Temperance Coker

This originally appeared as a “note” in an appendix entitled “The Downing-Meharg-Coker Connection” from my book The Downings of Choccolocco, Calhoun County, Alabama Vol. I: The Descendants of James Downing (2014).

Temperance Coker fascinates me. Why, I don’t know. Perhaps because she appears in three (out of five) censuses as the head of household in a time when the majority of women were considered nothing but dependents to men and therefore were never listed by name in those census records. Or perhaps because she headed west with her children, first to Tennessee and then to the wilds of Alabama, probably in the company of the Downings and Mehargs, but nonetheless, as head of her family.

Despite various internet claims regarding who Temperance’s husband—the elusive Mr. Coker—might have been, I believe her only husband was Archibald Meharg, whom she married “late” in life. And after extensive research, I suspect he was the father of some, possibly even all, of her Coker children. Of course, there’s no proof of this.

In fact, there is no proof of whom her children were, simply preponderance of the evidence [unless someone has a long, lost family Bible out there somewhere]. But it is my conclusion that she had five children that survived to adulthood: William Coker (born before 1800), Nancy Coker (born c1800 SC), Mason Coker (born c1805 SC), Larkin Coker (born 1809 SC), and Berry L. Coker (born c1814 TN).

As always, the end notes are very important [they show up on this webpage as numbers in brackets]. For example, it is in the footnotes where I talk about Temperance Coker’s probable grandson, James Jasper Turner, a “free man of color” in antebellum Alabama.

If you use any of what I’ve written here in your research, please give me credit for the work I have done. Thank you.

***

Temperance Coker and her children are problematic. Census records indicate she was probably born in the early 1780s. She first appears in the 1800 US Census for Laurens County, South Carolina, as head of household but is listed as being between 16 & 26 [years of age]. With her are a boy under 10 and a girl under 10 (they could even be infants). Next door is Archibald Meharg, her future husband, with his family. Over the next decade, she appears as a witness or such in various deeds and documents, often alongside Archibald Meharg (including one document from c1810 with James Downing’s name on it). I have not been able to find her in the 1810 Census,[1] but in 1820, she appears in the Alabama State Census in St Clair County, still as head of her household—yet with an ever-growing number of children.

Between 1820 and 1837, four Coker marriages occur in St Clair County: Temperance Coker married Archibald Meharg on 23 August 1823;[2] Mason Coker married Temperance Brown on 15 September 1825; Larkin Coker married Susan Appling on 23 February 1832; and Berry L Coker[3] married Elizabeth Appling on 5 March 1837. In that time, the only Coker household to appear [in St. Clair County, Alabama] in the census is Temperance Coker’s in 1820, with a house full of children and young men:

1 male over 21 [?William Coker— boy “under 10” from 1800 Census?]

3 males under 21 [Mason Coker, Larkin Coker, and Berry L Coker][4]

1 female over 21 [Temperance Coker]

1 female under 21 [?Nancy Coker— girl “under 10” from 1800 Census?]

Later census records indicate Mason Coker was born in c1805 in South Carolina, Larkin Coker was born 1809 in South Carolina (based on his gravestone in Calhoun County), and Berry L Coker was born c1814 in Tennessee,[5] while Nancy Coker was born c1800 in South Carolina (probably making her the girl “under 10” in the household of Temperance Coker in the 1800 Census in Laurens County [South Carolina]).

As for the other male in the household in 1820—“1 male over 21”—I contend he was another son, William Coker. In 1822, when James Downing married his second wife, Mary “Polly” Clark, in St. Clair County, a William Coker was the “surety”—that is, William Coker guaranteed that he knew the groom, knew the groom to be eligible to marry the bride, and further guaranteed the groom would marry the bride as promised.[6] Such a person would have to be an adult, ideally over the age of 21, and thus, this cannot be the 13-year-old Larkin Coker, whom some internet sites claim was named “Larkin William Coker.”[7] This William Coker would, therefore, fit the 1820 census record of “1 male over 21.”[8] I can find no further record of him—partly because “William Coker” is a common name—and either he died as a young man or he struck out on his own to make something of himself, possibly marrying in another Alabama county in the 1820s[9] (but this is pure speculation).

Archibald Meharg and his sons had arrived in St Clair County (notably by way of Tennessee) in the early 1820s, and each of them married in St Clair County in that decade: James Meharg married Mary “Polly” Autrey on 23 December 1821; John Meharg married Mary Y Moody on 28 September 1823; and William Meharg married Katherine “Kitty” Favor on 8 January 1826.[10]

William Meharg’s whereabouts in 1830 are unknown,[11] but by the time of the 1830 US Census, both John and James Meharg [“Mehard”] had their own households in St. Clair County. Temperance Coker had married their father, Archibald Meharg, and he is listed in the census for St. Clair County:[12]

1 male 15 to 20 [?Berry L Coker]

1 male 20 to 30 [?Larkin Coker]

1 male 60 to 70 [Archibald Meharg]

1 female under 5 [?Narcissa Coker—daughter of Nancy Coker?]

1 female 10 to 15 [unknown][13]

1 female 20 to 30 [?Nancy Coker]

1 female 40 to 50 [Temperance Coker Meharg]

1 “Free Colored Person” male under 5 [?James Jasper Turner?][14]

By 1840, Larkin Coker was married and living in Benton [Calhoun] County, while Berry Coker was also married with his own household in St. Clair County.[15] Archibald Meharg, however, died 3 January 1840, before that year’s census was taken. As a result, “Temperance Meharg” is once again listed as head of her own household:[16]

1 male 5 to 10 [?William K Coker—son of Nancy Coker?]

1 female 15 to 20 [?Narcissa Coker]

1 female 30 to 40 [?Nancy Coker]

1 female 50 to 60 [Temperance Coker Meharg]

1 “Free Colored Person” male 24 to 36[17] [?James Jasper Turner?]

Temperance Coker Meharg died sometime between 24 May 1843 (when she filed an affidavit in the St. Clair County court regarding Archibald Meharg’s Revolutionary War Veteran’s pension) and 23 November 1850 when the 1850 US Census for St Clair County, Alabama, was conducted. It was that census that had me examine the census records for Temperance Coker and her family more closely. A unique (but not unheard of) occurrence appears in this census [which drew my attention]. It appears to be the same location as the 1840 Census, with the Cooper and Favor families still nearby. Listed in households 120 and 121, in District 39 of St. Clair County, Alabama, are:[18]

Nancy Coker 50 F [South Carolina]

James J Turner 19 M M[ulatto][19] Farmer Alabama

William [K] Coker[20] 17 M [Alabama]

[Next house]

Joel Putman 28 M Farmer South Carolina

Narcissa 23 F Alabama

Frances A 1 M Alabama

On 8 March 1848, a Narcissa Coker married Joel A Putman in St Clair County, Alabama, making it the first Coker marriage to occur in the county since the Coker brothers were marrying in the previous decades.[21] So this census appears to show a mother (Nancy Coker) living with her son (William K Coker) and next door to her daughter (Narcissa Coker Putman).[22] This, plus the appearance of a free black man (despite the discrepancies in the listed ages), led me to examine the earlier censuses more carefully, following the trail backwards into the past.[23]

As for Temperance Coker and Archibald Meharg, many websites give them additional children—without evidence—all daughters born when Temperance would’ve been in her forties and even early 50s. These [erroneously] assigned daughters are: Mary, Nancy Caroline, Lucinda, and Rebecca—the last three clearly being the daughters usually assigned (again, erroneously) to James Meharg and his wife Mary “Polly” Autrey, while the first is probably the daughter of John Meharg and Mary Moody [for more information, see my post on “The Meharg Problem”].

Finally, various internet sites try to claim Temperance Coker was Temperance Starling and her husband was Joseph Coker, without giving any evidence. These claims are very problematic, as Temperance Starling was born c1820[24] (long after Temperance Coker had given birth to most—if not all—her children) and she married James M Coker in Bibb County, Alabama, in 1832,[25] by which time, Temperance Coker was a grandmother. It is possible Temperance Coker did marry a Joseph Coker in Laurens County, South Carolina, but if so, she was a widow by 1800. It is also possible that the two small children in her household in 1800 are not her biological children. But when all the evidence is taken as a whole, this seems unlikely.

A Joseph Coker does appear in the 1816 Census of the Alabama Territory,[26] living in “Monroe County,” and in the typed transcription of this census in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, the transcriber made a note that a Temperance Coker appears in the 1820 Alabama Census. But this does not mean there is any link between the two. To begin with, one of the Coker forbearers was named Joseph Coker, and as a result, it is one of the most common names in the Coker family and the era abounds with men named Joseph Coker. Then, in 1816, “Monroe County” comprised most of what is now the state of Alabama—a massive amount of territory—and this gentleman may have been living on the other side of the territory from where Temperance would end up in St Clair County. His absence from the 1820 Census reveals nothing as the census survives from only eight counties—except that he was not in St Clair County or those seven other counties, although he could have been elsewhere in the state. The 1830 Census and the 1840 Census, however, are filled with Cokers. There is even a 60 to 70 year old J Coker in Capt Adair’s District in Autauga County, Alabama, right in the middle of the former “Monroe County” of the 1816 Census. Simply put, there is nothing that links this 1816 Joseph Coker to Temperance Coker other than the fact that they were both in the territory/state of Alabama within four years of each other and a shared last name. This Joseph Coker is as likely to be her father as he is to be her husband, and the evidence for either possibility simply isn’t there.

That said, a Joseph Coker does appear in the land records as having purchased nearly 80 acres near Steele, along the boundary between St Clair County and Etowah County, on 1 May 1824—nearly a year after Temperance Coker married Archibald Meharg (they married 23 August 1823). I can find no further record of this Joseph Coker.

In all probability, Temperance Coker was a member of the Coker family of Laurens County, South Carolina, most likely related to Drury Coker somehow, and that her first and only husband was Archibald Meharg. And I am not the first to suggest that some, perhaps even all, of her children may very well have been Archibald Meharg’s children.[27] Such things have always happened.[28] It would be relatively easy to disprove this via DNA testing of the Y-chromosomes—a comparison of the Coker Y-chromosome and the Meharg Y-chromosome from their descendants. While a match would not specifically prove Archibald Meharg fathered Temperance Coker’s children (or even one of the children), it would indicate that the father (of that particular son) was a member of the Meharg family.

[1] Update: the 1810 US Census for Laurens County, South Carolina, shows Archibald Meharg with a very large household. The sexes and ages would fit for Temperance and her children, as well as for Archibald’s family.

[2] All information on marriages from “Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957,” index, FamilySearch (www.FamilySearch.org).

[3] Transcribed as “Terry L Coker” in the marriage index.

[4] Berry L Coker is not Ausburn R Coker. Berry L Coker is consistently found in St Clair County. Land records list him as Berry L Coker [www.glorecords.blm.gov], and he had a son likewise named Berry L Coker. Census records list him as Berry Coker, with the exception of the 1866 Alabama Census of St Clair County, which lists him as “B L Coker” [two doors up from Thomas Monroe & his son, Jesse B Monroe—who married Mary Ann Downing—and just a few doors up from Archibald Downing, grandson of Archibald Meharg]. The 1860 US Census for St Clair County is badly mangled, with his name appearing to read “Bemj T Coker” with a ditto mark, leading the name to be transcribed as “Benj T Coker Appling,” as his father-in-law, Joel Appling, is next door. But the household is clearly that of Berry L Coker and his family.

Ausburn R Coker, on the other hand, appears as A R Coker in the 1840 US Census in Coosa County [when Berry is settled in St Clair], while records from Coosa County—land records as well as estate records—consistently show him as Ausburn R Coker. He obtained several parcels of land on 1 April 1837, as did his son, James A Coker (1819-1877), in Coosa County. James married Rebecca Owen in 1838 in Coosa County [“Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957”], and that young family moved to Mississippi. Land records show Ausburn R Coker obtained land in Calhoun County, Mississippi, in 1844 [www.glorecords.blm.gov], but I cannot find him in the census records. By 1860, James A Coker and his family, including their young son, another Ausburn R Coker, are living in Calhoun County, Mississippi. All this time, Berry L Coker is in St Clair County, Alabama.

Ausburn R Coker’s father may have been a Thompson Coker, son of Philip Coker of Laurens County, South Carolina. There is no doubt [at least in my mind] that the two families were related, but Ausburn R Coker and Berry L Coker were two separate individuals.

[5] Update: this is consistent with the migration pattern for both the Meharg and Downing families, who left South Carolina around 1812 for Tennessee, before moving on to Alabama.

[6] This was probably to assure the bride and her family that James Downing, an older man with five children, was in fact a widower.

[7] Despite searching, I cannot find any indication that Larkin Coker’s middle initial was W, let alone that his middle name was William. The Cokers—like so many families at the time—had a habit of using the same names in each generation, and the name William does show up quite a bit. I suspect it is after this older brother who seems to disappear from the records.

[8] William Coker as surety also indicates he had probably known the groom for some time, in essence, reassuring the bride’s family that James Downing had not just abandoned a wife in South Carolina or Tennessee and run away to the wilds of Alabama. This is in keeping with an eldest son of Temperance Coker, who would’ve known James Downing in Laurens County, South Carolina, at least since 1808-1810.

[9] A William Coker married Elizabeth Perkins on 27 December 1825 in Perry County, Alabama, but I can find no further information on this couple.

[10] All information on marriages “Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957,” index, FamilySearch (www.FamilySearch.org).

[11] Archibald Meharg’s household makeup in 1830 does not fit with the known facts concerning the family makeup of William Meharg’s family in that year, as William and his wife had 3 children under the age of five as of 1830. There are claims on the internet that he settled in Coosa County, about 1824, approximately 8 years before the county was formed and while it was still Creek territory. This may be entirely true; I simply haven’t seen a source for it. It would explain William Meharg’s absence from the 1830 US Census. In 1840, William Meharg [“Mahurd”] was in Jordan, Coosa County, Alabama, just two doors down from his nephew, Archibald Downing. He lived the rest of his life there (his gravestone spells his name “Maherg”).

[12] No Coker household appears in the 1830 US Census of St Clair County, Alabama. The 1850 US Census for Tippah County, Mississippi shows Mason Coker with his family, and the birth locations for two of the children indicate the family was in Tennessee c1830. On 16 November 1840, Mason Coker purchased nearly 160 acres in Tippah County, Mississippi.

[13] Jincey Downing, daughter of James and Mary Meharg Downing and granddaughter of Archibald Meharg, would have been approximately 14 years old at the time of the 1830 US Census. Her whereabouts in 1830 are unknown.

[14] Archibald Meharg did not own any slaves.

[15] In St Clair County, Berry L Coker is just a few doors up from his father-in-law, Joel Appling, and step-brother, James Meharg. Berry Coker appears in St Clair County by name in every census from 1840 to 1870, while his widow, Elizabeth Appling Coker appears in the 1880 Census for the county.

[16] Other than Temperance Coker Meharg’s household and Berry L Coker’s household, no other Coker household appears in the 1840 US Census of St Clair County, Alabama.

[17] I believe the wrong age range was marked and it should have been the next column, 10 to 24.

[18] Other than the household of Nancy Coker, the only other Coker household appearing in the 1850 US Census of St Clair County, Alabama, is that of Berry Coker’s. At first glance, this household appears to be “Bemj T Coker” but his father-in-law, Joel Appling is still next door. [District 39, household 291.]

[19] Slaves were listed by slave owners’ names on Schedule 2 [Slave Schedule], not Schedule 1, which was for free persons. In short, this is a free black man. I suspect he is the same person as listed in the 1830 and 1840 censuses, despite the discrepancies in the ages. Notably, he is listed before William K Coker. The listing order in census records was head of household followed by wife and then their children in order of birth, then any other relatives in the household, and then finally servants and boarders. [I believe James Jasper Turner was Nancy Coker’s son.]

[20] His middle initial appears to be an R in this census, but all other records list it as K.

[21] The eldest known daughter of Narcissa Coker and Joel A Putman was named Nancy.

[22] There is no evidence of a husband for Nancy Coker. I believe she was Temperance Coker’s daughter, the child listed in the 1800 census record in Laurens County, and that she never married. [I further believe she had three surviving children: James Jasper Turner, Narcissa Coker Putman, and William K Coker.]

[23] [Son] William K Coker married Missouri Elliot on 2 November 1854. [Daughter] Narcissa Coker Putman died by 6 March 1864 when Joel A Putman married Malinda A Sansom in St Clair County [“Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957”]. [Son] “James J Turner” is listed in the 1860 US Census for St Clair County [living in Blainesville]. He is listed as “mulatto,” single, age 26 [giving him a birth year of c1834]. He is a miller. I have been unable to find any additional information on him. [Update: while I have never found James Jasper Turner in the 1870 or 1880 censuses, I have found two additional records. First, St Clair County, Alabama, probate records state that on 16 January 1856, “Jasper Turner” “a freeman of color” over the age of 21 came before the court and “made choice of Joel A Putman as his Guardian,” and the court granted this request. Why he made such a request is not stated in the record. But clearly, this Jasper Turner must be one and the same as the James J Turner listed in the 1850 census record as living in the household of Nancy Coker, as well as the miller James J Turner listed in the 1860 census. Second, one “Jasper Turner,” a 52-year-old farmer, died in Ashville, St Clair County, Alabama on 12 February 1884. He is listed as mulatto, married, born near Ashville and buried near Ashville. I have found no record of his marriage or any further information on his family. [St Clair County Death Records, “Alabama Deaths and Burials, 1881-1952,” database, FamilySearch.]]

[24] 1850 US Census for Bibb County, Alabama.

[25] This isn’t an error, as she was underage at the time and her father, Rody Starling, had to give permission for the couple to marry. Additionally, the 1840 US Census for Bibb County indicates James M Coker’s wife was between 20 and 30, thereby suggesting her age in 1850 was probably a few years older than 30 as listed in the 1850 census. [“Alabama, Marriages, 1816-1957”]

[26] It is possible to view a pdf of this document via the FamilySearch.org wiki for the Alabama censuses.

[27] While it proves nothing, Berry L Coker named his first son Archibald.

[28] And in the Coker family, too. In his 1805 will, Charles Gary [Garey] of Laurens County, South Carolina, left his estate to “my beloved friend” Milley Coker and “my natural daughter” Cassandry Coker. Drury Coker was one the executors of the will, while John Coker was a witness. Drury and John were brothers, and Milley, it appears, was their sister.