William H. Coy
The Coys were among the real pioneers in this part of Ohio, for it was in the year 1800. three years before Ohio was admitted to statehood and Greene county became a civic entity, that Jacob Coy effected a settlement here. On the Jacob Coy farm in Beavercreek township was erected the first school house built in that township and in that little log school house were held the first formal religious services held in that township, it being there that the congregation now strongly represented in the Mt. Zion neighborhood effected the organization of the Reformed (then known as the German Reformed) church in Greene county.
Jacob Coy was of German birth and was about eighteen years of age when he started with his parents and the six other children of the family for the United States. The parents died during the progress of the passage over and were buried in mid-ocean, their effects being confiscated by the ship's crew, the seven children thus being thrown penniless upon the shores of the New World. The children, in accordance with the hard custom of the day, were "sold" to pay transportation and Jacob Coy was thus thrown into the hands of a Pennsylvania planter, for whom he worked for six years to free himself and his younger brothers and sisters from debt. He afterward located in Maryland, where he married, borrowing the money with which to cover necessary expenses, and established his home there, in time coming to be the owner of three hundred and fifty acres of land, on which he made his home until the year 1800, when he disposed of his interests there and with his wife Susanna and their children, emigrated to the then promising Territory of Ohio, coming down the river as far as Cincinnati, the village that had sprung up around old Ft. Washington. Though importuned to remain there he had decided on a settlement further up state and two months later with his family drove up here into the beautiful valley of the Little Miami, having meantime invested in a tract of three thousand acres of land in this section, in what later came to be organized as Beavercreek township, Greene county, and established his permanent home here. the Coys thus becoming accounted as among the earliest settlers in this county. Here the pioneer Jacob Coy spent the rest of his life, his death occurring in 1836, he then being ninety-three years of age. His widow survived him about four years, she being eighty-three years of age at the time of her death. They were the parents of twelve children and the Coy connection in this county in succeeding generations became a numerous one.
William H. Coy. former trustee of Beavercreek township and proprietor of a farm on the Shakertown pike, rural mail route No. 7 out of Xenia. was born on that farm, a great-grandson of Jacob and Susanna Coy, the pioneers mentioned above, April 9, 1854. son of Jacob H. and Rebecca Ella (Buck) Coy, the former of whom was born on that same farm, a son of Henry Coy, who was one of the twelve children born to the pioneers, Jacob and Susanna Coy. Henry Coy, who was one of the charter members of the Reformed church in Beavercreek township, became the owner of about five hundred acres of land. He and his wife were the parents of six children, four sons and two daughters, namely: Leonard, who spent his last days in Elkhart county, Indiana; William, who moved to Iowa and thence to California, in which latter state his last days were spent; Jacob H., father of the subject of this sketch; Daniel, who was married at the age of eighteen, later going to Iowa and settling in Davis county, where he and his wife spent their last days, both dying in 1916, he then being ninety-two years of age; Susan, who married Doctor Kyler and later moved to Elkhart county, Indiana, and Mrs. Catherine Bingaman.
Jacob H. Coy was born in 1820 on the place now owned and occupied by his son William H. and there spent all his life. After the death of his father he bought his mother's dower right in the home place of one hundred and fifty-four acres and continued to make his home in the house which his grandfather had erected there in 1820, in that house spending his last days, his death occurring there on October 1, 1894. Jacob H. Coy was a Republican and by religious persuasion was a member of the Reformed church, in which for years he was an office-bearer. His widow survived him for nearly twelve years, her death occurring on July 27, 1906. She was born, Rebecca Ella Buck, in the vicinity of Sheppardstown, Virginia, in 1833. Jacob H. and Rebecca E. (Buck) Coy were the parents of nine chiklren. of whom the subject of this sketch was the third in order of birth, the others being the following: Martha, wife of George Loy, of Miamisburg, this state; John F., a farmer, living in the Mt. Zion neighborhood in this county: Charles N., who farms with his brother: Dr. Joseph M. Coy. who was graduated from the dental department of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and who engaged in the practice of his profession at Dayton, where he died; Emma, unmarried, who is now a resident of Chicago; Louie M., also unmarried, who lives near her brother William; Perry, who died soon after his marriage, and Anna, who married Rosco Rockafield and is now living at Fairfield, this county.
William H. Coy was reared on the farm on which he was born and on which he is still living, and received his schooling in the neighborhood school, old district No. 4, Beavercreek township, one of his schoolmates there being M. A. Broadstone, whose name appears on the title page of this work and for whom he still entertains the same high regard that marked the boyhood friendship. For some time after his marriage in the spring of 1882 he continued to farm on the home place and he and his brother Charles then bought a farm in the vicinity of Mt. Zion, in that same township, and William H. Coy later bought one hundred and twenty-one acres of the old home place, established his home there and has since made that place his home, having added to the place until now he is the owner of one hundred and seventy-eight acres. In addition to his general farming Mr. Coy has for years given considerable attention to the raising of Poland Clnna hogs and also has a herd of dairy cattle. In 1915 Mr. Coy erected a new house of cream-colored brick, equipped with an individual electric-lighting plant and all modern conveniences. Mr. Coy is a Republican and for six years served as trustee of Beavercreek township. Fraternally, he is affiliated with the local lodge of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics at Bellbrook. His wife is a member of Mt. Zion Reformed church.
On March 30, 1882, William H. Coy was united in marriage to Sarah Elizabeth Merrick, who also was born in Beavercreek township, and to this union three children have been born, Lawrence, a farmer of .Sugarcreek township, who married Ida N. Keiter and has one child, a son, Robert, and Guy and Glenn, who are at home assisting on their father's farm. Mrs. Coy is a daughter of David and Ann (Kable) Merrick, both of whom also were born in this county, the former in Beavercreek township and the latter in the village of Osborn, April 21, 1837, a daughter of Samuel and Catherine (Garver) Kable, Virginians, who came to this county from the vicinity of Harper's Ferry in 1831 and here spent the remainder of their lives. Samuel Kable died on November 25, 1864. he then being sixty-three years of age, and his widow survived him for nearly nine years, her death occurring on May 31, 1873. They were the parents of seven children, those besides Mrs. Merrick having been Mary E., Joseph, Sarah E., Martha J., John W. and Isaac N.
David Merrick was born on October 3, 1830, a son of Joseph D. and Susan (Boston) Merrick, the former of whom was born in Kent county, Delaware, October 9, 1779, and the latter, in Frederick county, Maryland, December 25, 1793. Joseph D. Merrick was the son of the Rev. John Merrick, a Methodist minister, and was trained as a weaver in the days of his youth and was working at that trade in Maryland in 1812 when he married Susan Boston. In 1814 he and his wife came to Ohio and present!y became located in Beavercreek township, this county, where they spent the remainder of their lives, Joseph D. Merrick dying there on March 3, 1857. His widow died on January 10, 1873. They were the parents of five children, three sons, John, Israel and David, and two daughters, Elizabeth, who married David Stutesman, and Mary Ann, who died at the age of fourteen years. David Merrick grew up in Beavercreek township and at the age of twenty years began teaching school, a profession he followed during the winters for a period of twelve years. In 1858 he purchased a tract of sixty acres of land east of Shakertown and after his marriage in the fullowing spring to Ann R. Kable established his home there, remaining there until the spring of 1865, when he moved to a farm of one hundred and twenty-five acres which he had purchased, a mile and a half west of the village of Alpha. David Merrick and wife were the parents of nine children, seven of whom grew to maturity, those besides Mrs. Coy being William K., Joseph S., Emma H., Ellen C, Martha J. and Benjamin D. The Merricks were members of the Reformed church.
From History of Greene County Ohio, Its People, Industries and Institutions, vol. 2. M.A. Broadstone, editor. B. F. Bowen & Co., Indianapolis. 1918