Henry W. "Harry" Coe, Jr., and his brother Charles were both born in what is now San Jose, on lands owned by their father, Henry W. Coe, Sr., a transplanted New Hampshire native.  Harry was born on April 17, 1860.  In 1905, when Harry was 45 years old, he and his wife, Rhoda Dawson Sutcliffe, moved into the Pine Ridge Ranch house.  Several years later, their children, Henry Sutcliffe Coe and Sada Sutcliffe Coe, were born and lived with Harry and Rhoda at the ranch. Sada loved the Coe ranchland and the ranching way of life, and she spent her youth and many of her adult years on the ranch.  She married Charles Robinson, and beginning in the 1930s she and her husband managed the ranch for her father.  After she and Charles divorced, Sada operated the ranch on her own for several years. Henry W. Coe, Jr., died on March 18, 1943, and left the Pine Ridge Ranch to Sada's brother, Henry Sutcliff Coe, rather than to Sada.  Sada's brother said the decision was based on their father's belief that the ranch was too much for a single woman to manage. In 1948, Sada's brother sold the ranch to the Beach Land and Cattle Company of Fresno County.  During its short-lived ownership of the land, the company built the network of roads that we hike, bike, and ride on in Coe Park today.  Sada repurchased the Pine Ridge Ranch in 1950, and she operated it through the spring of 1951 as a successful working cattle ranch. In 1953, Sada donated the 12,230-acre ranch as parklands to Santa Clara County.  She wanted the new parkland to be preserved as a memorial to her father and the other early cattle pioneers in California.  If you follow what we now call the Monument Trail about a half mile up to the top of the ridge behind the ranch house, you'll find a monument that Sada put in place over 40 years ago.  These are the words she had inscribed on the monument: To the memory of Henry Willard Coe April 17, 1860 - March 18, 1943, known to his friends as Harry Coe, this park is respectfully dedicated in the year of our Lord 1955. May these quiet hills bring peace To the souls of those who are seeking. Sada Coe visited the park several times before her death in November 1979. She is buried in Morgan Hill's Mount Hope Cemetery. To learn more about Sada . . .