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1907 Past and Present Biographies

William Frederick Coltina

William Frederick Coltina has passed the allotted span of three score years and ten and has reached the seventy-seventh milestone on life’s journey. He now makes his home on a farm of eighty acres in Washington township, Greene county, which is far removed from the place of his birth. He first opened his eyes to the light of day in Prussia, Germany, on the 24th of July, 1830, his parents being Christopher and Mary Coltina. His father spent his life as a Prussian soldier, being connected with the army for many years.

Mr. Coltina of this review was well educated in the German tongue. In early life he learned and followed the cabinet-maker’s trade, but thinking to find still better business opportunities in the new world, he crossed the Atlantic to the United States in 1870. Making his way into the interior of the country, he settled first at Rock Island county, Illinois, where he was employed on a railroad and in various kinds of work until 1876. In that year he came to Greene county and with the money which he had saved from his earnings he bought eighty acres of land, on which he still resides. Years have passed and his labors have transformed this into an excellent farm, from which he now derives a good annual income, for the fields bring forth rich crops.

Mr. Coltina is married and has a daughter, Minnie. For many years his political allegiance was given to the democracy, but in recent years he severed his connection with that party and joined the ranks of the republican party, of which he is now a stalwart advocate. For six years he served as school director and the cause of education finds in him a warm friend, but aside from this he has never held nor desired public office. He belongs to the German Lutheran church and has lived an active, upright and honorable life. He feels that he made no mistake in crossing the Atlantic to the new world, but on the contrary found here the advantages which he sought and which have been so utilized as to gain for him a place among the substantial residents of the community in which he makes his home.

Transcribed from "Past and Present of Greene County, Iowa Together With Biographical Sketches of Many of Its Prominent and Leading Citizens and Illustrious Dead,"
by E. B. Stillman assisted by an Advisory Board consisting of Paul E. Stillman, Gillum S. Toliver,
Benjamin F. Osborn, Mahlon Head, P. A. Smith and Lee B. Kinsey, Chicago: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company, 1907.

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