Dr. Louis M. Coon
Dr. Louis M. Coon, a practicing physician and surgeon of Denison, has gained an enviable reputation as a successful representative of the medical profession in Crawford county. He is also an extensive landowner, having sixteen hundred acres in this state and in South Dakota.
His birth occurred near Madison, Wisconsin, on the aoth of August, 1863, his parents being William W. and Mary E. (McHenry) Coon, the former a native of Ohio and the latter of Allegany county, New York.
Paul M. Coon, the paternal grandfather, was born in Oberlin, Ohio, and sold the first eighty-acre tract of land on the site chosen for Oberlin College. He was a successful agriculturist and quite an extensive landowner and operated both flour and sawmills. He was likewise a stone mason by trade and engaged in business as a contractor and builder. In the early days he went to Wisconsin, later removed to Minnesota and subsequently took up his abode among the pioneer settlers of Crawford county, Iowa. He passed away at Arion, where he had resided for some years, living to attain the venerable age of eighty-three. His wife, who bore the maiden name of Thirza Cole, survived him for two years, being eighty-two years old when called to her final rest. They were the parents of three children, two sons and a daughter, as follows: William W.; Paul; and Matilda, who gave her hand in marriage to John Oliver, a farmer and stock-raiser of Winfield, Kansas.
The maternal grandfather of our subject was a native of New York and followed farming and stock-raising throughout his active business career.
William W. Coon, the father of Dr. Louis M. Coon, left Ohio as a boy in company with his parents, the family home being established in Huntington, Indiana, where Paul M. Coon owned large flouring and sawmills. Subsequently the family removed to Albion, Dane county, Wisconsin, where William W. Coon attended Albion College. On leaving that town he went to Topeka, Kansas, and entered the employ of the government, freighting to Fort Hall, Oregon. When a young man of twenty he had crossed the plains four times. At that early period there was only one house on the present site of Denver, Colorado.
After returning to Albion, Wisconsin, he wedded Miss Lucinda M. Warren, who died soon afterward of typhoid fever, Mr. Coon also falling a victim to the disease. For his second wife he chose Mary E. McHenry, with whom he removed to Alden, Minnesota, there purchasing a farm on which he made his home for ten years. On the expiration of that period he came to Iowa and bought a farm on the present site of Arion, continuing to reside thereon until called to his final rest in August, 1909, when he had attained the age of seventyfour years. In religious faith he was a Baptist, as was also his wife, who died on the 20th of May, 1910, when seventy-four years of age.
William W. Coon enlisted at Madison, Wisconsin, at the time of the Civil war, but was not allowed to serve because of an injury in the shoulder which he had sustained when, as a boy, an Indian pushed him from a high embankment. He held various town offices in Minnesota and in Crawford county, Iowa, acting as school trustee, school director, etc. He was a gentleman of benevolent and charitable disposition and his home was a most hospitable one, always open for the reception of his many friends. Unto him and his wife were born three children, one son and two daughters: Louis M., of this review; Helen, who died at the age of sixteen years; and Jessie, who passed away when twenty-three years old. The last named was the wife of William Schouten and left a little daughter, Helen.
Dr. Louis M. Coon, whose name introduces this review, was a small child when he accompanied his parents on their removal to Freeborn, Minnesota, and a youth of twelve when he came with them to Iowa. He remained on his father's farm until eighteen years of age and obtained his early education in the district schools. Subsequently he pursued a course of study in Milton College at Milton, Wisconsin, and later attended the State University of Iowa. Having determined upon the practice of medicine as a life work, he entered the College of Physicians and Surgeons at St. Louis, Missouri, from which institution he was graduated in 1898.
He first located at Arion; but for the past four years has followed his profession in Denison, enjoying a constantly growing and lucrative practice. That he keeps in touch with the fraternity in its advancement, experimentation and experience, is indicated through his membership with the Crawford County Medical Society, the Iowa State Medical Society and the American Medical Association. He has always been a great speculator and now owns sixteen hundred acres of land in Crawford and Monona counties of Iowa and near Aberdeen, South Dakota, as well as near Sioux City, Iowa. On the 1st of January, 1889, Dr. Coon was united in marriage to Miss Ella Clark, a native of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and a daughter of Joseph and Eliza Clark, both of whom were born in New York. The Doctor and his wife have one child, William Louis Coon.
Fraternally Dr. Coon is identified with the Masons, belonging to Sylvan Lodge, No. 507, A. F. & A. M., while both he and his wife are members of the Eastern Star. He is likewise connected with the Modern Woodmen. In religious faith both he and his wife are Baptists. Dr. Coon is a man of marked individuality, of strong character and stalwart purpose, who in citizenship and professional circles and in private life commands the respect of all with whom he has been brought in contact. He served as mayor of the city while residing in Arion, and in Denison has been a member of the city council for the past three years and chairman of the finance committee.
Source: History of Crawford County, Iowa. Vol. II. Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1911.