The miracle of cat miracle - coleman | miracle

Updated: Oct 13, 2022

​Sarah Catherine “Cat” Miracle, was born February 15, 1841 in Clay County, Kentucky. She is my 3rd great grandmother, and I am eager to share more about her because she seems like quite the character!

Cat was the 5th child of 11 born to Abraham Miracle (1809-1885) and Fannie Wilder (1813-1865). It was said that she had black eyes, a claim I was dubious of until I saw some of her male relatives listed on draft cards as having black eyes also.

Photo: Sarah Catherine "Cat" (Miracle) Coleman. Taken some time between 1912 and 1923.

Cat married Joshua Oaks Coleman Jr. (1832-1916) February 28, 1859 when she was 18 years old. They lived in Jackson County, Kentucky at the time. Later they lived in Arkansas and by the time Cat was 37, her and Joshua had 6 children – The youngest, Nancy Jane, was the only girl. ​

Photo: Joshua Oaks Coleman Jr. and Sarah Catherine "Cat" (Miracle) Coleman.

Sometime between 1903 and 1907, Cat, Joshua, their youngest son Edward Sylvester “Pat” Coleman, and his son, William “Will” Oaks, moved west. Their youngest son, Benjamin Franklin Coleman (1876-1914) had tuberculosis and moving to a drier climate was said to help with that. Their other sons James Reed “Jim” Coleman (1862-1945), Abraham Joshua Coleman (1866-1947), and Levi Webster “Lee” (1869-1949) came along too. In fact, the only child they left behind was Nancy Jane, as she had married James Jackson Ward and were working on a family of their own by this time.

Their first stop was Paden, Oklahoma, which was very much the wild west. They were living there at the time that Oklahoma became a state. Men wore their guns and outlaws were killed and displayed at the train station as a warning to others.

Abraham and Lee stayed in Paden, but by 1910, most of the family had moved to Rocky Ford, Colorado. Shortly after, they dispersed again. Jim and Lee stayed in Rocky Ford while the others continued west.
Cat, her husband Joshua, their son Pat, and their grandson Will moved to Westcliffe, Colorado in the spring of 1912. Ben decided Canon City, CO was where he would try to get healthy again, and he made it until 1914 where he passed away from the disease at 37 years old.

Just north of Deweese Reservoir, Pat claimed his homestead. Their house had three bedrooms and they all lived there together. Joshua Oaks Coleman passed away January 13, 1916 at the age of 83. His cause of death is listed as “paralysis,” which means he likely died of a stroke. ​

Photo: Cat (Miracle) Coleman sits at the center holding Ethel Duncan. Edward "Pat" Coleman sits next to her with Ruth Duncan. Belle and Jim stand in the back.

Most of what I know about Cat comes from her granddaughter-in-law, Bessie Martha (Carr) Coleman, who lived with her for quite a long time. She started as hired help shortly after Joshua’s death. Cat was already in her 70s by then and well-set in her ways.

Cat always had two things with her: her corncob pipe, filled with a mixture of mullen and tobacco, and a great big Bible. She knew “The Good Book” by heart and was very passionate about the Word. There was a story Pat shared in which Cat was reading the Bible aloud while their hired help (before Bessie) was there. Cat got up out of her chair and started preaching and clapping her hands and walking back and forth across the floor. The girl thought Cat had gone crazy and it terrified her. She ran out of the house without even grabbing her belongings and never came back. Relations in Arkansas at the time attended the Primitive Baptist Church, and I suspect this is where Cat’s religion came from as well, although there was no such church near her new home.

Cat would often fall asleep in her chair in her advanced age. Often times her corncob pipe would fall out of her mouth and thumb on the Bible that was inevitable in her lap which would then wake her up. There was a time though that the pipe missed the book and burned a big hole in her dress. It was lucky she wasn’t alone at the time and one of her son’s (perhaps Abraham) dumped a bucket of water in her lap and put out the smoldering flames.

Although clocks had been around for quite some time by now, Cat did not want or need one. Instead she had put several tacks and nails in the floor near the south-facing door. With the door open and the sun shining in, she could see where the rays fell on the tacks and know the time. She even had different ones for different seasons.

Will liked cars and motorcycles. He had a motor bike with a sidecar attached. Unfortunately the bolts on the sidecar would wiggle lose and sometimes it would fly off. Probably some time before that became a regular occurrence, they managed to get Cat into the sidecar. The medium format negative from which the photo below was scanned isn’t the best quality, but I think Pat is the one in the driver’s seat. Cat, of course, has ahold of her Bible. I don’t blame her – after hearing stories of the sidecar coming loose, she might have needed it! ​

Photo: Cat Coleman in the sidecar of an early motorcycle. She has her Bible for good measure. Her grandson, W.O. Coleman is in the driver's seat.

Cat had her own homestead too. It was just east of Pat’s and they built a little shack and outhouse on the land for her. She had it just long enough to get the patent and then sold it. I had heard somewhere that she wasn’t all that interested in the land herself, but both Will and Pat had already filed for their homesteads, and they really wanted to have that tract as well. Cat was eligible to stake her own claim, so Pat and Will helped her file and prove up the land under Cat’s name.

In the 1920s, Cat had returned to Oklahoma. By this time, her daughter Nancy Jane had brought her family from Arkansas to join the others in Paden. Lee was still there with his large family too. I don’t have any stories from her time there, but maybe some other relatives do and will share with us all.

Sarah Catherine "Cat" Miracle Coleman died in Paden, Oklahoma on April 23, 1930. She is buried there in the Oakdale Cemetery. ​