ST. FRANCIS EPISCOPAL CHURCH

OF RUTHERFORDTON, NC

LEGACY OF THE DESCENDANTS OF FRANKLIN COXE

HISTORY

St. Francis is an Episcopal Church today, but it was originally built by the Coxe

family as a private burial chapel.

CEMETERYDirectly behind the

church are the grave sites of the family members dating back to the early 1800’s.

Tombstones date from the earliest members of the family to live in Rutherford County to current times.

Franklin Coxe was born in 1839. He moved here from Pennsylvania to manage the “Speculation Land.”

Franklin married Mary Mills, who was a local girl. Her family built what is now known as

Green River Plantation.

Mary and Frank Coxe’s son, Francis Sidney would be influential in developing the railroads of western North

Carolina and Asheville and the tourism industry.

We are interested in the sisters of Francis Coxe. They were Daisy and Maude.

Now even though the ladies were born in Pennsylvania,they spent most of their lives at Coxe

Plantation in Rutherford County, NC. It is now known as Green River Plantation.

http://www.green-river.net/History.html

Daisy married a Mr. Wright from Pennsylvania and spent much of her

life there.When she became a

widow, however, she returned to North Carolina.

http://toto.lib.unca.edu/findingaids/mss/coxef/jpegs/coxe009.jpg

DAISY COXE WRIGHT

MAUDE COXE

Maude never married or left Rutherford County.

SIBLING RIVALRYThe interesting fact

about these two ladies, is that they

could not stand for the other one to outdo

them.They started an ongoing

contest to see who could do the most to

recognize their family!

This is where St. Francis Church comes into the

story.

FUNERARY CHAPELIn the late part of the 19th and the early part of the 20th centuries, the Coxe sisters hired an architect from New

York to design a private chapel for

their family’s funerals.This architect also

designed Grand Central Station in

New York City!http://img.allposters.com/6/LRG/27/2744/O2BTD00Z.jpg

That’s quite a fancy chapel for the small

town of Rutherfordton, North

Carolina!

Notice how the ceiling resembles and

unside-down boat. (Early Christians hid from the Romans in

upturned boats.)

IMPORTS

One imported Italian marble altar rails and an altar wall, hand-carved by master

artisans.

STAINED GLASS

The other ordered a stained glass

window to memorialize an ancestor.

BURIAL CHAPEL

Now, remember, this was originally just

a private family burial chapel.

At the back of the church next to the altar area you can see the chamber

for the coffins and bodies.

ADDITIONSBut once the other sister decided to add another window, then the other sister added

another, etc., they kind of ran out of

room.

So, the church was enlarged. They then

gave it to the Episcopal Diocese.

TIFFANYEventually, just plain

stained glass windows would not

do.

So these two sisters began buying Tiffany

Glass windows.

The three Tiffany windows are the last

religious stained glass the company

made.

TIFFANY CHARACTERISTICS

Tiffany glass is characterized by having

layers of color.

The colors are not as clear, but they have

much more depth and create more realistic

imagery.

They were also quite expensive!

This is the last

religious stained glass

window made by Tiffany Glass

Company.

These windows are very

important historicall

y in the field of

decorative arts.

MANUFACTURE OF STAINED GLASS

Stained glass windows consist of pieces of colored glass which

are held together with channels of lead or

copper.

Typically, the glass pieces represent a

piece of the image, like a jigsaw puzzle.

Ordinarily, each piece is a different color,

unless a large area of one color is present in

the design.

TRADITIONThe art of stained glass

originated during the late Middle Ages and Gothic Period, 1100-

1360 A.D.

Stained glass windows were built into the

large Gothic Cathedrals of Europe, especially in France.

http://www.greatdreams.com/sacred/chartres-windows.jpg

CONTINUUMThis tradition, like so

many others, is continued in

modern culture throughout the United States.

The Coxe sisters glorified their

family’s memory with the use of this

decorative art, also.