Randall, Dr. Dale B.J.

Robert James Coffey (1839-1910): An Unsung Pennsylvania Soldier and Writer

Robert James Coffey, a career newspaperman and prolific writer of verse, was born on 14 April 1839 in a place, he later remembered, "Where the landscape is wild and grand; / In that heaven-blessed state of William Penn, /In the Valley of Cumberland." More precisely, he was born in the village of Cleversburg, a little southeast of Shippensburg.