John Coy
Elsewhere in this work there is set out at considerable length the story of the coming of Jacob Coy and his family from Maryland to the then Northwest Territory and of the interesting personal history of Jacob Coy and of the establishment of himself and family here in 1800, two or three years before Ohio's admission to statehood and Greene county's formal organization. Jacob Coy was thus one of the first settlers of what later came to be organized as Beavercreek township. It is said that the first school conducted in that township was opened in a little log building erected on the Jacob Coy farm and that in that same place there was conducted the first formal religious services held thereabout, the present congregation of the Reformed church in that neighborhood being the outgrowth of those humble pioneer meetings. Jacob Coy lived to be ninety-three years of age, his death occurring in 1836. His widow, Susanna, survived him about four years and was eighty-three years of age at the time of her death. They were the parents of twelve children and as most of these lived to rear families of their own the Coy connection thus became one of the most numerous in this part of the state, as will be noted elsewhere in the reading of this volume.
The late John Coy, who died at his farm home in Beavercreek township in the fall of 1892 and three of whose children are still living there, was one of the numerous grandsons of the pioneer couple above referred to. He was born in Beavercreek township on September 3, 1811, a son of Peter and Elizabeth (Ritter) Coy, the former of whom was one of the sons of Jacob and Susanna Coy. Peter Coy was well grown when he came with his parents to this section of the then Territory of Ohio in 1800. He had received good schooling in his native state of. Maryland and became one of the early school teachers in Greene county. After his marriage to Elizabeth Ritter, who was a member of one of the pioneer families in that neighboriiood, he estabhshed his home on a farm in Beavercreek township and there he and his wife spent their last days. They were the parents of seven children, of whom the subject of this memorial sketch was the first-born, the others being the following: .Jacob, born on February 25, 1813; Anna Maria, June 5, 1814, who died unmarried; Tobias R., September 2, 1816, who died in infancy; Sarah, August 2, 1819, who married Thomas Young, of Miami county, and spent her last days in that county: Emanuel, August 10, 1822, who died in infancy, and Susanna, August 12, 1825, who married Jacob Romspert, of Beavercreek township.
John Coy was reared on the farm on which he was born and in his youth was given good schooling, his school-teacher father supplementing the instructions he received in the local schools. He married Catherine Cosier, who was born in the neighboring county of Montgomery, daughter of Lewis and Elizabeth (Durnbaugh) Cosier, the former of whom was born in that same county and the latter in Greene county, and after his marriage established his home on the farm on which he spent the rest of his life. His wife died there on May 24, 1883, and he survived her for nearly ten years, his death occurring on October 7, 1892. They were members of the Reformed church, with which the Coys have been connected ever since the organization of the same in this county, and their children were reared in that faith. There were eight of these children, namely: Jacob Henry, who married Eliza D. Boroff, became a farmer in Beavercreek township and died in Wayne township, Montgomery county, at the age of fifty-seven years; Sarah Elizabeth, now living in Montgomery county, widow of Jacob Hawker, a farmer of that county, who died on December 20, 1907, leaving one son, Harrison C. Hawker, who married Clara C. Bullock and is living in Montgomery county; Valentine P., who married Sevilla Folkerth and is farming in Beavercreek township; Rebecca, who is still living on the home place in Beavercreek township, rural mail route No. 16 out of Dayton; John A., who also still lives there and is carrying on the operations of the farm; David E., who married Helen V. Weeks and is farming in Montgomery county; Mary C, who is living on the home place with her brother and sister; and Eflfie, who died at the age of two years. The Coys are members of the Reformed church and John A. Coy is a Republican, as was his father. The Coslers also have a numerous connection throughout this part of the state, the family of which Mrs. Catherine Coy was a member having been one of the pioneer families in this section. She was the seventh in order of birth of the children born to her parents, the others having been Lewis, Henry, John, Daniel, Valentine, David, Elizabeth, Martha and Barbara.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A. Broadstone, editor. B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918