Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1904-01-06
Triple lie oi Col. Coke.

a"The story told by old letters, di
aries and other documents discov
cred in settling the estate of til,
late Colonel Frank Coke, @. s. Al.
who died here recently, has giyer
the citizens of Asheville additional
proof Of the truth of the old sayina
that truth is stranger than Rctlon.'
From the records It appears that
Colonel Coke served in the Union
and Confederate armies at the same
time, fought against himself IN many
battles, ran away from himself on
more than one occasion, was twice
shot to death, and liyod To- q ripe old
age, haunted always by the fear that
he had killed himself.
Colonel Coxe's case is probably
unique in thu history Of the Civil
war. Additional interest also at.
tashes to the personality of the man
from the fact that his great-great-
great great-great- reat-grand-father
owned all the land which now com.
prises the States of South Carolina,
Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi,
Texas, Arkansas, New Mexico and
Louisiana.
Col. Coke was born on November
IL, 1889, in Rutherford, N. O., and
there he grew to manhood He was
accustomed to athletic sports of all
kinds and attained some fame as a
local Sampson. He was thesbiggest
of family of big men, and when
only 18 years old stood feet s
inches in his bare feet and weighed
$50 pounds. The Ordinary feats of
strong men were play to him, and
he was often called upon by his
friends to show his proficiency in
twisting horseshoes out of shape,
bending half dollars and performing
other feats of skill and strength.
When the Civil war broke out,
Coke got commission as Colonel in
the Confederate army, it being gene
rally supposed by his friends and
acquaintances that he could lick a
whole army of Yanks alone and un-
aided. He was wealthy man and
after the war had been in progress
for some time he received informa-
tion that certain large property in
terests that he had in Pennsylvania
were in danger of fconfiscation by the
Federal authorities, Col. Coke told
his troubles TO President Jefferson
Davis, who relieved him from duty
and gave him permission to go
North on indefinite leave of absence.
The colonel was a red-hot secession
list; 80 rather than weaken the Con.
federate army by the loss of man
he hired substitute to serve for him
while he was absent.
He had only been in Pennsyl-
vania a short time, playing the part
of a Union sympathizer--when he
hired another substitute, Union
man this time. Soon afterward,
owing to troubles with the Confede-
rate government, he left the United
States and went to Paris, where he
lived for many years.
The soldiers who served as sub
stitutes for Colonel Coke in the
Union and Confederate armies were
both killed in the same battle-one
of the last of the great conflict-and
Mir. Coke ever afterward considered
himself in way personally RESPONSE
BILE for their deaths.
In his later years he grew fanciful
enough to imagine that as the two
substitutes were killed in the same
battle they might have shot one an
other in some way. His morbid be.
lief on this point was strengthened
when years afterward he looked up
the details of the battle and found
that during the conflict the regiment
in which the Northern substitute
was enrolled had been opposed
through long hard-fought day by
the regiment in which the southern
substitute was serving.
Colonel Coke died with this con-
viction firm in bis mind as is shown
by the letters and papers recently
discovered. d."-Asheville Letter to
the New York Sun.
The many friends of G.. H. Hansah