Mary Ann Coffey

Mary Ann Nelson was the fifth of ten children born to John Nelson and and his wife Elizabeth Pendley. On both sides of her family she descended from early settlers in the upper Yadkin River of Caldwell Co. She grew up on her father's farm above Patterson. On June 20, 1867, she married Elijah Coffey (1838-1891), a Confederate veteran and the son of William and Margaret Robbins Coffey of Buffalo Cove. The couple had five children, all surviving to adulthood: Harriet "Hattie" Elizabeth (b. 1868), John William (b. 1869), Lee Thomas (b. 1871), George Nelson (b. 1875), and Mary Etta (b. 1880). Mary Ann saw to it that her children were educated, that they were trained in a strong work ethic, and that their lives were grounded in the austere Protestantism of the mountains. The many achievements of her descendants owe much to the values and ambitions Mary Ann Coffey gave to her children.

After the death of her husband Elijah in 1891, Mary Ann Nelson Coffey remained on the family farm in Happy Valley with her younger children. In 1905 she sold the property and bought a house in Lenoir with her youngest child Mary, a school teacher. The house in Lenoir (no longer extant) stood on the corner or Ashe Ave. and Boundary St. Upon moving to Lenoir, Mary A. Nelson Coffey joined the North Lenoir Advent Christian Church on N. Main St.