The History of the Yakima Valley, Washington, Comprising Yakima, Kittitas and
Benton Counties, The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1919, Volume II, page 343

ARTHUR W. COFFIN.

Arthur W. Coffin is a member of the firm of Coffin Brothers, Incorporated,
owning and controlling various important business interests in Washington. He
makes his home at Yakima and from that point superintends his important invested
interests. He was born in Stockton, California, in the later part of the '50s,
a son of Captain Laban and Sarah Brown (Lyon) Coffin. His father was captain of
The  Flying Cloud, which sailed from Boston by way of California to China. He
first visited California in 1848. His wife was a sister of the Doctor Lyon who
put upon the market the famous tooth powder. Her father, Lemuel Lyon, was
captain of a trading vessel which sailed between Boston and San Francisco and he
also located at Stockton, California, about 1848. The Coffin family was
established on Nantucket Island, not for from Boston, in early colonial days and
representatives of the name founded the Coffin school, which is still in
existence. The father of Mr. Coffin of this review was for many years a ship
captain, sailing from California after his removal from Massachusetts, while
about 1854 he went to Hongkong, China, where he engaged in the ship chandlery
business. Later he brought the first troup of Chinese jugglers to the United
States and displayed them all over the country, playing at the same theatres as
Jennie Lind many times. In 1861 he and his father-in-law removed to Dallas,
Oregon, where they opened a store. Their establishment was flooded during the
high waters of 1862, when the waters overflowed the whole valley. In 1863 they
removed to The Dalles, Oregon, where they resided for many years. In the early
'70s Mr. Lyon was appointed as consul to Yokohama, Japan, and Mr. Coffin
accompanied him as vice consul, while his son, Arthur W. Coffin of this review,
acted as assistant postmaster of the American legation in Japan. They remained
in that country for eighteen months, Mr. Lyon passing away in Japan, after which
Captain Laban and Arthur W. Coffin returned to Oregon. Subsequently Captain
Coffin was appointed receiver of the land office at The Dalles and at a later
period he became a resident of Portland, Oregon, where both he and his wife
passed away.

Arthur W. Coffin largely acquired his education in the public schools of Oregon
and upon the return of the family from Japan he entered the employ of McFarland
& French, merchants at The Dalles, with whom he remained for ten years. Later he
opened a store in Arlington, Oregon, which he conducted for ten years, and in
1894 he became a resident of North Yakima, where he established a general
merchandise store under the firm style of Arthur Coffin & Brothers. Later this
became Coffin Brothers, Lester and Stanley Coffin being admitted to a
partnership. The general store was closed about 1908 and the Yakima Grocery
Company was organized. The firm of Coffin Brothers was also incorporated about
1891 and under that title they are now extensively engaged in the sheep, cattle
and land business. They have a fifty thousand acre tract of land operated under
the name of the Coffin-Babcock Land & Live Stock Company and they also have
large holdings in Idaho and elsewhere. They are extensively engaged in the
raising of stock, having for sale over twenty thousand head of range sheep and
two thousand cattle on their fifty thousand acres of fenced land near Wenatchee,
Washington. They make a specialty of handling the Lincoln and Romney breeds of
sheep, imported from New Zealand, and they also handle full-blooded Hereford
cattle. They deal in town sites, lands, city property, sheep wool, in produce,
horses, cattle, grain, loans and investments and have stores and warehouses at
various points in the states of Washington and Idaho. The Yakima Grocery Company
is owned by the Coffin Brothers, and the business conducted under the name of
the Coffin- Rundstrom Furniture Company is also controlled by Coffin Brothers.
The Coffin Brothers likewise own the Dean Clothing Company, a large retail
clothing concern of Yakima. They have also owned a large interest in the Yakima
Valley Bank and were among its organizers. They were likewise among the
organizers of the street railway company. As a young man Arthur W. Coffin aided
in surveying the Yakima Indian reservation into forty-acre tracts. His business
interests have constantly increased and developed anti he has reached a position
among the capitalists of the state. A man of determined purpose, he carries
forward to successful completion whatever he undertakes. In his vocabulary there
is no such word as fail. He works persistently and energetically, accomplishing
his purposes by honorable, straightforward methods and through intense business
activity, and the firm of Coffin Brothers has become a powerful one in trade
circles in Washington.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios Project in December 2007 by Jeffrey L. Elmer.
Submitter has no additional information about the subject of this article.