The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-03-07
MARRIED IN LINCOLN'S COAT.
auGuratiOn, but Col. Mccoy
E'Bribedo the Tailor.
From the Denver Times

One of the notables Of the conven-
ton of the National Stock Growers as
sCciation, now in session in the city, is
Joseph G. Mccoy, Kansan Of Scotch
Irish, Tennessee Kentucky descent. He
is man whose personal appearance
would make him conspicuous In any
assemblage. He is over six feet tall
and his hair is weather-worn gray
not the silvery gray which covers the
heads Of men who grow old in offices
or studios, but the taWny, vigorous gray
that an old man has who has spent his
life sailing seas or penetrating little
known lands.
You know he is a Southern man be-
fore he speaks. The soft hat, the big
Chesterfield coat, the high-heeled boots
with the soft calfskin bootleg wrin-
king down about the ankle, all pro-
claim the mans descent-and yet he
was married in, and still cherishes, the
coat that Abraham Lincoln was to
have worn when he was inaugurated.
The faces of men who have gone with
the vanguard into new countries, who
have toiled by day on the sunburnt
plains and lain by night under the open
skies-the faces of these men are a
book; and the book almost always
reads Of courage and honesty, of forth
tude and faith, and determination and
manhood
Col. McCoy's is one of these faces
and figures; almost a patriarch under
the tale of his years, and yet young
enough to glory in his strength.
One of the cOlOnelS meditative occu-
pations is to ascertain the strain of
blood in his breed. His people have
been Scotch-Irish through all the de-
scent. and his father was a Tennes-
seean and his mother a Kentuckian He
was born in Illinois and moved into
nd in, f1D Ii,
of heaven whose wife was she?" asks
the colonel with pathos big in his
voice.
The colonel took part in two i'm
portant campaigns in 1858. In one of
these he helped abe Lincoln to beat
Stephen A. Douglas. and in the other
he laid siege to a charming young
woman of the same province and car.
tured her. He celebrated the Lincoln
inauguration by marrying the maid,
and he married her clad in the coat
the Springfield tailor had made for
ABE" to be inaugurated in He got
the tailor to hustle up another coat for
Abe" in which to take the oath, and
when Abe was swearing in Washing
ton to do his duty by Uncle Sam,
young Mccoy was, on or about the
same time, meekly promising to love,
honor, and implicitly and forever
without question or Kicking to obey
a charming young woman of Abe'S
own town: and he was wearing the
coat Abe was to have worn.
Some of Col. McCoy's friends insist
that the garment fitted the groom bet
ter than it did the president, which,
they declare. is not saying that the
colonel would have made a better
president for the coat than Abe Lin
coin, but simply that he was possess cd
of better figure. That may be true,
for. in his young mans days the col
onel must have indeed looked a man
among men.
Col. Mccoy some years ago pub
lished a volume of "reminiscences of
the plains and it's men and herds, and
it is said to be rarely interesting in its
color and dramatic spirit The colonel
is now cattle inspector for the state Of
Kansas. at the Kansas City stock
yards, and has also established an
agency for the collection and adjust
ment of the excess charges of the yard
company above the rates fixed by the
Kansas law for feed and yardage
He has risen high on one side of for
tunes wheel, and held on long enough
to be thrown hard on the opposite
side. His friends now hope that he is