Sarah Jane Coker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You have new messages (last change).

Sarah Jane Coker , the daughter of James Harrison Coker, was born on January 25, 1860 in the Coker Community. Her father James Harrison Coker was a school teacher at the Coker School and a farmer. At the age of 13 she met the recently divorced Zachary Taylor Autry. Her father James Harrison Coker strongly disapproved of the relationship between the 23 year old divorced Zachary Taylor Autry and his 13 year old daughter Sarah Jane. After many arguments with his daughter he finally forbade Sarah to ever see Zachary again. But a year later when Sarah was 14 she eloped with Zachary Taylor Autry and moved to Bandera, Texas area where the state had granted Zachary some land. On their marriage certificate from Kendall County, Texas she gave her name as Sarah Jane Cooper possibly to conceal her true identity. They settled on the land which was not far from her sister Mary's home. Mary had married a man named Newton and they had a young baby. One day about a year later, Sarah's brother Jim Jr. arrived at their cabin with warning of a Comanche indian uprising. Zachary and Sarah decided to immediately return with him to the Coker Community. On their way back to the Coker Community they stopped at her sister Mary's to warn her as well. But as they approached the cabin they could tell something was wrong, her sisters apron was hanging over the window and they found her sister Mary dead, pinned to the cabin steps by an arrow. They found the baby miraculously still alive and wandering in the woods nearby the cabin. They saved the baby and returned her to Coker Community but her later whereabouts are unknown. Sarah refused to return to the cabin in Bandera, Texas and In October of 1875 shortly after the birth of Zachary & Sarah's first child her father deeded 100 acres to Sarah and her bodily heirs carefully excluding Zachary from any possible ownership. She was widowed at the age of 35 with a large family, she made her living from a dairy from which she sold milk and butter to customers in San Antonio, Texas. She made her deliverys in a surrey pulled by two mules named "Baldy" and "Jack". She also assisted Dr. Kinney of San Antonio, Texas as a midwife. During her final illness the doctor offered to keep her in his clinic free of charge but she wanted to be at home. She died at the Coker Community on April 1, 1930. Her Obituary from the San Antonio News reads as follows: "Aged Coker Woman Dies at her home, Mrs. Sarah Jane Autry 70, who died at her home at Coker settlement early Tuesday will be buried in the Coker Cemetery at 8pm Wednesday. Mrs. Autry had lived in this vicinity all her life and is survived by two sons W. T. and A. H. Autry, three daughters Mrs. Geneva Leeman, Mrs. Maggie Thomasini, and Mrs. Agnes Norman, all of Coker, and two daughters Mrs. mary L. Taylor of Houston, and Mrs. Ada Barnes of Polk County. Two Brothers Jim & John Coker, and three sisters Mrs. Annie Maltsburger, Mrs. Julia Kelley, and Mrs. Mattie Hardin all of Coker".

[edit] Sources

  • "Our Coker Ancestors" By the Autry Family Association
  • "Unpublished Genealogical Research" By Richard B. Autry
  • "Coker Community Has Experienced Scope of Area Development" By Susan Goodell
  • Article in San Antonio Express News.
  • "Coker Community Church Facts" By J. William Roten, Bulletin of Coker Community Church.
  • "John Coker" A Texas Historical Commission historical marker.
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org../../../s/a/r/Sarah_Jane_Coker_b106.html"