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University of North Carolina at Asheville Manuscript Register Frank Coxe PapersM83.3.1-14 ; P83.3.1 ; OS83.3.1 |
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| Title | Frank Coxe Papers |
| Creator | Frank Coxe (1899-1987) |
| Identifier | http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/coxef/coxef.html |
| Subject Keyword |
Frank Coxe ; Tench Coxe ; Revolutionary War ; land acquisition ; North Carolina real estate ; Francis Sidney Coxe ; Pennsylvania ; Rutherford County, NC ; Asheville, NC ; Coxe family genealogy ; Potter, Eliza A. ; Battery Park Hotel ; Cedar Hill ; Downtown Asheville |
| Subject LCSH |
Coxe, Frank, 1899-1987 |
| Description |
The Coxe collection consists of original correspondence and property acquisition records, and a smaller component of printed materials, transcripts, and photographs, etc., of the Tench, Francis Sidney, and Franklin Coxe line of this family (ie., 18th and 19th centuries), and their descendents. Chronologically, the collection begins with transcript items and original papers dating from the eighteenth century, during the time of Tench Coxe (1755-1824), and continues through the early 1980s. (For a more complete description of the Coxe family, see the summary of the Frank Coxe oral history.) Some of the listings of the following inventory are transcripts (eg., a letter listed in the earlier inventory as dated 1794, from Thomas Jefferson), or later published materials. Most of the material is original. Overall, the bulk of these materials concern early business and political activities in Pennsylvania; early land acquisitions in North Carolina (primarily Rutherford County); and subsequent Coxe business and property interests in Pennsylvania, Rutherford County, N.C., and Asheville, N.C., from the later nineteenth through mid-twentieth centuries. Twentieth century materials include items from the estate of Frank Coxe (d.1903), including property deeds, wills, correspondence, and other papers. There is also material concerning real estate projects and family genealogy in the mid-twentieth century through 1984. |
| Publisher | D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 |
| Contributor | Coxe family ; Southern Highlands Research Center |
| Date | 2001-05-01 |
| Type | Collection ; Text |
| Format | 6 cu. ft. |
| Source | M83.3.1-14 ; P83.3.1 ; OS83.3.1 |
| Language | English |
| Relation | Frank Coxe Oral History, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 ; Tench Coxe Collection (1798-1910), D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 ; |
| Coverage | 1755-1984 ; Pennsylvania ; North Carolina |
| Rights |
Any display, publication, or public use must credit the D.H. Ramsey
Library,
Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville. Copyright retained by the creators of certain items in the collection, or their descendents, as stipulated by United States copyright law. |
| Donor | Donor number 121 ; Donor number 122 |
| Acquisition | 1983-11 ; 1984-07 |
| Citation | Frank Coxe Papers, D.H. Ramsey Library, Special Collections, University of North Carolina at Asheville 28804 |
| Processed by | Special Collections staff [Beau Gildersleeve], 1983 and 2001; 2002 |
| Biography: | |
| Frank Coxe (1899-1987)
was a leader of civic affairs in Asheville, NC. Born in 1899 in
Asheville, Coxe came from a privileged family. His father, Tench C.
Coxe owned the well- known 40 room home called "Klondyke" in the
Montford area of Asheville. His mother, Sarah Fotterall Potter Coxe, was a
member of Asheville's social elite.. Tench Coxe was the grandson of Col.
Frank Coxe who is well known in Asheville as a large land-holder and the
builder of the Battery Park Hotel in 1886. Frank Coxe was a graduate of the Asheville School and of Yale University. He completed post-graduate work at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served in World War I. His career is largely to be found in banking and real estate. After the War he worked for his father's bank, the Battery Park Bank (later Wachovia Bank). In 1930 he worked in New York City in the investment firm of Otis and Co. In 1931 he was back in Asheville where he bought and operated Wheathearts Co. until 1942. After 1942 he briefly operated the Morgan Furniture Co.. He later settled into real-estate and insurance as a vocation. From 1951 until 1959 he served as executive vice-president of the Asheville Industrial Council. Among his civic interests were the Civitan Club (former President), Board of Directors of the Asheville Chamber of Commerce and treasurer of Asheville-Biltmore College. He was also director for a time of the Asheville Symphony Association and the Asheville chapter of the American Red Cross. He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Asheville School and of Memorial Mission Hospital. He once said "You can't go home again, but you can always stay home..." The Coxe family genealogy is extensive. Dr. Daniel Coxe (1640-1730), London, England, was physician to the British royal family and through his contacts purchased a grant of land in 1698 known as the "Carolina" from the heirs of the Heath family. The "Carolina" holding remained with the Coxe family until 1769 when it was exchanged for land in the Mohawk valley of what is now New York state. Daniel Coxe's son, Col. Daniel Coxe came to America and settled close to Trenton, N. J. in 1702, and was heir to his father's lands. He quickly increased his father's holdings. The extensive holdings then went largely to his son, William Coxe who, through marriage to the daughter of Tench Francis, attorney general of Pennsylvania, came into possession of the New Jersey land holdings. Tench Coxe (1755-1824) was the son of William Coxe and Mary Francis and served Pennsylvania in the Continental Congress in 1789. He also served as the director of the large commercial house, Coxe, Furman and Coxe and was soon appointed the Assistant Secretary to Alexander Hamilton during President Washington's administration. Soon thereafter, Coxe gained the position as the Commissioner of Revenue. His interest in land in North Carolina resulted in his purchase of the largest land speculation holding in western North Carolina and the formation of the Speculation Lands Company. UNCA holds the original surveyor file for that important land holding in the Speculation Lands Collection.. Francis Sydney Coxe, son of Tench Coxe purchased and inherited large land holdings in the Carolinas from his uncle Daniel Coxe, who owned lands encompassing parts of South Carolina, Texas, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Louisiana and some of New Mexico and California. Francis Sydney Coxe moved to Rutherford County, North Carolina. Here, in North Carolina he met Jane McBee Alexander, daughter of Francis Alexander and married her. They established a home on property that later became known as the Green River Plantation. Their union produced Frank Coxe, (1839-1903 ) later known as Col. Frank Coxe. Col. Frank Coxe fought for both the Union and the Confederacy as recorded in papers found after his death. He apparently had two proxies who served his duty on both sides of the war. The Rutherford county historian Clarence Griffin describes Coxe's service as "truth stranger than fiction." He describes Coxe as having "...fought himself in many battles, ran away from himself on more than one occasion, was twice shot to death, and lived to be a ripe old age, haunted always by the fear that he had killed himself." The full account of Col. Coxe's adventures may be found in the family history written by Clarence Griffin. Col. Frank Coxe increased his land holdings and his Pennsylvania coal interests and became a man of substantial wealth. In 1881 he moved to Charlotte where he became the vice-president of the Western North Carolina railroad, the first railroad to traverse the mountains of western North Carolina. The railroad came to western North Carolina largely through the funding of Col. Frank Coxe and the tourists came largely because of the railroad. Shortly after 1881, Col. Coxe moved to Asheville where he purchased large tracts of land and built the famous Battery Park Hotel. He also built homes in Rutherford and Polk counties, (the well-known Green River Plantation), and a home in Spindale. It might be said that western North Carolina owes its early development to the single entrepreneurial spirit of Col. Coxe. |
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