The Mystery Can Never Be Solved By Joyce Godwin
W
e’ve been reprinting stories from the book published by the Anna Area Historical Preservation Society “The Spark That Ignited the Town of Anna” in each issue of Anna Living Magazine. We are thankful to the AAHPS for giving us permission to use the book for our magazine. In the last issue we shared the interesting story of the Coffman Community located west of Anna. In checking some of the facts laid out for that story, this writer discovered a tragedy that stayed in the headlines for years and got as much attention as the T. Cullen Davis escapades in 1976. No one can really know what happened in the Coffman Community the night gun shots rang out Jan. 3, 1909 shattering the lives of two families. Only Mr. and Mrs. Louis Coffman know what happened and one of them was dead. In a McKinney paper, folks read on January 6, “Former Constable Louis S. Coffman, who is in jail here to answer a charge of killing his wife Mrs. Jessie Coffman, has made no further statement in regard to the matter and does not discuss the case.” The scene of the shooting was described in newspaper reports as shocking, fearful and tragic. In “The Sulphur Springs Gazette” it was reported “near neighbors to the Coffman’s were alarmed last night about 10 o’clock by two shots followed by cries.” Witnesses were reported to say “Mrs. Coffman lay on the bed in her night garments quite dead. The pillows and bedding were crimson with blood. Coffman, who seemed stunned and bewildered, stood holding his bleeding hand. “His statement, when he had recovered in a measure of calmness, was that he and his wife had retired for the night and that without warning she fired at him with the revolver, 4
which still lay on the floor; that when he sprang out of bed in amazement and pain that his wife deliberately placed the muzzle of a shotgun, found later on the other side of the bed, to her head and had taken her own life.” Another paper graphically described the injury in this way; “…a ghastly hole had been torn in her head, the shot entering about the bridge of the nose and tearing away a portion of the forehead, into the cavity of which a man’s hand could have been placed.” Coffman was accused of murder and taken into custody that night and he was never the same again. He and his family and the family of his wife went through several court actions before Coffman was given a death sentence and then new trials gave him a life sentence. Witnesses against Coffman reported him to be difficult and hard to get along with. Apparently, he did not have a good relationship with his father-in-law J.G. Barnes. Witnesses for Coffman claimed his wife had been a heavy drinker and was most unhappy that she had to live on the farm on the Coffman land. One of his trials was moved to Sherman on a change of venue. The Sherman newspaper reported “the jury returned a verdict finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree; and assessing his punishment at confinement in the state penitentiary for life. The case has been on for two weeks and one day and has attracted a great deal of attention on account of the prominence of the parties as both young Coffman and his wife belonged to prominent families.” The couple married in 1903, the second marriage for both, and a year later welcomed their only child William Scott Coffman. From all reports found in research, young Will was taken in by his grandparents John Anna Living Magazine
In this photo captured from ancestry.com is Col. Thomas Scott, father of Mattie Scott Coffman. He married Elizabeth M. Shirley. Left is the Scott grave marker and center is the gravestone for John Hogue Coffman.
Hogue and Mattie Scott Coffman. A Convict and Conduct Registry shows that Louis was pardoned in January 1915 and his World War I Draft Registration is dated in November 1918. He is shown to be living in Dallas on Young Street and working as a Linen Man at the Adolphus Hotel. He died in 1924 and his death certificate names pneumonia as cause of death with alcoholism being a contributing factor. Young Will moved away from the area with his grandmother in 1918 as reported in a McKinney newspaper. “Mrs. J.H. Coffman and grandson Will Scott Coffman have moved to Brownwood, Texas where they will make their future home. We regret to see Mrs. Coffman leave us as she has been a great help in this community in church, and many other ways. She was always ready to help in sickness or at home where the Death Angel had come and claimed its victim and could speak many kind and comforting words to cheer lonely hours like this.” John Hogue Coffman, Louis Coffman’s father, died following surgery in 1914; Mattie Scott Coffman died in 1937. Will Scott Coffman died in 1965. His draft registration showed he worked in Houston at the National Supply Company. When Will died, it was the end of the Coffman name as descended from John Henry Coffman who was the father of Hogue and George Coffman. George Coffman is the descendant who established the Coffman Cemetery which is seen from the service road on U.S. Highway 75 just south of White Street. Most members of the John Hogue Coffman family, including Louie Scott and Will Scott are buried in the Melissa Cemetery in a section next to Mattie Scott Coffman’s family.
