William H. Coleman
The only male representative of the family of Bennett B. and Sarah (Shugart) Coleman. William H. Coleman has for sixty years lived in Grant county, and during the greater part of his life has been a prosperous farmer of Mill Township.
William H. Coleman was born on the old Deer Creek farm in Mill Township, Grant county, on May 4, 1854, and has never permanently resided outside of his native community. Reared in the country, and in the wholesome moral atmosphere of old Mill, he has been engaged in farming since he reached the years of maturity, and has applied to his work the same principles and industry which would have enabled him to succeed had he chosen a business in the city or a profession. In 1877 he acquired his present home on Section 32 of Mill Township, and has lived there and developed a good estate through a period of more than thirty-five years. His is one of the excellent farms of that township, and from the products of his labors he has kept himself and family in comfort and enjoyed a fair degree of success.
In Mill Township on November 29, 1877, Mr. Coleman married Miss Rachel Compton, who was born in Warren County, Ohio, on November 11, 1852, and was reared and educated in her native county. Her parents were Stephen and Susan L. (Carter) Compton. Her mother was born at Mill Grove, Warren County, Ohio in 1817, and her father in Culpeper County, Virginia, on August 22, 1801. They were married in 1844 in Warren County, Ohio, and spent the rest of their lives in that vicinity, where Stephen Compton who was a shoemaker by trade, died in 1880, and she passed away on April 2, 1868. The Comptons were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and Stephen Compton voted the Democratic ticket.
Mr. and Mrs. Coleman have the following children: Sarah M., a graduate from the Jonesboro High school with the class of 1899, lives at home and has been a constant helper and companion to her parents; Bennett B., the second child, while living at home is employed in a factory in Marion; Lawrence E. is also at home and unmarried; Lillian Bell is the wife of Professor G.A. Roush, who is an instructor in the Lehigh University of South Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, where they reside, and is also assistant secretary of the Electro Chemical Society; Howard is a graduate of the Jonesboro High School and still remains at home.
Mr. and Mrs. Coleman are members of the Presbyterian Church of Jonesboro, and their sons and daughters worship in the same faith. Mr. Coleman and his sons are stanch Republicans, and all are active embers of the Knights of Pythias order, all three sons being past Chancellors in the Jonesboro Lodge. Father and sons add a quartet of excellent citizens to Mill Township, and are among the most highly esteemed men of the community.
Submitted by: Gina Reasoner