah Ann "Betsy" WOOD. Children: Lucinda D., Winney, Sarah Jane, Reggie/Regina, and Elmira. Wagoneer Bill Coker probably died before 1860. These children are shown with mother Sarah living in the 1860 Marion Co., AR household of Henry & Elizabeth Nipps. Henry Nipps was 28 and wife Elizabeth was 24.

2. LEONARD COKER, born about 1822; married Prudence ___ (b. Abt 1825). He was a fiddler. Leonard was buried on his father's farm. Their children: Emaline and Sarah A. Was it Leonard who was listed as "Lemuel Coker" on the 1850 Marion Co., AR federal census, household # 151, two doors down from Charles and next door to Buck? "Lemuel" is listed as 29, born in Ark; wife was Prudence, age 24 MO; and daughter Emeline, age 1 Ark.

3. LUCINDA COKER, born abt 1824, AR. Lucinda married (1) Henry NEPP/NIPPS, died before 1850; (2) Tom BOATRIGHT. Notation from information provided by J.F. states: "dau. of Charles Coker - mar. Henry Nipps - married 2nd - Tom Boatright - went to Missouri during Civil War and froze to death. Lucinda and Henry's children were: Henry (blind?), Andrew Jackson and Charles E. Nepp. Lucinda's children by Tom: William, Joseph C., James J., and Luticia C. Boatright.

4. EDWARD "NED" COKER, said to have been born on October 28 or 29, 1828; died March 2, 1892. He moved to Texas. Married (1) Eliza BRYAN, (2) Mary Evaline O'KELLY. Children: 1st wife - John and maybe several others but unknown; 2nd wife - Jennie, Charles M., Leonard, William Edward, Sarah, Clara, Frederick Thompson, Maude, Randolph, Dolly and Mamie.

5. ELISABETH COKER, b. abt 1834/35 in AR or MO. S.C. Turnbo stated that this Elisabeth Coker married "Bill MANLEY." A descendant of Bill & Elisabeth Manley has no family evidence to prove that her Elisabeth was indeed the daughter of Charles Coker; however, she wrote:

"William and Elizabeth [Manley] are shown with three children in 1860 census, then both seem to have disappeared and children are with grandparents [John Alexander & Mary A. Manley] in 1870 Sugar Loaf Twp. There is an Elizabeth living in the household, but her age doesn't match up to be the mother. ... Elizabeth COKER ... was born between 1834 and 39 in AR?TN. She was moved from Manley Cem (that is now under Bull Shoals) to Milan Cem, Ar. An Elizabeth Manley age 31 TN is in household with John and Mary A in 1870 Sugarloaf Two, Boone Co AR, age doesn't match as our Elizabeth appears to be 26 in the 1860 census."

Bill & Elisabeth Manley's children: Mary E., John R., George Washington, and Delina/Melinda Manley.

[CONFUSION: In this writer's own family, it is written that my great-great-grandmother was "Martha Elisabeth Coker," born in 1834. A grandson of hers, Rev. Zaddox Wilson, wrote in his family Bible that his grandmother was the daughter of Charles & Elisabeth (Trimble) Coker. He said that Elisabeth Trimble was born in 1803. My Elisabeth Coker, who was living in 1860 in/near Yellville, Marion Co., AR, and age 26, married (1) Mr. WILSON who died in September 1857 during the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah; and, (2) Francis Marion "Frank" BUTLER. My Elisabeth died sometime after May 1875. Children of my Elisabeth (Coker) Wilson Butler were: John William Edward Wilson, Bell Adaline Wilson, and William Lawrence Wilson, and George William "Willie" Butler. MAB]

6. SUSAN MAHALA COKER, born about 1826 or 1836, AR, married (1) Robert Jefferson WOOD, son of William & Hannah (Austin) Wood, and (2) William "Dock" BOATRIGHT (b. abt 1814 TN). Mahala & Robert's children were Hannah, John and Isham M. Wood; children by Dock were John T., Robert D., Martha B., and William A. Boatright.

7. MALINDA "POLLY" COKER, born about 1839, AR, married Henry WIGGINS. "Henry died in the Cave bottom on White River a short distance above the mouth of the Little North Fork during the Civil War. He was buried by women at the foot of the bluff & lies there in a lone grave." Polly & Henry's children: Enoch, Elick, Charley, Ned, Joe, Robert and Willie Wiggins. S.C. Turnbo wrote about Henry Wiggins in "A Panther Gets Among Bone's Sheep:" "After [Josiah] Bone left his claim [at Elbow Creek or Jake Nave Bend] Henry Wiggins occupied it. Wiggins married Mary Coker in 1847. . . . While Wiggins was living here he picked up his axe one morning and started down the creek. At the first crossing of the creek above where Tom Jones settled a sycamore log lay across the creek, the butt end of which rested against a small sycamore tree 3 or 4 feet above the gravel bed. As Wiggins went to step up on the log to cross over the log slipped down and caught one of his legs under it and broke the bone between the knee and ankle joint. It was more than 1/4 mile back to his cabin and it was sometime before his wife heard his outcries of distress and for help. When she reached him she found that she was unable to lift the log off of his leg and ran down to our [Turnbo's?] house for assistance and my father hurried to him and after lifting the log from his crushed log he picked up the man in his arms and carried him home and made "splinters" of cedar wood and bound them to his broken leg, but it was many days before the man was able to walk again."

8. JOSEPH COKER, born about 1843, AR. Confederate soldier.

9. CHARLES M. COKER, born about 1855, AR [son of Cynthia?]

10. TILFORD D. COKER, born about 1858, AR [son of Cynthia?]

(Thomas?) Edward Coker(Part 9)