John Coffey was born in Piqua, Ohio in 1852. He liked to tell people that before he got into the show business he was a practicing physician. But John never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Actually, John took up the tonsorial trade and practiced it for a good fifteen years before he decided to exhibit.
John married a local school teacher, Mary Evelyn Curttright, in 1875. The happy couple were soon blessed with their first child and named him Centennial, in honor the the National celebration taking place that year. About 1877 the Coffeys moved to Iowa, eventually settling in Cedar Rapids. In the years to come the family continued to grow so that by 1881 another six children were added to the Coffey brew.
But sometime during all this something happened.
For no apparent reason, John began to grow thin. |
