Histories

Archie Lee Coffman, son of Franklin Coffman and Laura Mae Everly, was expecting to stay a coal miner in Kentucky except that Fannie, his wife, said she did not marry a bum and took the three oldest children, Oliver, Hannah and Helen, and went home to the Sequatchie Valley and her father's house in Spencer, Tennessee. In 1916 Archie took off for Detroit where the jobs were at that time. He found a job driving a milk truck and a house on Farnsworth (was later taken over by the Art Museum) and sent for his wife and three children. He also sent explicit directions for every step of that way and had beautiful handwriting and good command of the English language.

Archie did not want to stay a truck driver so he started taking instructions to be an accountant using the Lincoln Institute’s course through the mail. He did well and at the time of his death he was the chief accountant at Beecher Peck and Lewis Company, a paper firm that is still in business today.

Arch was a loving father to his children and loved sports. He was usually the catcher on the baseball team that played at Belle Isle. Belle Isle was a garden spot in those days. The Coffman family had many picnics in the area of the ball diamonds.

Arch was doing well financially, investing in real estate and had plans of moving to a larger home on Cadillac Avenue near Jefferson, from the house at 5419 Bewick Avenue. He also thought that the Mount Clemens area was ripe for development and invested in real estate in the small city of Fairhaven, on the shores of Lake St. Clair.

Arch started having trouble with nephritis, a disease of the kidneys. He did not believe that it was serious but it soon caused his death in 1927. He was 39 years old and left five children fatherless.