Sophia Suttenfield Auginbaugh Coffee Butt  
Sherman
Democrat
NOTORIOUS
WOMAN CARVES FRONTIER LEGEND
One of the first white women in the area, Sophia came to Preston Bend in 1839 after marring "Col." Holland Coffee, operator of the first trading post, which was on the Red River. Coffee
had come to the territory in late 1836 and gained notoriety
by trading whiskey and guns with the Indians.
At first, Sophia lived with Coffee in his stockade sometimes called Ft. Warren. Their house at the stockade was crude, and boxes which goods were shipped in were used to make furniture. "The first quilt I had in Grayson County, I picked the cotton out with my fingers and I quilted it. I then made me a rag carpet and put it on the puncheon floor. A goods box nailed up to the house for my wardrobe - and on viewing my quilt, carpet and wardrobe, I was the happiest woman in Texas," Sophia said.
After
Sophia and Holland Coffee's marriage in Houston on February 20, 1839,
they traveled on horseback to Warren's Trading House on the Red River.
"At this stop they were honored at a grand ball by the
settlers....Not far from Warren was the home to which Coffee had
brought his bride...It was more fort than home - a hundred square foot
building of logs that served both as house and trading post.
Located not far from the present town of Denison in Grayson County, it overlooked the Red River."
"Sophia and Holland's first home was a clapboard cabin surrounded by a high pole stockade 100 feet square erected as protection against Indian raids. It had a puncheon floor, and the table and Sophia'a wardrobe were made of wooden dry goods boxes. Despite her rough surroundings, Sophia wrote of this part of her life that she was 'the happiest woman in Texas'." Source : Crawford, John H. "Glen Eden and its Mistress, Sophia"
By 1842 Holland Coffee had established himself as a planter and a major trader with the thousands of immigrants who flooded into Texas. Construction on their famous house, Glen Eden, began in 1843. The house was a 2-story mansion with a dog trot through the first floor and was the finest home in North Texas. It was built of white oak logs and had an ell which contained the kitchen and the dining room. Long galleries went the length of the front and back, and two large white chimneys were at either end of the house. About four years later, Holland Coffee was killed in a brawl. Sophia lived at Glen Eden until her death on August 27, 1897. Sophia's home, Glen Eden, was pulled down in the 1940s to make way for Lake Texoma. Plans were to rebuild the mansion on higher ground. However, one winter night a group of U.S. Engineers took some of the logs and used them for a fire. The remainder of the logs were used to build cabins on PawPaw Hill, just east of Denison. The three cabins were eventually given to Frontier Village. One of those cabins is designated as Sophia's Cabin, one as the Country Store, and the third cabin became the Village Church. Source : "Sophia Porter, Texas' Own Scarlett O'Hara". The Portal to Texas History : Legendary Ladies of Texas, pg. 73, June 24, 2013 & Crawford, John H. "Glen Eden and its Mistress, Sophia"
Historical Marker
Historical Marker
Burial Site at Preston Bend Cemetery "Glen Eden", Denison Guide, 1939 Frontier Village Copyright © 2024, TXGenWeb.Copyright © 2024, TXGenWeb. If you find any of Grayson County, TXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |
