Coleman, William J. (1839-1895)

COLEMAN

Posted By: Karon Velau (email)
Date: 9/16/2019 at 16:02:37

William J. Coleman
Sep 21, 1839 - Aug 27, 1895

(From the 1891 Biographical History of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, p.611)
W. J. COLEMAN, of section 32, Carson Township, is a well known and honored citizen
of the county, who came here in 1881 from Mills County, Iowa. He was born September 21, 1839, in Jo Daviess County, Illinois, the son of Joseph and Milly (COZAD) COLEMAN, the former a native of New Jersey and one of the early settlers in Jo Daviess County, settling there about the time of the Black Hawk war; and the latter was a native of Ohio. In 1844, the parents removed to Fulton County, Illinois, where they were among the first settlers in that party of the county. They reared five children, four daughters and one son, W. J. being the third child and only son. The father died one year after removal to Fulton County at the age of forty-four years, and the mother died in 1884, at the advanced age of seventy-two years.
W. J. COLEMAN was reared in Fulton County until 1870, when he came to Pottawattamie County, near Macedonia, and from here he returned to Mills County, near Henderson, where he bought a small farm. In 1880 he returned to this county and bought his present farm of 160 acres. He was married February 21, to Miss Cynthia E. ANDERSON, who was born, reared and educated in Fulton County, and was a successful teacher before her marriage. She was the daughter of Henry R. ANDERSON, a native of Madison County, Kentucky, near the old capitol, the son of John ANDERSON, who was the son of an old Revolutionary soldier, who, with five uncles and fourteen cousins, were killed at the battle of Cowpens, which nearly exterminated the whole ANDERSON race. His wife and aunts went to the battlefield and picked out their dead bodies and had them buried. The mother of Mrs. COLEMAN was Anna (WOLFE) ANDERSON, a native of Greene County, Ohio, the daughter of John WOLFE, the first white child born on the James River and her mother was Mary (McCOLEY) WOLFE. They had nine children, of whom Mrs. COLEMAN was the eldest of five sons and four daughters. They moved to Mills County, where the mother died in 1874, at the age of fifty-eight years and one month; the father died in May 1885, at the age of sixty-seven years and three months. Mr. And Mrs. COLEMAN have one son, Joseph F., who was born in Fulton County, Illinois, February 18, 1868, and resides at home. Politically, Mr. COLEMAN is a Republican, and he and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, Pleasant View, of the Macedonia circuit and both are workers in the Sabbath school, of which Mrs. COLEMAN is a teacher.