Portrait of Charles Henry Coe. Captain Charles Henry Coe was born on February 3, 1856. He moved with his family to Jacksonville, Florida and began working in the newspaper industry at age 18. In 1877, Charles (age 21) started his first newspaper, the Florida Star, in New Smyrna (sold in 1880) and in 1891 started the newspaper the Highlands Star in Highlands, North Carolina. In 1887, he married Emma Sophia Johnson (1846-1931) and they had two children, Mayne Reid Coe (1888-1980) and Frederick Franklin Coe (1890-1893). After living in several places, Coe settled in Washington D.C., working at the Government Printing Office until he retired in 1921.
In 1878 he "excavated" an Indian mound near New Smyrna; thereafter he explored and "collected" frequently along the coast of the U.S., writing several books and many articles chiefly about natural history and amateur archeology. His book, Red Patriot : The Story of the Seminoles (1898), detailed the unfair treatment of the Seminole Indians by the U.S. Government. After his retirement, he often spent his winters on his boat, the Buccaneer II. In 1948, Coe moved to Jupiter, Florida where his son Mayne Coe ran a motel and died 1954 at age 98.
