Tucker County, West Virginia Biography of EUGENE COFFMAN This file was submitted by Valerie Crook, E-mail address: **The Submitter does not have a connection to the subject of this sketch.** This file may be freely copied by individuals and non-profit organizations for their private use. All other rights reserved. Any other use, including publication, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission by electronic, mechanical, or other means requires the written approval of the file's author. This file is part of the WVGenWeb Archives. If you arrived here inside a frame or from a link from somewhere else, our front door is at http://www.usgwarchives.net/wv/wvfiles.htm The History of West Virginia, Old and New Published 1923, The American Historical Society, Inc., Chicago and New York, Volume III, pg. 486-487 Tucker EUGENE COFFMAN is founder of one of the largest chain- store organizations in West Virginia, conducted by the Coffman-Fisher Company, of which he is president. The corporation is operating ten stores in the eastern part of the state. They are in a measure the outgrowth of an individual business conducted by Mr. Coffman and his young associates at Davis, his home town, and where he has been a prominent figure for nearly three decades. Mr. Coffman was born in Shenandoah County, Virginia, June 5, 1867. His father, Henry H. Coffman, was born in the same county in 1843, spent his boyhood on the farm, was a southerner in sentiment, but impaired eye- sight caused his rejection when he applied for service in the Confederate Army. Soon after the war he began mer- chandising at Conicville, Virginia, and subsequently sold goods at Mount Jackson in that state, and for a number of years at Belington, West Virginia, where he is now liv- ing retired. His old store at Belington became a part of the Coffman-Fisher chain of stores. Henry H. Coffman married Miss Rebecca Frances Hottle, who was born in Shenandoah County in 1843. Their children are: Eugene, of Davis; Clara C., wife of A. Dietrich, of Minerva, Ohio; Reverend Luther, a Lutheran minister of Girardsville, Pennsylvania; Anna, of Grafton, widow of A. A. Doak; George H., of Elkins; Mabel, wife of P. H. Cornelius, of Masontown, West Virginia; Walter E., manager of the Coffman-Fisher store at Keyser; Lula and Nellie, residents . of Belington. Eugene Coffman grew up at Mount Jackson in Shenan- doah County, and with a common school education he learned merchandising under his father. Leaving there in 1889, a young man of twenty-two he came over the moun- tains to Moorefield, West Virginia, and for eleven months did a thriving business as a local merchant. He then joined his father as a partner, but in 1893 the panic came on and their enterprise was threatened with ruin. At this juncture Eugene Coffman left Mount Jackson with $75.00 in cash, and this money he used to pay his way to Bayard and give him living expense for a time and also pay the freight on a shipment of goods from New York. For this pioneer stock of goods he utilized his credit with Charles Broadway Rouse in New York City, who permitted him to have $1,000 worth of racket goods. In a few months the panic struck Bayard also, and in order to save himself he had to seek another location. This time he came to Davis, bringing the remnant of his little stock of goods and opening up for business in a room 16 by 24 feet. Since coming to Davis Mr. Coffman has had a strenuous career, and at different times has been confronted with practically every obstacle, problems and adversity in the life of a merchant. A detailed story would be an interest- ing factor in commercial experience. However, out of this period of adversity he in time achieved success, and he attributes a large part of that to the loyalty of the young men who have been associated with him. The big business of which he is today the head represents also the flowering and fruitage of the moderate investments of the $75.00 which he brought with him to the state. Mr. Coffman from the first was keen to observe a quality in character of the young men who came to him for employment, and in time several of these became associated with him and constituted the corporation of the Coffman-Fisher Com- pany, organized January 1, 1912, with a capital of $100,- 000. Those associated with him at the beginning and who have contributed materially to the success of the enterprise were Thomas Fisher, H. Cornelius, Charles H. Coffman and George W. Coffman, and since then others who have put money into the business and also contributed to its success have been O. C. Rohrbaugh, Lyle Wilson and Walter C. Dietrich. There have been other stockholders, but the men mentioned have been chiefly responsible for the growth and expansion from one store to nearly a dozen. About 1910, a year or two before the organization of the corporation, Mr. Coffman and Mr. Fisher as partners opened the first group of branches, with stores at Tun- nelton, Belington, Thomas, Blaine and Masontown. Since then new branches have been opened at Piedmont, Keyser and Bayard, and also at Albright, so that the company now has ten stores, representing an investment of approximately $200,000, and in 1921 the capital stock of the company was increased to $250,000. Eugene Coffman is president of the company, George W. Coffman, vice president, Charles H. Coffman, secretary and treasurer, and Thomas Fisher, general manager. Mr. Coffman has also been a director of the National Bank of Davis since 1907. He has never sought political office, though he served one unexpired term as a member of the County Court. He cast his first presidential vote for Harrison in 1888, and is a republican in principal. At Davis, February 25, 1895, he married Miss Alice Williams, a native of Preston County and daughter of Robert Williams, who married Miss Brewer. Her father, who was a farmer at Lile Point in Monongalia County and later at Tunnelton, died in 1917, at the age of sixty- six. Mrs. Coffman was educated in the public schools, learned dressmaking at Kingwood, and was living at Davis when she met Mr. Coffman. Her brother, John J., lost his life in a tractor accident near Morgantown in 1920, and her sister, Annie, died unmarried at Tunnelton. She has two half brothers, Arthur and Gilbert Williams, the former of Reedsville and the latter of Tunnelton. Mr. Coffman has no fraternal affiliations and is a member of the Lutheran Church.