by Isabel Worth Duffy

A Granddaughter's Memories of Allen Coffin

BY ISABEL WORTH DUFFY "ALLEN COFFIN was born at Nantucket Island, July 8, 1836, and is in the seventh generation from Tristram Coffin, the first settler of that name in America. Descended from a long line of Quaker ancestors he yet adheres to the religious tenets most commonly accepted by the liberal Society of Friends. He received the education afforded by the public grammar school, and at the age of thirteen entered the Inquirer printing office where he remained about a year, and subsequently completed his apprenticeship in the office of the Mirror. He worked at the printing trade in New Bedford and Boston, and for a time was a local reporter on the New Bedford Mercury. "Before the war of the rebellion Mr. Coffin published and edited, as a partner with Wm. Breed Drake, the Bay State Chronicle, at Milford, Mass. After the war and during the reconstruction of the rebel States he resided temporarily at Charleston. S. C., and became editor of the South Carolina Leader, the first newspaper published in the South that advocated the enfranchisement of the freedmen, and the only paper that opposed the reconstruction policy of President Johnson. "In 1866, while a member of the Boston Printers' Union, Mr. Coffin was nominated by the workingmen for Mayor of Boston, which nomination he declined as inexpedient. He had, however, previously presided at the workingmen's convention that nominated Wendell Phillips for Congress the same year, and also at the Faneuil Hall Labor Reform gathering which ratified the nomination of Gen. P. R. Guiney for Congress. "On the retirement on account of illness of his former partner, Mr. Drake, from the editorial chair of the Meadville, Pa., Daily Republican, Mr. Coffin was induced to accept that position and removed to Meadville. Here he took an active part in politics both with his pen and upon the stump; and, on the election of Gen. Grant to the Presidency, obtained employment in the Government Printing Office at Washington where he continued as a proof-reader for about ten years, until failing health compelled him to resign, and he then returned to his native town and has been a citizen of Massachusetts for the last twenty years. "While a resident of Washington City during the organization of the District Government, Mr. Coffin was recording secretary of the General Republican Committee of the District of Columbia, and an active agitator against the so-called 'District Ring'. He also championed and pleaded to a successful issue the

Allen Coffin, of Nantucket, town official, lawyer, and historian.

admission of colored printers to the Typographical Union of Washington, a most bitter conflict which lasted several years and became a subject of agitation in the International Typographical Union. During the agitation of this new phase of the labor question Mr. Coffin was elected a delegate to the annual session of the International Labor Congress at St. Louis in 1874, and to the National Labor Congress at Cincinnati in 1870. In speaking recently of this contest for the admission of colored men to the typographical unions, Mr. Coffin said it was the grandest moral triumph of his life against fearful odds and life-long prejudices in the very citadel of black servitude and inferiority. "While engaged as a proof-reader at Washington, Mr. Coffin found time to study law — the work passing under his hands being principally that required by the Supreme Court and the Attorney-General's Office, — and was admitted to the bar of the District of Columbia, in 1876, receiving from the Columbian University the degree of L.L.B. "Soon after his admission to the bar, he removed to Nantucket and has since practiced principally in the courts of Massachusetts. "He has also contributed many articles to the newspaper press and is the author of the little volume on the 'Cofffn Family' published in 1881. As a Republican he always affiliated with Hon. H. H. Faxon in the attempt to make that party a temperance party, and was chosen President of the Republican Temperance Convention held in Boston, just previous to the State Convention which nominated Gov. Long, whose nomination was considered a temperance victory. "In the early years of the institution of the order of Good Templars he was a delegate to the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts, and was also a member of the Grand Division of the Sons of Temperance, and took an active part in the temperance work of that day. "In local affairs Mr. Coffin has always advocated a progressive policy in the interest of his native town. The national work of improving Nantucket harbor was largely indebted to his efforts, and he was twice chosen by citizens to visit Washington and present the matter to Congress. The Coffin Reunion of 1881, and the Bi-centennial Celebration of Nantucket in 1895, were both projected by him, and resulted in inducing thousands of people to visit the quaint old island. He has been elected to several town offices at different times, and is now serving as one of the selectmen of the town. His strong individuality and independence of character have brought him the alternate praise and blame of his townspeople, to both of which he has appeared alike indifferent, content to be governed by his own ideals of right and propriety, whatsoever goal they might lead to. He was one of a committee of the town in 1894 to procure a better en-

forcement of the liquor law, and when the grand jury returned from their inquest and reported sixteen indictments, the surprise of the town was unbounded. Committees were obtained, and a large amount of liquor confiscated to the State, and the committee roundly abused for not letting anyone know what they were about. Mr. Coffin's dwelling has been assaulted with unmerchantable eggs and stones hurled through his windows during his temporary absence, and threats of bodily injury made, to all of which he has been alike impervious, and serenely pursued his calling as if he had not an enemy in the world, and courted no sympathy. "The nomination of Mr. Blaine for the Presidency in 1884 gave occasion for many staunch Republicans to bolt, and Mr. Coffin took refuge in the Prohibition ranks, and has never seen fit to change his opinions. He was the candidate of the party for Attorney-General three successive years, receiving the full party vote. "During one of his addresses at the town hall before a large audience upon the subject of prohibition he was frequently interrupted by a drunken man. There being no policeman present, and no other person offering to abate the nuisance, Mr. Coffin stopped in the middle of his address, went down into the audience, seized the disturber and forcibly ejected him from the hall, and then went back upon the platform and finished his address, as if nothing unusual had transpired. "Mr. Coffin has held a trial justice commission for Nantucket •County for many years, and, while administering justice according to the law and the evidence, has always tempered his decisions with kindness, so that many an inebriate has received his sentence for drunkenness with the feeling that he had no better friend than the justice before whom his condemnation was secured. "His public speeches, while never pretending to forensic eloquence, are always strong and forcible, demonstrating that the speaker has the courage of his convictions and ability to make his sentiments known."

The preceding article is a copy of a manuscript which my mother, Mary Coffin Worth, kept among her most treasured possessions. She told me that it was an excellent and accurate biographical sketch of my grandfather, Allen Coffin, through 1896. Circumstantial evidence and research seem to indicate that the original was a newspaper article printed, probably in 1896, in one of the two Nantucket newspapers of that time, as in that year Allen Coffin was serving as one of the Selectmen of the town (Town Report for 1896), was a candidate for Nantucket's Representative to the State Legislature (Nantucket Journal, 1896), and was also the Prohibition Party's nominee for Gover-

nor of Massachusetts (Nantucket Journal, Nov. 5, 1896). He did not win the two latter elections, but he did serve the town as selectman that year.

Town reports from 1896 to 1908 show that Allen Coffin served in various town offices — selectman, county commissioner, member of the Board of Health, assessor, sewer commissioner, member of the School Committee, up to the time of his death in 1908, except for 1901, the year his wife died following a prolonged illness.

A Granddaughter's Memories

I do not remember my grandfather, Allen Coffin, as a public figure, as he died when I was only ten years old; so my memories of him are childhood memories and stories told me by my mother. I do remember living in the "big house" when my parents moved there to take care of Grandmother Coffin who was very ill.

The "big house," as we called it, is 94 Main Street, the white house with the Grecian pillars just east of the Hadwen-Satler Memorial.

Mother never liked that house as a child, for she and her mother were often alone there when Grandfather was away on a speaking tour or some political business. Several times,' she said, they were so frightened that they locked the doors, pulled down the shades, and hid in a closet, when unfriendly gangs sometimes made them fear for their safety.

She said that Grandfather bought the house so that he could have a suitable place for entertaining the many famous people who came to visit him. The only ones whose names Mother remembered, though there were many others, were Lucretia Mott, a descendant of Tristram Coffin and an ardent Abolitionist; Carrie Chapman Catt, one of the leading pioneers of the Woman Suffrage Movement; and Susan B. Anthony, a zealous Prohibitionist. Mother also remembered that, at the time of the 1881 Coffin Family Reunion, Grandfather hired an orchestra from New Bedford to play on the front piazza. Mother was five years old then.

My parents moved to the big house when I was nearly four years old and an only child at the time. It was a large house for a small child, and I loved to escape to the cupola, my favorite hideaway, where I played house with my dolls. I had to amuse myself and be quiet because of the illness downstairs. After Grandmother's death we stayed on for a while.

My first real recollections of my Grandfather Coffin are after we had moved to 102 Main Street, and Grandfather was alone in the big house. I loved to go down there, only four doors away, and spend the day while Grandfather worked in his office.

A GRANDDAUGHTER'S MEMORIES OF ALLEN COFFIN 11

At mealtimes we would go together to our home at 102 Main Street.

I think Grandfather was very lonely those days and liked to have a small child for company, though we had but little communication, as I was supposed not to disturb him at his work.

Later Grandfather had a housekeeper for a time; then finally sold the Main Street house and bought another off Orange Street called "Quanato Terrace."

Grandfather, to me, was somewhat of an awesome person, though I was not afraid of him. In fact I was very fond of him. He made me feel grownup, for he never came down to a child's level; he talked to me in grown-up terms.

One vivid recollection I have is an occasion when, after dinner at 102 Main Street, when I was four or five years old. he asked my mother if I could go with him that evening to a meeting. Mother asked me if I would like to and I said, "Yes." To go out in the evening with Grandfather seemed a great treat, so Mother put my best dress on me for the occasion.

We went downtown to the Unitarian Church, where there were already many people, and walked down to the front pew. After a short time and some introductory speeches, which were completely over my head, Grandfather arose, went to the pulpit and spoke.

Mother had admonished me before we left that I was to be a "good girl," sit quietly, and not talk.

Suddenly, to my surprise and childish consternation, I found myself sitting alone in that big church and Grandfather breaking all the rules by leaving his seat and talking right out loud before all the people! I did not know what it was all about; I haven't the slightest remembrance of what he talked about nor how long; I just sat quietly, feeling a bit bewildered. However, when Grandfather finished speaking and the audience applauded, I felt relieved and happily joined in the applause.

On my arrival home I said, "Mother, Grandpa got right up and talked out loud a long time!" Then she explained to me that ne was the speaker of the evening and that was what he was supposed to do.

That was my introduction to the place Grandfather really held in the community.

To me, Grandfather was a person I looked up to and who always inspired me to do my best. I wanted very much to please him to receive his approval, in school especially, for I enjoyed his praise.