Grayson County TXGenWeb

The Denison Daily Herald
Monday, March 26, 1906
pg 3

David H. Coffman, aged 46 years, died yesterday afternoon at his home west of Denison. Death was caused by a degeneration of the nervous tissues, especially the brain, due to the poisoning of the system. Mr. Coffman has been in ill health for three months, after taking a dose of the chill tonic, which, according to the statement of his physician, was the cause of the poisoning.
About a week ago he became much worse and all efforts to save his life proved fruitless. The funeral services were conducted this afternoon at 4 o'clock from the residence by Rev. W. T. Miller of Basin Springs and the remains were interred at Coffman cemetery.
The decedent was born in Missouri and in 1876 came to Grayson County and has since resided in Denison and the vicinity. He has resided on his farm west of Denison for ten years. For sixteen years up to the time of his last illness, he was employed in the machine shops of the M.K.& T. in Denison. He was a member of the Knights of the Maccabees and also of the Mount Pleasant Baptist Church.
He leaves a wife and seven children, as follows: Robert R. Coffman, employed in the M.K.& T. blacksmith shop in Denison; Fred, Miss Mettie, Jewel, Mary Ann, Harmon, Floy and Lummy, all of whome reside west of Denison. He leaves also one sister, Mrs. Mary E. Davidson of Francis, I.T., and three brothers, S. P. Coffman,, who lives west of Denison; R. E. Coffman of Lexington, Oklahoma.; J. M. Coffman of New Alla, Oklahoma.

The Denison Herald
Sunday morning, March 24, 1971

CIVIL WAR GRAVE MARKER SET FOR PIONEER OF DENISON AREA
After much correspondence and a wait of more than a year Mrs. Nettie H. Sampsell of Denison, a retired school teacher, has succeeded in tracing and verifying the Civil War record of her late paternal grandfather, David Harmon Coffman, Sr.
The American Legion is placing an appropriate government marker on his grave in the Coffman-Layne Cemetery in northeast Denison.
Coffman, who fought for the Confederacy, was born in 1827 and reared on a plantation in Alabama. He married Harriett Jones and they migrated to Cooper County, Missouri.
By the beginning of the War Between the States, they had four sons, the oldest 12 years and the youngest 1 year.
Coffman joined the Confederate Army under General Sterling Price after sending his wife and children to Texas. He was in Co. A, Pioneer Regiment, Missouri Cavalry.
He was captured during the Battle of Wilson Creek and had smallpox while a Union prisoner in Little Rock, Arkansas. He returned to service in 1863 after either escaping or being exchanged.
At the close of the war, he joined his wife and children near where Denison later established, but returned to Missouri.
Sentiment at that time was so high against the South that they decided to sell their farm and return to Texas. They bought two sections of land extending on the north from where the Pillsbury plant is located.
He lived on this property in a log house until his death in 1880. He gave the land for the Coffman Cemetery, plot for church and school where the Layne School now stands and where the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church was originally located.
Other grandchildren of Coffman living in the Denison area are Lee Coffman, Mrs. Hazel ---, Mrs. Jewel Wilson, Mrs. F.H. Phillips, Mrs. A.B. D----, Leonard Coffman and Mrs. Louise A----.
Jay Hoover, great-great-grandson of Coffman and S.B. Dorries assisted Joe Donald of the American Legion in placing the stone on Coffman's gravesite to replace one destroyed several years ago when a tree fell on it.