... We recognize the benefits of his life among us, of his valued public service as a member of this body, his efficient business ability and leadership and of the high esteem in which he has been held as one of our oldest and most valued citizens...

Mr. Coffin was born near Annapolis, in Park County, Indiana, on August 4, 1838, and was a son of Thomas Chalkley and Mary (Harvey) Coffin. His father, born in 1813 near New Garden, North Carolina, served in the Civil War, and later became a manufacturer, operating a metal working shop. It was from him that his son learned the tinsmith’s trade. The family is descended from Tristram Coffin, who came to the New World in 1642, and was the first chief magistrate of Nantucket in 1671. Members of the family later became whalers there, and some of them served the colonial cause in the Revolution. Mary Harvey, whom Thomas C. Coffin married, was born on March 28, 1814.

Frank R. Coffin (as he was most commonly known in his community) spent most of his boyhood years at Richmond, Indiana, which was a center for Quaker settlement in that state. He received his formal education in a school conducted by the Society of Friends, remained in school until the age of seventeen, then learned the tin smithing trade in his father’s factory, and obtained his first vocational experience as an engineer apprentice on a steamer running between Louisville and Cincinnati on the Ohio River. After two years in this occupation, he left his native region for the West.

It was in 1861 that Mr. Coffin joined an emigrant train of covered wagons out of Omaha, on the overland route to California. When they arrived, he settled first at Yreka, and there followed the trade of tinsmith. Two years later he left Yreka for Portland, Oregon, and then, learning of the discovery of gold at Florence, set out for that camp and engaged in placer mining. He made another trip to Portland before coming to Boise. Mr. Coffin was also one of Captain Stanley’s party who were the first white men to explore the region north of Sun Valley, in the area now known as Stanley Basin. In his prospecting days, he was with a party of miners camped along what is now known as Grimes Creek, at the time Grimes was killed by the Indians. The creek and pass were named for the victim and the episode as one of the historic occurrences of early Idaho history. It was George Grimes who discovered gold in the Boise Basin.

Arriving in Boise in 1866, Mr. Coffin was among its earliest settlers, and he made the city his home for the remaining years of his life. His first employment there was with George Twitchell, who was engaged in the hardware business, and in 1873, he bought the store from his employer. Its management remained his major business interest for more than thirty years, and when he sold the hardware store in 1904, it was one of the largest and most completely stocked in the state.

A newspaper review of Mr. Coffin’s career, published at the time of his death, points out that “he was identified with nearly all of the pioneer industries.” He was one of five men who founded the Boise Artesian Hot and Cold water Company, and the last survivor among these founders. From the time of his retirement from the hardware business, he was active in the management of the Boise City National Bank, and served as its president until the end of his life.

He was the first treasurer of the state of Idaho. The only other public office he held was on the Boise City Council, of which he was a member at his death. As a pioneer settler, he took a particular interest in the historical background of the state, and was an active member of the Pioneer Society. He found time in his busy career for the work of authorship, and his writings on pioneer history have been highly valued. He was often urged to collect them for publication in book form. He was affiliated with the free and accepted Masons, being a member of Boise Lodge No. 2 and its past grand master. He was also a member of the Knights Templar commandery, and the El Korah Temple, Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine. In politics he was a loyal Republican.

At Portland, Oregon, on August 28, 1873 Franklin Rayle Coffin married Charlotte Irene Quivey. She was born at Evansville, Wisconsin on October 23, 1849, daughter of Leander and Henrietta (Robinson) Quivey. Her father, who was born in 1828, was an early settler in Boise, where he died in 1906. Mrs. Coffin herself died in that city on May 25, 1932. The couple were the parents of the following children: 1. Irene, who was born on December 27, 1874. She married Benjamin William Walker, and they became the parents of a daughter, Olivia Jane, born September 12, 1909. 2. Henrietta, born on January 7, 1877. On June 7, 1899, at the Presidio, San Francisco, she became the wife of Lt. Lucius Roy Holbrook, who is the subject of a separate biographical sketch accompanying. A career officer in the army, he advanced to the rank of major general. This couple became the parents of three children: Franklin Rayle Coffin, John Ames, and Lucius Roy. All are high-ranking officers in the Armed Services. 3. Elma, born December 27, 1878. She married James Edwin Clinton, and their children are Irene Coffin Clinton, James Edwin Clinton, Jr. and Frank Coffin Clinton. 4. Craig Hamilton, born January 4, 1883. He married Lela Tucker. Their children: Franklin Rayle, Craig Hamilton, and Thomas Chalkley Coffin.

Unto the last years of his life, Frank R. Coffin remained an active influence in Boise and one of its most devoted citizens. His powers were not impaired with the years. An observer wrote of the man at the time of his death: “None would take him to be eighty-two years of age, everything about him spelling vigor. Not only was he young in enthusiasm, but his looks and all his actions belied his years.” His fellow members of the city council paid tribute to his influence in the words: “His honorable and useful life in the community has been an inspiration to all who knew him.” His death occurred in his home city on May 20, 1920.

HISTORY OF IDAHO, Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc., New York, Volume III, p.462