Rash's Surname Index
Notes for Kersey COATES
COATES, KERSEY, pioneer, was born Sept. 15, 1823, in Salisbury, Pa. He located in Kansas City, and in 1857, when the city began to show signs of business life and activity, Col. Coates uniting his efforts with those of other enterprising citizens, newspapers were established, railroads projected, favorable legislation was secured, and important municipal improvements were started, the result of which was a stream of migration that speedily filled up Kansas City. He died April 24, 1887.
Kersey Coates was a gentleman of slight build and elegant manner. From 1854, the year he arrived in Kansas City, Coates was a leader of the young town's influential Northern element. Everything he did, everything he touched exuded style and quality. Coates was born September 15, 1823 to a wealthy Quaker family in Pennsylvania. There, after a proper schooling, he practiced law.
Within two years after settling here he was a director of the recently organized railroad company and a partner in one of the town's first banks. He began investing in real estate on the city's West Side bluffs and his attractive neighborhood there soon became the most fashionable residential address in town-dubbed Quality Hill.
When civil war seemed imminent, Coates, a staunch Unionist, joined the battalion of his fellow Pennsylvanian, Kansas City newspaperman Robert T. Van Horn. The foundation of what was to become the Coates House Hotel stabled horses of his Union forces.
Following the war years, Coates, Van Horn and Charles E. Kearney brought the railroads to Kansas City. That signal event led to construction of the Hannibal Bridge in 1869, making Kansas City the transportation gateway to the West.
Kersey Coates died April 24, 1887 at age 63, still the gentlest of men, leaving an estate of two million dollars.
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