Henry Waldo Coe (1857-1927) was born in Waupon, Wisconsin, on November 4, 1857. He and his parents moved to Morristown, Minnesota, when Coe was five.
After graduating from the local high school, Coe took courses at the University of Minnesota, and studied medicine with his father, Dr. Samuel Buel Coe. He graduated from Long Island (NY) College Hospital in July 1880, and moved to Mandan, North Dakota. Coe was the first physician to settle in North Dakota.
In 1884 Coe was elected to the last territorial legislature (1885) of Dakota Territory, before the territory was divided. Coe was elected president of the North Dakota state medical association (1890), and was appointed as superintendent of the state board of health. Coe also served as mayor of Mandan.
Coe moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1891. He specialized in nervous and mental diseases, and owned and operated Morningside Hospital in Portland. Coe served in the Oregon state senate in 1894 and served as president of the City and County Medical Association. In 1893 he established The Medical Sentinal, an independent medical magazine.
Coe met Theodore Roosevelt while living in Dakota, and the two formed a long-lasting friendship. The county Roosevelt lived in, Billings, was part of Coe’s district. Coe had a statue of Roosevelt made (by Phimister Proctor), which was donated to the city of Portland along with statues of George Washington (by Pompeo Coppini), Abraham Lincoln (by George Fite Waters), and Jeanne d’Arc (by Emmanuel Fremiet).
Coe was married twice and had three sons.
From the guide to the Henry Waldo Coe correspondence, 1907-1928, (Special Collections and University Archives, University of Oregon Libraries)
