Heirs Of Jonas
pp. 88-90 · Read in the full issue
M. Coe
Memories of Queen Emma
THERE is a reflection of the colourful days of last century in an official looking document issued recently by the Public Trust Office of New Zealand.
It ties in with one of the famous romances of the Central Pacific. It is a financial statement, showing how the conscientious Public Trustee disposed of £360, which was owed to the heirs of Jonas M. Coe, of Samoa.
It appears that between 1940 and 1946 the Administration of Western Samoa acquired 11 pieces of land from the es tate of the late Mr. Coe. The Public Trustee charged £9 for handling the matter; and it then sought the heirs of Mr. Coe, and distributed £351 among
them. Some of them got a one-sev6nty second share, amounting to £4/17/6.
Jonas M. Coe was an American; and, when about 23 or 24 years of age, he arrived in Western Samoa, about 1846, as a Commercial Agent of the United States. He left his mark in Samoa.
He married a well-born Samoan woman, Joana (or Lokor) about 1847: and, be tween that date and 1863, they had eight children. Two of them died young, and five of the remaining six became well known residents of New Guinea while it was still a German colony. One of the daughters was Emma Eliza, a woman of unusual personality and character. She married an English schooner captain named Forsayth, and bore him one son, J. M. C. Forsayth, about 1870. She then ran away from Forsayth, lived for a time with her brother William in Savaii, and then went off across the western Pacific with an Australian trading schooner cap tain named Farrell. They settled in the Duke of York islands, at Mioko, between 1870 and 1880, and all their trading and planting ventures prospered. Emma was joined there by her mother, her brothers,
Henry, William and John; and by h6r sister, Phoebe.
Farrell returned to Australia and died there, leaving his New Guinea property to Emma. Emma established herself at Ralum (New Britain) as a trader and planter, and became very rich and in fluential. She was closely associated with the highest officials of the German ad ministration.
William Coe was a fine type of man, and well-educated, but he did not remain very long in New Guinea. He distin guished himself during the “Calliope” hurricane in Apia in 1888 by saving many American sailors from drowning, and was rewarded with an American decoration and (some time after 1898) a high position.
After that, he was a hemp-grower in the Philippines.
John Coe lost his life in the Pead Islands in 1890; but Henry (who, as a lad, had been a cabin-boy in the service of the notorious Captain Bully Hayes and subsequently became a wanderer in the Pacific) lived for many years in New Ireland and New Britain.
At the turn of the century, “Queen”
Emma had become famous in the South west Pacific for her success, her riches and her hospitality. She was joined in New Britain by her son, J. M. C. Porsayth, who also became a successful merchant, and who ultimately retired, with a for tune, from New Guinea to Sydney, where he and his family became socially pro minent.
Mrs. Emma Porsayth ultimately married a German officer, Captain Paul Kolbe, and they sold out their interests to the German New Guinea Company for a huge sum. Captain and Mrs. Kolbe died in Monte Carlo in 1912, within a few hours of each other, in circumstances said to have been “mysterious.”
The first wife of Jonas Coe was still a striking woman when she joined her daughter Emma in New Britain in the ’eighties. She was held in high regard there, and was a notable character; she died at the age of 93. Jonas Coe had another family of at least six children by Elizabeth, also a Samoan. Some of them joined Emma in New Guinea, but the majority remained in Samoa.
Jonas Coe died in Apia in 1891, at the age of 69, and was the owner of con siderable property. It was the distribu tion of some of this property that brought about the Public Trustee’s financial state ment, referred to above. This is how the Public Trustee divided it up:— One-Twelfth Share (£29/5/-).
Phoebe Parkinson. (Queen Emma’s youngest sister. She married a Danish surveyor who went out to Samoa to the service of the Godeffroy firm, in the ’seventies. She died in New Ireland on May 28, 1944, during the Japanese in vasion.) Mary Allen; Lausa Malcolm; Nellie A.
L. Davidson; Robert J. Coe; Grace Schmidt; J. M. Forsyth (son of Queen Emma, who died in Sydney a few years ago).
One Twenty-fourth Share (£l4/12/6).
Emma Hoedfel; Maria Bayerlein; Katie Rasmussen.
One Thirty-sixth Share (£9/15/-).
Edith Kaumann-Juker; Caroline Schultz; Emma Kappel. (These are the three daughters of William Coe, all well known in New Ireland. Mrs. Kaumann- Juker and Mrs. Schultze died in New Ireland during the Jap occupation.) One Forty-eighth Share (£7/6/3).
Allice Doelinger; Maria Macco; Gustav Horgren; Fritz and O. Schaumkel; Elsa and Adolf Pelman; T. F. Miller.
One Seventy-second Share (£4/17/6).
Max, G., Effie and Lucy Penn.
The retiring Anglican Bishop of Carpehtaria, the Rt. Rev. S. H. Davis, said in Brisbane recently, that Queensland’s Education Department should take over teaching of Torres Strait islanders from
the Native Affairs Department, and that the franchise should be granted to the Islanders. Torres Strait Islanders are obliged to pay Federal income tax but were denied a vote.