Coe Family Papers

The collection contains the business records and personal papers of members of the Coe family, especially the brothers Eben S. Coe and Thomas Upham Coe. The family, centered in Bangor, Maine, owned and managed large tracts of forest land in northern Maine. Their father, also Ebenezer S. Coe, established the family business presence in Maine when he became a partner with David Pingree of Salem, Massachusetts in various timber enterprises in the Allagash region and in Aroostook County. Pingree, a shipping merchant in Salem, sought other investments in the 1830's and acquired a large tract of timber land in western Maine. Coe, an engineer, was employed by Pingree to survey the region. He advised Pingree to buy more land and moved to Bangor to manage the estate. In the 1840's Coe and Pingree purchased land in the Allagash lakes region and Coe established a farm on the shore of Chamberlain Lake. The farm provided hay for the workhorses and vegetables for the lumber crews. Coe was also instrumental in constructing dams on the Allagash River and reversing the flow of the upper Allagash into the east branch of the Penobscot River. The Coe office in Bangor supplied and financed jobbers, maintained river improvements, and handled leases and maintained files of applicants for sporting camps on Coe and Pingree land. Ebenezer Coe died in 1862 and David Pingree in 1863; the estates then passed to David Pingree, Jr. and the Coe brothers.

Eben S. Coe (the younger) was also a partner with Samuel R. Bearce in the firm of S.R. Bearce and Co. in Lewiston, Maine. They were dealers in lumber and operated a sawmill to manufacture boards, clapboards, shingles, and laths. Bearce, in Lewiston, was the active member of the firm. Upon his death in 1874, his estate was sold to R.C. Pingree and the partnership of R.C. Pingree and Co. was formed. This firm continued to operate a sawmill in Lewiston and to provide finished lumber products, including moldings, building finish and trim, doors, windows, blinds, and mantels.

Eben Coe also acted as manager of the forest lands belonging to himself and Pingree heirs and siblings David Pingree, Anna P. Peabody, and Ann Maria Wheatland. The Pingrees had acquired large holdings of land which became available when the European and North American Railroad failed as well as from other sources and their property topped one million acres of forest land. Eben Coe was also one of the incorporators of the Androscoggin River Improvement Company and was associated with the Richardson Lake Dam Company and the Errol Dam Company.

Eben Coe died on December 9, 1899, and his brother, Thomas inherited the majority of Eben's land holdings.

Thomas Upham Coe was born in Northwood, New Hampshire, on December 8, 1837. His family moved to Bangor when he was eight years old. He attended Bowdoin College, graduating in 1857, and received his A.M. from Bowdoin three years later. He graduated from the Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia in 1861 and then went to Paris for two years, where he studied at the Ecole de Medicin.

In 1864 he returned to Bangor and practiced medicine for about 15 years. He then withdrew from his practice in order to give more time to his financial and business interests. He had acquired large tracts of timberland in Maine and New Hampshire and also managed the land he had inherited at his brother's Eben's death in 1899. He was the owner of large amounts of real estate in Bangor, especially commercial property, and in 1892 he constructed a business block in the city.

Thomas Coe was also a director and member of the executive board of the Merrill Trust Company, the Bangor and Aroostook Railroad Company, the Orono Pulp and Paper Company, and a trustee of the Penobscot Savings Bank. He was also a trustee of the Bangor Public Library and president of the Bangor Opera House Association.

Thomas Coe married Sada L. Harthorn on May 23, 1867. Their only son, Dudley Coe, died at age 14 in 1887. Thomas Coe died on July 31, 1920, and Sada Coe died on November 3, 1926.