Irene is the mother of five children. She has nine grandchildren and
eight great-grandchildren. Her health is fair, but her eyesight is poor.
It is her delight to entertain visitors and is conversant upon matters
pertaining to slavery and reconstruction days.
REFERENCE
1. Irene Coates, 2015 Windle Street, Jacksonville, Florida
FEDERAL WRITERS' PROJECT
American Guide, (Negro Writers' Unit)
Martin D. Richardson, Field Worker
Grandin, Florida
NEIL COKER
Interesting tales of the changes that came to the section of Florida
that is situated along the Putnam-Clay County lines are told by Neil
Coker, old former slave who lives two miles south of McRae on the road
Grandin.
Coker is the son of a slave mother and a half-Negro. His father, he
states, was Senator John Wall, who held a seat in the senate for sixteen
years. He was born in Virginia, and received his family name from an old
family bearing the same in that state. He was born, as nearly as he can
remember, about 1857.
One of Coker's first reminiscences is of the road on which he still
lives. During his childhood it was known as the 'Bellamy Road,' so
called because it was built, some 132 years ago, by a man of that name
who hailed from West Florida.
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