Marcus Coombs

COOMBS WOODFORD

Posted By: Connie Swearingen (email)
Date: 4/12/2010 at 21:59:46

Woodbury County History 1984

Marcus and Olive (Woodford) Coombs
By Opal Gunderson

Anthony Coombs was born in France about 1642. He came to America and settled near Bath, Maine, where he bought land from the Indians. The deed was dated May 29, 1660.

The family traces its ancestors to the Mayflower. Richard Warren and Francis Cook came to America on the Mayflower in 1620. Warren’s daughters, Sarah, married Francis Cook. Cook’s daughter, Mary, married John Thompson. Thompson’s daughter, Mary, married Thomas Taber. Taber’s son, Joseph, married Elizabeth Spooner. Their son, Peter, marreid Sarah Jinkins. Their duaghter, Mary, married Ithamer Coombs. Their son, Jethro, married Betsy Gibbs. Their son, Marcus Jethro Coombs, was the head of the Coombs family in Sergeant Bluff, Iowa. He was born in Jamaica, Vermont, March 7, 1832.

Marcus Coombs left Vermont in 1853, coming to the end of the railraod at Galena, Illinois, then walked to Waverly, Iowa, and came to Woodbury, Iowa (now Sergeant Bluff) on horseback. He went back to Waverly that fall and helped to build a flour mill. He came west again the next spring. This time he had a tea, of horses. His brother, Edmond, was with him. They took up land across the river west of Dakota City. Edmond did the farm work and Marcus worked at his trade as a carpenter. He did worked in Sioux City and on a fort in Dakota territory.

In 1860, Marcus Coombs built a house for Luther Woodford. He hand planed all the face boards, tongue and grooved all the floor boards, made all the windows and doors except the front door which came up from Council Bluffs by steamboat. It took a year to build the house for which he received the sum of $500.

He married Olive Caroline Woodford on April 15, 1861. There were seven children born to them, two of whom died in infancy (Mary Almira and Alma Bertha).

Lillie Mae, born January 11, 1866, married John Edgcumbe on September 3, 1887, and died March 20, 1928 at Portland, Oregon. They had four children, one died in infancy. The names of their children are, Olive Mary, Florence Emma, Edith Bessie and William Marcus. (Edith died in infancy.)

Emma Amelia, born September 19, 1867, married Fred Hall, August 10, 1887. She died September 9, 1945. They had five chidlren, three of whom died in infancy (a son, Harold, and Esther). Helen Mae and Roland Arthur were the other two children.

Luther Jethro was born March 28, 1871. He married Arabella Hamilton on August 28, 1894. He died September 24, 1948. They had five children: Arthur Jethro, Ruby Marie, Dora May, Paul Hamilton and Percy Luther.

Charles Franklin was born March 11, 1874. He married Lucile Sheldon on December 24, 1898. They had two children, Opal Harriet and Maurice Melville.

Bessie Belle was born May 16, 1880. She marrried Alverly Tuttle on May 16, 1899. They had five children: Willis (who died in infancy), Elsie Ardis, Laurence Coombs, Gladis Maurine and Miriam Olive.

The Marcus Coombs family lived on the Nebraska Homestead where two girls were born. They died a week apart in 1865. The same year the grasshoppers took their crops so they moved back to Iowa a land from Luther Woodford, living in a log cabin.

Sergeant Bluff in 1870, where they lived in a three-room house till 1882. They they moved to a brick house built by Mr Coombs on the north side of the farm. In 1897, he retired from the farm and moved to a place just south of Sergeant Bluff, wehre Mrs Coombs in Oak, Iowa, on December 16, 1921. If he had lived until March, he would have been ninety years old.