Revolutionary War Years Part 1 • Salathiel Coffey

I started to document our 5X great grandfather Salathiel Coffey and then got sidetracked with documents and stories on the Coffeys and Clevlands and Alexanders! So much so that I decided to gather a few Tales and create a series of interconnected stories.

The Coffey family came over from Munster, County Cork, Ireland around 1627, landing in Elizabeth City, Virginia. Salathiel's dad, Chesley "Joel" Coffey moved the family to the foothills of the North Carolina Blue Ridge Mountains before 1753.

Salathiel Coffey's son was Newton Coffey and he already has his own Tale. https://www.deadfamilytales.com/post/coffey-family-land-in-nc-and-il-revis

Salathiel Coffey

Born in 1753 • Wilkes, NC

Married Elizabeth Newton around 1773 in NC

Killed 1784 • Willkes NC

Revolutionary War Service

On 24 July 1776 Salathiel is listed with the South Carolina Third Regiment of Rangers. His commanding officer was Colonel William Thompson.

The 3rd South Carolina Regiment was originally authorized on June 6, 1775, as the South Carolina Regiment of Horse (Rangers). When organized in the summer of 1775, it consisted of nine companies from western South Carolina. On November 12, 1775, it was re-designated the 3rd South Carolina Regiment. On July 24, 1776, it was placed under the Continental Army and placed under the Southern Department

The Coffey land was 10 miles southwest of what is now Wilkesboro, North Carolina. Based on the land grant survey, Joel (Salathiel's father) owned this land (and more) as of 1780. Salathiel was not on the landowner list. I'm guessing that he and Elizabeth had a home on this family property.

Killed in a Riot?

From what I can tell, the Coffey brothers Salathiel, Nathan, and Joel along with a second cousin named Archelaus, were involved with a violent event where Salathiel and Archelaus were killed during the summer of 1784. Nathan was carted off to the next county to face a felony trial.

"Wilkes County Riot Trial of 1784, by Frank Crosswhite:

Salathiel’s brothers—Nathan Coffey and Joel Coffey—were indicted for a riot in Wilkes County, North Carolina, in 1784.

If Joel and Nathan had been riding with Salathiel Coffey on some activity which resulted in a civil disturbance, and if Salathiel were killed, it would be only natural for Joel and Nathan to stand as security for widow Elizabeth when she obtained letters of administration for her dead husband. She obtained such letters on 28 Jul 1784, the very day they signed bonds for Elizabeth's administration of her dead husband's estate.

It appears as though Salathiel was killed in the same altercation for which Nathan and Joel got arrested.

In late October 1784 the sheriff sold Salathiel's perishable estate (Oct. 26).

It also appears as though the death of Archelaus Coffey may have occurred at about the same time as those of Salathiel since Archelaus' widow's name appears on the tax list instead of her husband.

"The court records of 1784 cited above, all occurred in the Wilkes County Court of Pleas and Quarters. Suspected felons would be arraigned by this court but would be remanded for trial to the district court which sat in Burke County for the region which included Wilkes. That a felony had occurred is strongly suggested by the fact the Wilkes Co. Court which met in the summer of 1785 ordered that Patrick Hambrick be paid for carrying Nathan Coffey to the Burke jail.

Nathan Coffey seems to disappear from the Wilkes County tax lists around the same time.

I found the above information at the Coffey family website.

The Harpe Gang

The murder of Salathiel's nephew (c1800).

"'Micajah Harpe, large and athletic; Wiley Harpe, small and active, were usually called the Big and Little Harpes. They claimed to be from North Carolina, and committed many crimes in Kentucky and the South before being killed.

They went . . . to Big Barren River where they killed two [more] men, stole a Canoe and went down the River to Yellow Banks. Here they hid themselves for a while. Then leaving their money and some other things under a cliff they went from there towards the Chickesaw Nation, on to Stones River, and from there to Knoxville. At Knoxville they killed a man by the name of Ballard; they cut him open and putting stones in, sank his body in the River.

They then started for Kentucky again, but did not go far before they killed a young man who was the son of Chesley Coffey [15 year old Jake Coffey]. He was riding along the road one evening to get a fiddle; these terrible men smeared a tree with his brains, making out that his horse had run him against the tree."

Just a brief snippet from Colonial Men and Times by Lillie Harper 1915

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