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CAPTAIN E[dward]. H. COLCORD, who has been a resident of Vinton since May, 1866, has identified himself prominently with the city and for a number of years was a merchant and in later years has attended to a large business in real estate and fire insurance, and also connected with pension claims. He represents the Norwich Union Fire Society.
He was born at Salem, Massachusetts, January 6, 1836, belonging to an old New England family of English descent which has resided in America since the seventeenth century. His parents, Edward H. and Sarah H. (Parsons) Colcord, were both born in Massachusetts. In 1843 the father brought his family out to Wisconsin, locating in the wilderness at the site of Southport, sixteen miles from Kenosha. In the fall of 1847 his wife returned to New Hampshire, and in the following spring the father and son also returned. For two years they lived at the old home at Salem, and then resided in Concord, New Hampshire, from 1850 until the spring of 1854. At the latter date Edward H. Colcord located in Geneseo, Illinois, where he and his wife died, his wife during the Civil war and the former a number of years later. The father was a veterinary surgeon and practiced his profession in connection with farming. Captain Colcord has a brother and sister living: Joseph is a county official at Huron, South Dakota, where for many years he was in the grocery business, and is a widower; Miss Esther A. P., who for a number of years was a dressmaker in Chicago, makes her home with her brother in Vinton.
Captain Colcord for a time attended a private school in Wisconsin, and afterwards was in school in New Hampshire. He learned the blacksmith trade at Concord and Exeter, New Hampshire, and remained in that state for several years after his father's family moved to Geneseo, Illinois. When he finally came to Illinois in 1857 he took up clerking, and later engaged by himself in the grocery business. Not long after the war broke out he sold his business and enlisted at Geneseo in August, 1862, in Company K, One hundred and twelfth Illinois Infantry. He was elected second lieutenant of his company, in January, 1863, was commissioned first lieutenant, and the following April became captain of the same company. During the greater part of his service he was in the Twenty-third Corps of the Army of the Ohio. He began his service with the battles at Knoxville and Richmond, Kentucky, then was through east Tennessee and in the Atlanta campaign, returned with General Thomas in pursuit of Hood and was in the battles of Franklin and Nashville. After that he was sent to Washington and from there to Fort Fisher, Wilmington, Roseborough and Raleigh, and after almost three years of service was mustered out in July, 1865, at Chicago. At Eutaw Creek he was severely wounded in the abdomen and received other wounds, and still carries one bullet which the physicians feared to remove.
Captain Colcord remained in Chicago until the spring of 1866, being in poor health, and then became a permanent resident of Vinton. He was engaged in the dry-goods business until 1878, and since then has dealt in real estate and insurance and has attended to a number of pension clients.
The P. M. Coder Post No. 98, G. A. E., at Vinton, was organized by Captain Colcord, and he served as its adjutant for the first three years, was then commander for one year and again as adjutant about seven years. In politics he has always been a Republican. He was elected and served two terms as a member of the Vinton city council, and has manifested public-spirited citizenship throughout his residence in this county.
Captain Colcord married, in Wayne county, Illinois, in January, 1868, Miss Ruth A. Perrine. Her sister was the wife of Mr. S. H. Watson, for many years a banker of Vinton, beginning before the war, who erected the building now occupied by the People's Savings Bank; also Watson's Opera House, a fine residence and other buildings. Mrs. Colcord, who was born in Ohio, met her husband while visiting in her brother-in-law's home at Vinton. She is a member of the Woman's Relief Corps.
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