John M Coffman

John M. Coffman, who is now acceptably discharging the duties of County Treasurer of Monroe county, serving his second term, is one of the prominent and highly esteemed residents of Albia, who receives and merits the confidence of his fellow citizens and has the high regard of many friends. He was born in the vicinity of St. Joseph, in Andrew county, Missouri, on the 7th of November, 1844, and is a son of Alfred and Sarah (Pemberton) Coffman, the former a native of Hamilton county, Illinois, born in 1823, and the latter a native of Bowling Green, Kentucky, born in the same year. Her father was Robert Pemberton, and she was an own cousin of General John L. Pemberton, of the Confederate army. Her death occurred in April, 1863, but her father is still living and now makes his home in Sacremento, California.

John M. Coffman is the eldest of a family of twenty-one children, nineteen born of his father's first marriage. Of this number five are still living. He passed his boyhood days in McDonough county, Illinois, and attended the district schools. He remained on the home farm and aided in its cultivation and improvement until reaching his majority, when he turned his attention to other pursuits. For thirty-one years he was a resident of McDonough county. In 1870 he embarked in merchandising in Blandinsville, Illinois, where he remained for ten years. He then went upon the road as a traveling salesman, being an employee of the house of S. Hamill, of Keokuk, Iowa. Later he represented the firm of J. H. Merrill & Company, of Ottumwa, Iowa, and subsequently was with the firm of Biklir, Winzer & Company, wholesale grocers, of Burlington, Iowa.