Born a Quaker in Salisbury, Pennsylvania, of Lindley Coates (1794–1856) and Deborah Simmons (1801–88), he was educated at Phillips Academy, Andover.

He purchased land on the bluffs above the Missouri River on Quality Hill to develop an upscale neighborhood.

In 1855 he married Sarah Walter Chandler, who was also from Pennsylvania and had come to the area with her family a year earlier.

Coates developed the Perry Place subdivision in Church Hill between 8th and 12th Streets in Kansas City and only sold to African-Americans.

Kersey Coates died at his home in Kansas City, Missouri, on April 24, 1887.