Fifth Generation

259. Holland Coffey was born on 15 August 1807 in Burke Co., NC. He appeared in the census between 1838 and 1839 in Washington Co., TX.⁸⁵⁶ Between 1838 and 1839 he was on the tax rolls in Washington Co., TX. Holland appeared in the census in 1840 in Grayson Co., TX.⁸⁵⁷ Holland died on 5 October 1846 at the age of 39 in Texas and was buried at Preston Bend Cemetery in Pottsboro, Grayson Co., TX.^858,859

Holland Coffee, Red River trader, the son of Ambrose and Mildred (Moore) Coffee, was born on August 15, 1807, probably in Kentucky. He was orphaned at age eleven and grew up in McMinnville, Tennessee, with an uncle, Jesse Coffee. In 1829 he arrived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, with Silas Cheek Colville, James Mayberry Randolph, and several others. There he established Coffee, Colville, and Company. He supplied local settlers, Indians, and trapping expeditions, and made contact with Sam Houston, who was living at the time among the removed Cherokees. In 1833 Coffee conducted a trapping expedition to the upper Red River. Afterward, he established a trading post at the old Pawnee village, probably the old north-bank village of the Taovayas near the site of present Petersburg, Oklahoma. He was a major link in completing the Camp Holmes treaty of August 24, 1835, the first treaty to authorize the relocation of eastern Indians to lands west of the Mississippi.

Coffee moved west to the mouth of Cache Creek, near Taylor, Oklahoma, in early 1836. He was respected by the Indians, became knowledgeable in Indian languages and customs, and ransomed many Indian captives. In April 1837 he was on Walnut Bayou, near Burneyville, Oklahoma, and by September he had moved across the river to Washita (Preston) Bend. Coffee was accused of aiding Indian depredations through trade-specifically by giving the Indians guns and whiskey in exchange for stolen cattle and horses-and was investigated by the Texas Congress. In the winter of 1837 he visited Houston, where he made satisfactory explanations to the government. On November 16, 1837, President Houston appointed him Indian agent, and on September 2, 1838, Coffee enacted a treaty between the Republic of Texas and the Kichai, Tawakoni, Waco, and Tawehash Indians at the Shawnee village, near the site of modern Denison. Coffee was elected to the Texas House of Representatives from Fannin County for the 1838-39 session. He married Sophia Suttenfield Aughinbaugh (see PORTER, SOPHIA) on January 19, 1839. Thereafter, he dissolved his partnership with Colville and turned to the development of Glen Eden Plantation in Grayson County. He furnished supplies for the Military Road expedition of William G. Cooke in the winter of 1840-41 and participated in framing the Texas Indian treaty of August 24, 1842. He developed the town of Preston near his trading post in 1845 and provided the supplies given to the Indians in the Comanche treaty of 1846.

On October 1, 1846, Coffee became offended over a remark about his wife and attacked Charles Ashton Galloway, a trader from Fort Washita, who stabbed him to death. Coffee had no children. He was entombed in a brick aboveground crypt at Glen Eden; his grave was removed to Preston Cemetery at the time of the impounding of Lake Texoma.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grant Foreman,

Additional information can be found in Ghost Towns of Texas by T. Lindsey Baker, pub. 1986.

Indian trader, politician, founder of Glen Eden, a husband of Sophia Sutterfield Auginbaugh Coffee Butt Porter. Settled in Grayson Co., 1837, killed by Charles Galaway in 1846. From CCC, Dec., 1998: Holland had two wives before Sophia; first Betty Lobdell, a cousin; 2d Mrs. William Henry Kerr (Julia Gordon Law) of Memphis, TN. He and Julia had 2 dau, Virginia and Camilla. Virginia married Paul Tietgens of Gainsville, FL, and Camilla married Malcolm F. Ewen of Evanston, IL. See Coffey Cousins' newsletter, June 1992, and Genealogical Biographies of Landowners of Grayson County, Texas (from 1836-1869); and CC newsletter, Dec., 1998.

The following information from:

The Handbook of Texas, Vol. 1, The Texas State Historical Association, 1952.

Coffee, Holland. Holland Coffee, in partnership with Silas Colville in the firm of Coffee, Colville, and Company, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, led forty trappers to an area on the upper Red River in 1833 and set up a post in what became the southwestern part of Tillman County, Oklahoma. In March, 1836, Coffee was living in the southeastern part of present Cotton County, Oklahoma, at the mouth of Cache Creek. Here, and also at Walnut Bayou, he built trading posts. In 1836 he moved to the Texas side of Red River and at the place later known as Preston Bend established his most famous post known as Coffee's Station. Shortly thereafter he married Mrs. Sophia (Suttonfield) Auginbough (later Sophia Porter) and built a plantation home, Glen Eden. Colonel Coffee, as he was called, was one of the most prominent men of the state and from December 5, 1838, to January 24, 1839, served in the Third Congress of the Republic of Texas. He had a strong personality combined with his cleverness as a businessman, trader, and politician. It was said that he was also a linguist, speaking fluently no less than seven Indian languages. Both he and his wife were widely known for their friendliness and hospitality. Though Coffee had the confidence of most Indians, one stabbed him to death in his trading post in 1846. He was interred in a mausoleum built by his wife just a short distance from the back yard of his beloved home.

Coffee's Station. Coffee's Station, sometimes called Lower Station, was the last of the Red River trading posts established by Holland Coffee. Built in 1836 on a north and south Indian trail on the south bank of Red River in what was later northern Grayson County, the post became a popular trading center both for Indians and for early settlers in the North Texas area. The village of Preston grew up around the station and continued as a local trading center until the site was covered by the building of Lake Texoma.

Glen Eden Plantation. Glen Eden, for ninety-seven years a show place of Grayson County, was built in 1845 by Holland Coffee, who in 1837 had established a trading post at Preston Bend. Typical of the Texas homes of the period, two-storied Glen Eden had a dog-trot halls upstairs and down. Walls and floors were of split logs, the outside covered with clapboards. Great chimneys of native rock, wide galleries, ornate banisters, hair-plastered walls, brick kitchen wing, and a wine cellar were unusual luxuries and marked the home as one the finest in North Texas.

Construction details of rabbeted joints, pole roof supports, and pegged floors were revealed when the place was razed in 1942.

After Coffee's death in 1846, his widow, later Sophia Porter, was married to Major George Butts, and after his death during the Civil War, to Judge William Porter, but she continued to live at Glen Eden until her death in 1899. She operated the great cotton plantation successfully and until the coming of the railroads shipped many bales down Red River to New Orleans.

Throughout its history Glen Eden was noted for its mistress' hospitality. Such notables as Fitzhugh Lee, Sam Houston, Robert E. Lee, Albert Sidney Johnston, and U.S. Grant were entertained there, and many of the early settlers of North Texas gathered there for social functions and received encouragement and advice as well as material assistance. The traditional hospitality was continued by Judge Randolph Bryant, last owner of the property, by his opening Glen Eden to all visitors during the Texas Centennial.

The old home, still in excellent condition, was dismantled in 1942, when the plantation was included in the land condemned for the Red River dam which creates Lake Texoma.

Bibliography: Mattie Davis Lucas and Mita Holsapple Hall, A History of Grayson County, Texas (1936); Sherman Democrat, September 19, 1948.

The following from The Handbook of Texas A Supplement, Volume III, The Texas State Historical Association, 1976.

Coffee, Holland. Holland Coffee was born August 15, 1807, the son of Ambrose and Mildred (Moore) Coffee. By the time he was eleven years old he had lost both parents, and he apparently grew up in the home of his eldest brother, Jesse, in McMinnville, Tennessee.

Coffee was not killed by an Indian (as stated in Volume 1). In 1846 a conflict over a point of honor between Coffee and Charles A. Galloway, husband of Coffee's niece, resulted in a duel between the two men, with Coffee being stabbed to death. Testimony by witnesses cleared Galloway of blame, and no charges were filed against him. Coffee was buried in a red brick mausoleum on the Glen Eden Plantation, but during the construction on Lake Texoma his remains were moved to a nearby site.

Bibliography: Audy J. and Glenna Middlebrooks, Holland Coffee of Red River, Southwestern Historical Quarterly, LXIX (1965-1966).

Index Term: Coffee, Holland; Type/Name on Claim: AU-Coffey, Holland.; Claim#: 328; Reel Frame #s: R:019 Fr:0104-0112. See also Claim # 1309, R:019 Fr:0113-0115; Claim # 1349, R:019 FR:0116-0118; Claim # 1648, R:019 Fr:0119-0121; Claim # UN#01, R:019 Fr:0100-0103; and Claim # 226 for Coffee, Holland & Co., R:019 Fr_0122-0126. See The Index to (Texas) Republic Claims on Microfilm; Audited Claims (1835-1846); Republic Pensions (PE) 1870-c1900).

"In 1835 three young friends and adventurers, Holland COFFEE, Silas COLVILLE and James Mayberry RANDOLPH came west to Van Buren, AR from McMinnville, TN. Randolph stayed to marry Tabitha SHELTON, the others moved on to N. TX. After the death (murder) of Silas COLVILLE, Holland COFFEE persuaded Randolph to join him in TX." [presumably to benefit from COLVILLE's will] "In 1845, RANDOLPH named his 3rd son Holland COFFEE RANDOLPH after his old friend." (Source: Chronicles of Oklahoma)

From Texas Tears and Texas Sunshine, Subtitle: Voices of Frontier Women edited by Jo Ella Powell Exley, published by Texas A&M Univ. Press. Library call 976.4 T355.2e. Book mentions that Mr. Coffee was a member of Congress from Red River County in 1838.

Abstracts of the Laws of Texas 1822-1846, Vol. II, mentions Holland Coffey in the incorporation of the College of DeKalb, Red River Co., on 26 Jan 1839.

Holland patented 40 acres; 11-8N-32W; patent no. 1576; Vol. 88, p. 1, Arkansas Patent Records. Cash sale 20 Sep. 1839. See Coffey Cousins newsletter, Dec., 1992

Austin Colony Pioneers by Worth S. Ray, Pub., 1949 by the author, Austin, TX, p82: An old Indian fighter; lived at trading post in Red River Co., m. Sophia Suttenfield, in Washington County on January 29, 1839. Holland Coffee was brother to America Coffee. "Coffee's Trading Post" was on Red River in what is now Red River County. Holland Coffee was a brother of Gen. John Coffee, who lived in Williamson Co., Texas, near Georgetown; Holland was on the Indian Campaign in which John B. Denton was killed. Aunt "Sophia" Coffee outlived her husband, who was killed and was buried at the trading post on Red River. (Note: Carol Coffee says that this Gen Coffee is John Trousdale Coffee, but he was never a general.)

From Abstracts of the Laws of Texas 1822-1846, Vol. II, p802, relief granted to Holland Coffee authorizing the issuance of a patent for certain 10 acre tract lot, near the city of Austin, 22 Jan 1842. Page 1011, relief granted to Holland Coffey in the amount of $8236.81, 5 Sep. 1844.

Holland is found on The Republic of Texas Poll List for 1846, compiled by Marion Day Mullins.

From Land Titles of Grayson County Texas to 8-31-1941, Holland (Hallan) COFFEE patented 885.03 acres on Mar 5, 1847, 640 acres on Nov 20, 1845; 1434 acres Jul 17, 1863 and 4605 acres on Dec. 1, 1845. He patented 885.03 acres on Mar. 5, 1847, 640 acres on Nov. 20, 1845, 1434 acres on Jul. 17, 1863, and 4605 acres on Dec. 1, 1845.

Holland Coffey and Sophie Suttenfield were married on 29 January 1839 in Washington Co., TX.⁸⁶⁰ Sophie Suttenfield was born on 3 December 1815 in Fort Wayne, Allen Co., IN. Sophie died on 27 August 1897 at the age of 81 in Preston, Grayson Co., TX and was buried at Pottsboro, Grayson Co., TX.^861,862 "Mrs. Sophia Porter.

"Noted Woman Passed Away At Preston, Texas

"She Entertained Lee, Grant and Jackson at Her Grayson County Home Before the War.

"The Denison Herald

"Died - At Preston, Grayson county, Texas, Friday, August 27, 1897, Mrs. Sophia Porter, aged 81 years, 8 months and 24 days.

"Four score and two years covers many interesting events in American history, and especially that of the great Southwest, and as Mrs. Porter has been so peculiarly identified with the history making events of her own time and environments, some family historian will doubtless seek to preserve the honorable record.

"Sophia Suttonfield was born at Fort Wayne, Ind., September 3, 1815.  Colonel Suttonfield, her father, was a Virginian by birth and served as an officer in the war of 1812.  He erected the first house at Fort Wayne and was there with his family in 1814.  There was neither railroad, telegraph nor steamboat this side of the Atlantic, and Spain owned a vast area of country northwest of New Orleans.  Mexican independence had not yet been secured, although the republican cause seemed in a promising way.  Many chivalrous Spaniards who had fought against the great Napoleon and had been compelled to flee from Spain after the restoration of the Bourbons, were impelled to lend the swords to the patriot cause in Mexico.  Don Jose Manuel Herrera, Don Luis Aury, Colonel Young, Colonel Perry and other Gallant Spanish and American officers had selected Galveston Island as the base of operations and a place of rendezvous for the privateers, and on the 12th of September, 1816, organized a government and unfurled the flag of independence.  Commodore Aury was made civil and military governor of Texas and Galveston Island, and took the oath of fealty to the republic of Mexico.  Five years after this the indomitable Stephen Fuller Austin - a worthy son of immortal Moses Austin - led the first body of immigrants into Texas by way of Natchitoches¹, pitching their camp in what is now Washington county, and thus beginning the permanent settlement of Texas by Anglo-Americans.

"While her future home was thus being established by deeds of heroism and self-sacrifice, such as have never been paralleled, this child of destiny was developing into a beautiful woman.  Her graces and refinement brought her first and greatest sorrow, for her accomplishments attracted the attention of a German officer with whom she was persuaded to elope to the Southwest in 1835.  Their first Texas home was in Waxahachie, but his desertion and subsequent death left this friendless young widow among people who were then in the midst of their supreme struggle for independence, and before the decisive battle of San Jacinto she was with the refugees protected by the army of Sam Houston.

"Colonel Holland Coffee was at this time one of the most prominent men in Texas and in 1838 was elected to the third house of representatives from the new county of Panola.  While upon a visit to Waco Colonel Coffee met the subject of this sketch, and the result was their marriage at the close of that year.  Colonel Coffee had received large grants of land for his gallant military services, and much of it had been located in the rich bottom of Red river.  In 1839 the bride and groom established their home at what is now known as Preston Bend, in this county.  They were indeed pioneers and lived at first in a stockade as a necessary protection against the roving bands of Comanche Indians.  Denison's wooded site was the shelter of thousands of buffalo and other wild game.  Sherman was not yet in existence, and only a very small settlement at Bonham.  Colonel Coffee was killed in 1847.  His wife remained a widow until 1852, when she was married to Major George Butts, a typical Virginian of the bluest blood, who was connected with the Federal army.  Again the home was stricken by a violent death, for Major Butts was killed by bushwhackers during the first year of the war.  This bereavement prompted Mrs. Butts to leave the plantation, and she moved to Waco, taking with her a large number of slaves.  These faithful servants were then herrs by the acknowledged right of possession and most of their remained to the end of their days in a service that had brought to them all the benefits of emancipation except actual freedom.

"Mrs. Butts was a remarkably well preserved woman at the age of 50, and her charms compelled the admiration of the brace and chivalric.

"Among those who met this thrice-made widow and who became a successful suitor, was Judge Jonas Porter of Missouri, an officer in the Confederate army, who had stopped at Waco on his way to Mexico.  Judge Porter was a widower whose wife had died while he was in the war.  He was at one time a member of the Missouri legislature and had risen to a high place in Masonry and Odd Fellowship.  A quiet wedding in 1865 and a removal to the bride's home at Preston, brought this remarkable woman back to the community that is now mourning the loss of its best friend.

"Judge and Mrs. Porter are remembered by many who are still living as being ideal entertainers, who had preserved intact the regime of that incomparable Southern hospitality so characteristic of ante-bellum days.  Judge Porter was courteous and scholarly and greatly assisted his wife in retaining at this home the attractions of refinement and education.

"In 1869 they visited Indiana and Mrs. Porter entered the Suttonfield home for the first time since her abrupt departure as a runaway bride many years before.  The aged mother was still living and welcomed the daughter with all the joy that can be expressed by a never-dying mother love.

"The year 1886 brought another sorrow into this history of a life, as Judge Porter was stricken with a fatal disease and passed peacefully away.

"Mrs. Porter was still vigorous, and did not relax her interest in all that concerned the good of those about her.  She had been a consistent member of the Southern Methodist church since 1869, and gave the ground near by upon which was built what is known as "Coffee Chapel."  To this she was also a large contributor and gave it five acres in another place for camp meeting purposes.  A few years ago she presented the Georgetown university three hundred and fifty acres of improved land, valued at ten thousand dollars.

"Thus passed away the sweet spirit of 'Aunt Sophia,' surrounded by relatives and neighbors and by servants who had been born into the household as slaves bu had considered it the highest freedom to remain with their former mistress.

"The old house seems to voice the universal sorrow, for age and decay have touched it in many places; yet the beauty has not all departed.  The broad avenue leading from the entrance to the house is lined with immense catalpa trees, grown from seed planted by Mrs. Porter, the seed having been brought by the father of Governor Throckmorton.  The grounds are full of flowers and palms, rare plants and cacti, and the spacious verandas have afforded a welcome retreat for many distinquished people.  Jefferson Davis, U. S. Grant, Ben Butler, Robert E. Lee, George B. McClellan and General Arbuckle were among the famous soldiers who enjoyed its hospitality in the early days.  Many of Quantrell's men were quartered there during their sojourn in this region.

"'Glen Eden' was known and visited by the pleasure seekers of all Northern Texas and the strangers as well as the most intimate friends were made welcome at all times."

¹Natchitoches is a city in Natchitoches Parish, LA, established in 1714 as part of French Louisiana.  Its sister city is Nacogdoches, TX.

PORTER, SOPHIA SUTTENFIELD (1815-1897). Sophia Porter, North Texas pioneer, was born on December 3, 1815, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the second child of William and Laura (Taylor) Suttenfield (or Suttonfield). Little is known of her childhood, but many stories exist about her adult life and her four marriages. In 1833 she married Jesse Augustine Aughinbaugh (or Auginbaugh), a druggist and teacher. In 1835 the couple arrived in Nacogdoches, where she said Aughinbaugh deserted her. As a participant in the Runaway Scrape, Sophia claimed to have arrived at the battle of San Jacinto and to have nursed Sam Houston there. Holland Coffee, a member of the House of Representatives and an Indian trader, successfully lobbied the Texas Congress to pass a bill granting Sophia Aughinbaugh a divorce from her missing husband, and on January 19, 1839, she and Coffee were married at Independence in Washington County. From there the couple traveled over 600 miles to Coffee's Station on the Red River in Grayson County. There they developed Glen Eden Plantation and the town of Preston until Coffee was killed in 1846. In December 1847 Sophia married Maj. George N. Butt (or Butts), who helped her run Glen Eden until he was killed in 1863. Butt reportedly was ambushed by a member of William C. Quantrill's gang. The sobriquet "Confederate Paul Revere" was given Sophia during the Civil War, when she is said to have ridden her mount across the Red River to warn Col. James G. Bourland and his men that Union troops were at her plantation. The story continues that Mrs. Butt supplied the enemy with enough wine that they remained unaware of her departure. One account claims she locked the inebriated men in her wine cellar while she rode off. Other variants say either that Bourland escaped the Unionists or that he came to Glen Eden and captured them. On August 2, 1865, Sophia Butt married Judge James Porter, and they lived together at Glen Eden until his death in 1886. Sophia joined the Methodist church in Sherman in 1869. She had no children, but she raised two of Holland Coffee's nieces. She died on August 27, 1897, and was buried near Glen Eden. When the area was to be inundated to form Lake Texoma, her home was dismantled with the intention that it be reassembled as a museum of Grayson County history, but the wood was mistakenly burned.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Holland Coffee Papers, Sherman Public Library, Sherman, Texas. Mary Daggett Lake, "Glen Eden, Red River Valley Landmark," Southern Home and Garden, March 1936. Graham Landrum and Allen Smith, Grayson County (Fort Worth, 1960; 2d ed., Fort Worth: Historical Publishers, 1967). Sherrie McLeRoy, Mistress of Glen Eden: The Life and Times of Texas Pioneer Sophia Porter (Sherman, Texas: White Stone, 1990). Audy J. and Glenna P. Middlebrooks, "Holland Coffee of Red River," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 69 (October 1965). Glenna Parker Middlebrooks, "Sophia Coffee, History's Firefly," True West, October 1973. Sophia Porter Papers, Sherman Public Library, Sherman, Texas.

GLEN EDEN PLANTATION. Glen Eden Plantation, a Red River plantation of Preston Bend, Grayson County, was begun by Holland Coffee after he moved to the bend in 1837 to establish a trading post. In 1839 he married Sophia Suttenfield Aughinbaugh (see PORTER, SOPHIA). The plantation land was almost all acquired by Coffee. The mansion was built in stages. The original undergirding log house was of a two-story dogtrot design that was large and imposing for its time. It was probably built by the Mormon congregation of Lyman Wright in the winter of 1845-46. The building had two large native stone chimneys, one on each end. It seems to have had a cellar or basement from an early date. The house was a mile from the river near Little Mineral Creek on the Preston Road leading to Dallas. Coffee was killed in the fall of 1846. His above-ground, brick crypt was a noted feature of the plantation.

It is uncertain when the name Glen Eden was first used. It does not appear in early records or in news articles at the time of Sophia's death (1897). Operations of the plantation included a Red River ferry, stock, development of the town of Preston, production of corn and cotton, orchards, and freighting. The plantation was quite a social center, and Sophia was noted for her imagination and her fondness for parties.

Over the years modifications to the log structure were made. Outside planking, upper and lower porches, and a kitchen ell were added in the mid-1860s. Sophia hired a nephew, J. W. Williams, as manager. Williams married Isabel (Belle) Skelly, Sophia's seamstress and confidante. Sophia continued as the mistress of the plantation until her death. The estate was bequeathed to Williams and Mary Elizabeth Jewell Mosely. The mansion was last owned by Judge Randolph Bryant. In 1942 it was dismantled for restoration as a historical site above the future shoreline of Lake Texoma. However, the project never succeeded. Some logs and timber from the mansion have been acquired by the Frontier Village of Grayson County. Items from the plantation can be seen in the Red River Valley Historical Museum in Sherman.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Grayson County Frontier Village, History of Grayson County, Texas (2 vols., Winston-Salem, North Carolina: Hunter, 1979, 1981). Glenna Parker Middlebrooks, "Sophia Coffee, History's Firefly," True West, October 1973. Sherman Democrat, March 29, 1942.

Sophia Porter was born in Allen county, Indiana, at Fort Wayne, and is a daughter of Colonel William and Laura (Taylor) Suttenfield. Colonel Suttenfield was a Virginian by birth, served as an officer in the War of 1812, and afterward went to Indiana, and lived in Allen county until his death, which occurred in December, 1836. He was one of the pioneers of that county, and was a very popular man among his people, taking an active part in politics, and holding many offices during his life-time. His wife who bore the maiden name of Laura Taylor, was born November 11, 1795, in a locality in Massachusetts, over which the city of Boston has now spread. She was a daughter of Israel and Mary (Blair) Taylor. Here the first few years of her childhood were spent, and in 1803, with her parents and the rest of her family, moved to Buffalo, New York; thence they went to Detroit, Michigan, where in 1811 she married William Suttenfield, at the time an officer in the regular army of the United States. In 1812 Mr. Suttenfield was ordered by the government in Chicago, with money to pay off the troops that were stationed at that point. His wife accompanied him on the trip, which was made on a small sailing vessel. While they were at Chicago, war had been declared by the United States against Great Britain, but the news of it did not reach them, and while they were returning to Detroit Mr. and Mrs. Suttenfield were captured by the British and taken to Mackinaw, Canada, as prisoners, but were afterward paroled and returned to Detroit.

The War of 1812 was then progressing in all its fury and Mr. Suttenfield becoming an active participant, was engaged in several of the fiercest battles, after which he was ordered to military duty at Newport, Kentucky. In 1814 with the detachment under command of Major Whistler, he was ordered to Fort Wayne. The party came down the St. Mary's river on "flats" and landed at Fort Wayne on the 10th of May, 1814, Mrs. Suttenfield, then in her eighteenth year, being with the party. For a long time she, with the two daughters of the commandant of the garrison, were the only ladies in the fort. Soon after their arrival the work of rebuilding the fort commenced, and in this Colonel Suttenfield took an active and prominent part. Their life at this time in an unsettled country and surrounded by savage foes, must have been a romantic and perilous one, and Mrs. Suttenfield, ever attentive to duty and amiable in disposition, early won the esteem of all those within the fort and the strangers who after a time began to visit the little garrison.

Thus time passed, and Colonel Suttenfield, seeing that the country near the fort would ultimately develop into a trading point of some note, concluded to erect a house in the neighborhood. This he did, during his leisure hours, at a point which would now be in the middle of the street, at the intersection of Columbia and Barr streets. It was built of hewn logs and was the first house erected in Fort Wayne. After leaving the fort, however, instead of moving into it, he moved to and occupied a large tract of land in the southern part of the city, which is known to some of the older residents as the "Fairfield Farm," but after a time moved to a house that had been erected at the northwest corner of Columbia and Barr streets, where now stands J. B. Monning's mills. He carried on the hotel business at that place until his death, in 1836. His widow survived him until November 25, 1886. they had six children, namely - Sophia, Jane B., Anna, George M., Acey and Francis M., all of whom lived to maturity and ranked among the best and leading families of the country.

Sophia (Suttenfield) Porter, the subject of this biography was reared and educated in Fort Wayne, Indiana. She moved to Texas in 1838 and married Colonel Holland Coffee, a trader and merchant, and settled in Grayson county about 1848. Colonel Coffee was one of the most prominent men in Texas at that time and was a member of the legislature. After the death of Colonel Coffee, the subject married Major George Butt of Norfolk, Virginia. He was killed by bushwhackers during the late war, and afterward Mrs. Butt married Judge James Porter, a native of Kentucky, but then living in Waco, Texas. He was an officer in the Confederate army and was always a prominent man in his county. At one time he lived in Missouri and was in the legislature of that State, and had risen to a high degree in Masonry and Odd-fellowship. The early members of this family were participants in the Revolutionary War.

Mrs. Porter now resides in one of the prettiest and coziest places in Grayson county, eleven miles northwest of Denison, known as "Glen Eden." Her place is known to and visited by all the pleasure seekers of northern Texas, as her hospitality has no limit, and the strangers as well as her most intimate friends are welcome at all times. She is a lady of more than ordinary intelligence and possessed of extraordinary business qualifications, controlling and owning thousands of acres of land.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas containing biographical sketches of the representative public and many early settler families, Chicago, F. A. Battey & Company, 1884, pp68-81 (http://www.rootsweb.com/~txfannin/s272a.html)