Grayson County TXGenWeb

GLEN EDEN

Denison Herald
July 25, 1972

GLEN EDEN SETTING FOR FRONTIER DRAMA

Glen Eden was the setting for many years for a plantation drama that featured the glamour, hardships, and violence – and even the romance – of the frontier country.

In many ways the Glen Eden epic could have been Grayson’s County adaptation of “Gone With the Wind” saga, certainly including
its colorful Sophia Coffee-Porter.

The plantation home was built by Col. Holland Coffee in 1845 for his young wife, Sophia, whom he married in 1837 at Independence, Washington County.

The then palatial residence located on the bank of the Red River near Preston Bend, was the capitol of Southern hospitality through the pioneer era.

Col. Coffee apparently was the first in this part of the world to capitalize on the tourist business. Aside from the trading trinkets and provisions to the Indians for the release of white prisoners, he operated the post as a supply base for the intrepid pioneers.
The river crossing was only a ford and prairie schooners could be floated across at normal river levels. When the river was up, however, travelers were obliged to wait often days. They found the Coffee trading post and its auxiliaries answering their every need with food, lodging, blacksmith service and supplies. Col. Coffee’s Glen Eden home, a “mansion” of hospitality in the wilderness,” was the social center for the entertainment of the trail blazers.

Col. Coffee’s post was on the trail that most of the “Forty-Niners” who headed west in search of gold followed. The first road designated by the Republic of Texas was from this vicinity south and became Preston Road.

In 1840, a company of Texas Rangers were sent to augment protecting of the post which was the “jumping off place” into the uncharted frontier. The Comanche Indians imperiled those who pushed beyond Coffee’s post into Texas. Commanding the Ranger force was Capt. William Preston, whose name the community eventually borrowed. With an inn, stores, the Rangers’ stockade and the first Methodist Church in Texas, Preston was the largest community in North Texas. It was also the head of Red River navigation.
If Glen Eden’s history were to be told through the eyes of one of its inhabitants, it would have to be those of Sophia, Col. Coffee’s wife.

Born at Fort Wayne, Ind., Sophia at the age of 16 years eloped with a German officer who brought her to Texas where he deserted her. She and Col. Coffee set up housekeeping in a clapboard shanty at Preston, surrounded by a stockade for protection from Indian marauders.

As prosperity came for the couple, Col. Coffee built Glen Eden, first as a double cabin log house. The milled lumber siding and gingerbread trim on the spacious porches were installed later.

Catalpas that grew about the grounds for many years had their start from seed brought from California by General Albert Sidney Johnson as a gift for Sophia. Other guests who honored the house were General Robert E. Lee, General U.S. Grant and General Fitzhugh Lee.

Glen Eden sheltered, with the hospitality imparted by its owners, many other persons of prominence, including a number of famous soldiers and was a mecca for the gay social life of an era that mixed its gaiety with the ever present danger of Indian raids.
Legend has it that General Sam Houston partook of Glen Eden’s hospitality during a visit to Grayson to speak at a festival celebrating the naming of Sherman as the county seat. He danced with Sophia during the party in his honor. A giant magnolia tree that survived until the area was cleared for the advancing waters of Lake Texoma reputedly was planted by Houston as a gift to the Coffees.
Romance smiled on piquant Sophia, but not without its tragic price that brought violent deaths to two of her husbands, Col. Coffee was stabbed to death at his trading post in 1846. In 1852 she married Major Butts at New Orleans, La., who was killed by Quantrell’s men near Sherman during the Civil War.

After the war, the thrice married Sophia became the wife of Judge James Porter of Waco and returned with him to Glen Eden. Judge Porter died in 1886 and was buried in Preston Cemetery. At the age of 82 years, Sophia died Aug. 27, 1897, and was buried beside Judge Porter.

But the adventure that had ebbed and flowed around Glen Eden for generations was to continue through at least another quixotic chapter.

Sentiment was strongly in favor of relocating the home as a historical shrine ahead of the clearing of the area for Lake Texoma. Finally actions was taken by Federal Judge Randolph Bryant of Sherman, who purchased the building.

Together with County Judge Jake J. Loy, Judge Bryant planned to restore Glen Eden to its original glory as a state park.

But the plan got sidetracked to the everlasting chagrin of Judge Bryant. A combat Engineer Corps crew dispatched to the Denison area to demolish the old Preston Bridge in a practice maneuver, camped near the site of the old Glen Eden.

Judge Bryant had paid heavily to have the historic old home carefully razed, and each piece of lumber and every brick meticulously numbered for exact re-assembly at Loy Park.

But it was a cold night when the soldiers pitched camp to await dawn to start their attack on the old span. Someone spotted the stacked lumber and soon merry bonfires were blazing all around the temporary camp.

But in the warmth and cheer for the soldiers that night went the storied old home.