REMINISCENCES OF THE COATES FAMILY.

     The following reminiscences were furnished by Sylvia M. O'Brian, daughter of Daniel O'Brian, one of the early pioneers of Breckville.
     The Coates and O'Brian families were neighbors and very intimate away back in the 20s.
     Miss O'Brian resides with her sister on Kennard street, Cleveland.  *She is now 86, but her mental faculties are unimpaired, and she distinctly remembers the events of her childhood.
     She says great-grandfather, John Coates1, was a tall man, at least six feet.  He was slender, had gray hair, not white, and blue eyes; complexion fair.  Was very gentlemanly in his appearance; was well educated; used good language, and was very fond of reading aloud from his favorite books when alone with his wife, or when company was present.
     He was a generous man, a royal host, a successful gardener; raised the best of everything, and his friends were ever welcome at his table.
     Roses grew around his house, and from the road to his house was a broad driveway bordered with trees.  When his wife died, March, 1825, there were no flowers in bloom but cowslips.  These he gathered and placed about her in
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     *May 7, 1901.

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the coffin, and the effect was very pretty.  His grief was very great when she who had been his companion for so many years passed away; and when his grandson, James, followed her two years later, it was pitiful indeed to hear him talk.  “Oh! James," he exclaimed, “I never thought to outlive thee.”
     Great-grandmother was very fond of her husband, and thought his opinions worthy of her highest respect.  She was a fair-faced woman, even in her old age.  She seems to have been reared a lady and kept one, so far as her husband was concerned.
     James' fatal illness, it is thought, was caused by his taking a trip on the newly built canal from Cleveland to Akron.
     The wife of John Coates², Ann Best, was somewhat bowed in form; was quiet and not much of a talker.
     Eleanor Coates, afterward Mrs. Weld, taught the first school in Brecksville, on the town line road between that town and Royalton and Parma.
     Miss O'Brian says she remembers Charles Coates²,* well.  That he married first in Geneseo, New York, Miss Catherine De Pugh.  Thomas Coates³ was the son by this wife.  She died after they moved to Royalton.  She is described as a "very charming lady," as was also the second wife, Nancy Dorrell.  By this latter marriage there was a daughter, Caroline, who lived to be a young lady.
     Miss O'Brian says her family thought much of Mr.
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     *According to above statement Charles Coates² had three wives - Catherine Pugh, Nancy Dorrell and Amanda Teachout.

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Charles Coates because he was so kind to them when her mother was left a widow with the care of several children.  He was a counsellor and adviser for whom they entertained the highest esteem.

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