Harrison County Iowa Genealogy

HISTORY OF HARRISON COUNTY, IOWA, 1891
BIOGRAPHIES
Page 491
DR. GEORGE W. COIT

Dr. George W. COIT, a practicing physician at Missouri Valley, whose name was associated among the early pioneer band of that vicinity, and who has been a constant practitioner there since November, 1866, by reason of his long residence and skillful practice, is perhaps as widely known as any man in his community, and very naturally finds a place in the history of his county, among its representative men. While the people of Harrison County have known this professional man for just a quarter of a century, in making a biographical record, it is necessary, and especially interesting in this case, to review his earlier years, before coming to the Missouri Slope, as well as to speak of his ancestry, who were prominent in the early history of this Republic.

Dr. COIT was born December 9, 1836, at Bloomfield, N. J. he is the son of Nathaniel and Marian (PLACE) COIT. On the father's side he is able to trace his ancestry back to 1632, when John COIT of Glamourganshire, Wales, emigrated to Gloucester, Mass., and his son, John, Jr., with his parents, left Massachusetts with a colony, for New London, Conn.

They had been ship builders for generations, and when the revolutionary War broke out, our subject's grandfather, Samuel COIT, then eighteen years of age, joined the Federal forces against the Tories, and was wounded at Ft. Griswold, the surrender of the fort having been made possible by the treachery of Benedict ARNOLD. The paternal grandmother of our subject, then sixteen years of age, fled, with the balance of the family, to the forest, while the town was being burned by the British. Her name was Sylvia LEWIS, before her marriage, and all the COITS in this country are collateral branches of the same family tree.

Nathaniel COIT, father of our subject, was twenty-seven years of age, when the War of 1812 broke out. He served during the war, in a New York Regiment, until peace was proclaimed. During the Civil War, he desired to enlist but was too old. He died in 1866, aged eighty years.

The PLACE families were of French extraction, and resided on Long Island, near Hempstead. Grandfather PLACE was also in the Revolutionary war; he possessed a patriotic spirit, and was a highly respected gentleman. Our subject's father, Nathaniel COIT, was a merchant at New York City for thirty-five years, and was one of the first to build a home in New Jersey. Our subject's mother died in 1876; she and her husband were the parents of sic children, four sons and two daughters, four of whom are living, our subject being the youngest of the family. Rev. John S. COIT, brother of George, died in Boone, Iowa, in 1867, and Rev. C. S. COIT, another brother, is an active minister in Newark, N. J., and has been preaching for forty-five years. He has never been absent from his pulpit, with the exception of a few Sabbaths, while in Europe. Mrs. Sarah C. WINNE, a widowed sister, resides at Bloomfield, N. J.; E. E. COIT, after spending several years as Captain of a vessel, settled in Ohio, where he engaged in farming, and in 1880, came to St. John'' Township, Harrison County, Iowa, locating where he now resides.

Our subject received his education by attending the common schools of New Jersey, after which he attended the Seminary at Cazenovia, N. Y.; Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.; he then spent two years as a contract surgeon, during the Rebellion, after which, in August, 1865, he returned to New York, spent the winter at Bellevue Hospital Medical College, graduating from it in March, 1866. We next find the Doctor in Harrison County, Iowa, from which locality he has not been absent during all these twenty-five years to exceed six weeks.

Politically, he is what may be termed a logical and patriotic Democrat. Among the local offices urged upon him may be mentioned, the presidency of the School Board, which he has held for Twenty years, and is the present incumbent. He is the president of the Missouri Valley Electric Light Company; president of the Board of United States Examining Surgeons; vice-president of the Medical Society of the Missouri Valley; one of the vice-presidents of the National Association of Railway Surgeons, and chief surgeon of the Fremont, Elkhorn & Missouri Valley Railroad and the Sioux City & Pacific Railway.

He belongs to the Masonic Order, Valley Lodge No. 232, at Missouri Valley, and Anchor Lodge No. 66, of the K. of P. Both he and his wife are members of the Presbyterian Church, and were two of the charter members of that church, which was organized in 1868, with seven original members.

Dr. COIT was married April 23, 1867, to Anna ARMSTRONG CLARKE, at Hudson City, N. J. Mrs. COIT was born in Wheeling, Va., and her father, John F. CLARKE, was a descendant of Elizabeth ZANE, who carried the powder in her apron to Ft. Henry, for her Uncle, Col. ZANE, and thus saved the fort. Mrs. COIT'S father was the New York agent for the Pennsylvania Railroad for nearly forty years; he died still holding the office, at the age of seventy-nine years. Her mother died when she was fourteen years of age.

Dr. and Mrs. COIT'S home has been blessed with two children, Nita, born April 14, 1868, and married to Herbert D. ALLEE, of Omaha, October 14, 1891, who is assistant auditor of the Burlington and Missouri Railway in Nebraska; John CLARKE, born June 22, 1872, and now engaged in the wholesale hardware business in Omaha, Neb.

There are but few sketches in this volume that present to the reader the outline of a man's life so full of useful lessons, and whose family history is so replete with historic and national events, as the one of whom we have just written. It will be observed that Dr. COIT descended from a sturdy line of ancestors, who were fired with patriotic zeal, and were of a high and intelligent type; also, that early in life he chose his profession, attended the best schools and colleges preparatory to practicing his calling, and he has not, like many others, shifted from one locality to another.

In health we care but little for doctors, especially for their formulas or prescriptions, but there is sure to come a time when the brow becomes feverish, and when our vital forces refuse to perform their functions, a time when life's thread seems almost snapped asunder. At such a time we seek after the best medical men�the successful physician. We are anxious that the "good doctor" watch by our bedside, lest the grim messenger, Death, make his appearance and call us hence.

Dr. COIT, with other members of the medical fraternity, has been compelled to cross trackless prairies, face "blizzards" from the icy north-west, that too, with no hope of reward, but only to relieve, if possible, those who pleaded for their coming and their counsel. When the names of the pioneer physicians, with those of a more modern day, are referred to it is hoped and believed, that the hearts which perhaps now beat in robust health, will be touched, and at least all of the early settler readers, who with the subject of this sketch, have forded the same unabridged streams in summer time, and plowed through the same snow-drifts in winter, will say, "God bless the Doctor."

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