Historic Hood River
Mary Coe
Notes
Somehow we’ve gone through 11 years of postings without a photo of Mary or Nathaniel Coe. The Coe’s are credited as the first non-Native settlers of Hood River, arriving in 1854. We actually don’t have many photos of them, but this is a nice one.
Mary Coe is said to have chosen the name “Hood River” for the young settlement on what was then known as “Dog River.” The Coes used the abandoned Laughlin cabin until they could build their own home.
It’s always hard to see someone in an old formal portrait as a real human being with thoughts and emotions and personality, but I can easily see this woman going into the George Crowell general store to pick up supplies or walking the deck of a steamer headed to the Dalles to sew the huge flag to celebrate the Fourth of July, 1861.
I’ll post the matching Nathaniel Coe portrait soon.
L.E.
She was born in New York City which tells you she was a city girl. In about 1853 she and her young children sailed to Portland via Panama to join her husband Nathaniel who had been gone for two years. She would have been about 53 years old when she came to the wilderness of Hood River. The Laughlin cabin must have been quite the change from her life in New York.
She left a daughter buried in New York and two of her sons died before she.
Putting together that huge flag, in a time of few supplies is quite a feat. A forerunner to the colorful sails HR now produces.
Jeffrey W Bryant
The headstones for Mary and Nathaniel Coe are in the Mountain View/St. Mary's Catholic Church/Knights of Pythias Cemetery south of Hood River. I don't know if their bodies were moved from a different location, but suspect that may be the case.
dale nicol
Hi L.E……not sure about Mary coming through Panama until 1914 at the earliest.
My Great grand parents came from New York to southern California in 1900 sailing around Cape Horn of South America.
L.E.
@dale…I think they must have crossed the Isthmus by land. The Find A Grave site for Henry Coe says he was 9 years old and carried on the back of a native guide. He also became ill with “Panama Fever”.
kmb
Interesting…I had no idea that people would take the Panama route over land even before there was a canal! They must not have had a lot of belongings with them, or their belongings took the ship the long way around the Cape.
L.E.
The brothers stayed behind at Panama to tend to the luggage. Not sure what that means. Possibly wait for it to arrive?
The person who posted this information must be descendent of the family.
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/179407231/henry-clay-coe
dale nicol
Thanks L.E., that makes sense if someone became ill with the Panama fever and survived….most people did not survive the illness!
Jeff Bryant
Jonathan Whealdon, brother of my 3rd great grandfather, took the land route across Panama in 1854, then continued on to San Francisco.
BoGleason
Nathaniel Coe officiated the marriage between my great-great grandfather William Jackson Creviston and his first wife Martha Neal in 1861. She was a daughter of Peter Neal.