George Coe and wife, Phoebe
George Washington Coe was born in Brighton, Iowa on December 13, 1856. When George's father was fighting in the Civil War, George lived with his cousins at Queen City. George and his cousin Lou went to New Mexico when George grew tired of his father's fourth wife. George's entire family was living with him in Colfax County by 1874. George farmed with his cousin, Frank, in Lincoln County for a while, but then got his own ranch on the Ruidoso River, near Glencoe, with his brother, Jap. Sheriff William Brady arrested George and his friend Doc Scurlock for suspicion of harboring a friend of theirs, Frank Freeman, who was a member of the Jessie Evans Gang and was wanted for murder. While they were in the sheriff's custody, Doc and George were treated badly. George later hired Billy the Kid to work on his ranch in the fall or winter of 1877, and the two became very good friends. They often went hunting together, along with George's cousin Frank. George was in the Blazer's Mills gunfight, in which his trigger finger was shot off. He also fought in the Battle of Lincoln and the Five-Day Battle. He moved with cousin Frank to Colorado after the war and married Phoebe Brown on November 19, 1879. By November 1884, George and Phoebe were back in Lincoln County, with George resuming his life as a rancher. George and Phoebe had eight children altogether. He wrote an autobiography entitled "Frontier Fighter" and was interviewed several times late in life. He died at Roswell, New Mexico on November 14, 1941.
George Coe
This photo was taken in 1927, when George was seventy-one.
George Coe
This photo was taken sometime in the 1920s.
