Sedgwick County KSGenWeb

Portrait And Biographical Album of Sedgwick County, Kan.

Chapman Brothers 1888

Pages 929 - 930

FOSTER COLEMAN. This early resident of Attica Township and his excellent and amiable wife are numbered among the most highly respected and worthy residents of Sedgwick County, within whose limits they arrived in the spring of 1872, and have since resided. Our subject possesses a family history of more than ordinary interest, which we subjoin as follows:

             The Coleman family, which is of English ancestry, crossed the Atlantic and settled in Jamestown, Va., in 1609, having made the voyage in one of the seven ships which anchored in safety after a tempestuous voyage. After the lapse of three or four generations we find the descendants of this ancient family scattered over different parts of the United States, and among these was John Coleman, Sr., the grandfather of our subject, who settled near Trenton, N. J., where he lived at the commencement of the Revolutionary War. Some of his brothers settled along the Ohio River on the Kentucky side. He and three of his sons served eight years in the Revolutionary War, and one son, Charles, continued in the regular service five years thereafter. The grandmother was Catherine Coleman, and four of the sons were named Robert, John, Charles and James. It is believed there were other sons, but their names have not been preserved. There were also three daughters--Cassandra, Catherine and Joanna.

             At an early day John Coleman, Sr., with his son James and his three daughters, moved to a point southeast of Pittsburgh, Pa., leaving the other sons in New Jersey, where it is supposed they spent the remainder of their lives. James Coleman, the father of our subject, was born in Trenton, N. J., whence he removed while a young man to Pennsylvania, and was there married to Miss Amy Foster, who was born in Virginia, The wedding took place on the 25th of December, 1797, and of this union there were born ten children, namely: Andrew, Joanna, Catherine, John, Elizabeth, Hester, Margaret, Foster, James B. Finley and Charles.

             The parents after their marriage continued in Pennsylvania for several years, and until after the birth of their three eldest children. Thence they removed to Jefferson County, Ohio, where their remaining children were born. The latter place was the childhood home of our subject, Foster, and there his birth took place on the 11th of June, 1814. The name of Foster was given him in order to perpetuate the family name of his mother. When he was eight years of age the family left Jefferson County, and took up their residence in Guernsey County, where Foster Coleman was married, in October, 1834, to Miss Jane Robison. The young people commenced life together on a farm, and about two years later the father of our subject sold his farm in Ohio, and removed to Iowa, being accompanied by his family, including Foster and his young wife. Besides being a first-class farmer, James Coleman was also an expert at carpentering, by reason of which he brought about many conveniences around his homestead involving little expense, but which added greatly to the comfort of the family in their simple manner of living. James Coleman departed this life at his home in Adair County, Iowa, in 1850.

             Mrs. Jane (Robison) Coleman, the first wife of our subject, became the mother of five children, and departed this life on the 12th of October, 1843. Of the two sons and three daughters of this marriage, Joseph R., the eldest, served as a soldier in the Union army about four years, participating in some of the important battles of the war, and was at one time captured by the rebels, but subsequently exchanged. He died in New Mexico, in 1883, leaving three children. The other son, James F., also served in the army as a member of an Illinois regiment, and was wounded by a piece of shell from which he lost an eye. He died shortly after the close of the war. The other children--Amy Elizabeth, Mary Matilda and Joanna--are dead but Mary, who lives in Nebraska.

             On the 15th of August, 1845, Foster Coleman contracted a second marriage, with Miss Nancy Sullivan, who was born in Highland County, Ohio, April 2, 1811, and is the daughter of David and Christia A. (Yeakey) Sullivan, the former of whom was horn in Delaware in 1772, and was of Scotch-Irish descent. The mother, a native of Pennsylvania, was of German ancestry. Mr. Coleman carried on farming continuously from the time of starting out in life for himself, and like his father before him was remarkably handy with tools, and frequently did carpenter work in a first-class manner and without having served any apprenticeship at the business. About 1843, while still a resident of Scott County, Iowa, he lost most of his property by going security for a friend. In 1846 he repaired to Mercer County, Ill., where, in partnership with his brother-in-law, he was to put up a mill, but the latter failed of meeting his contract, so this project was abandoned.

             Mr. Coleman remained in Illinois until 1859, and next located in Cedar County, Iowa, where he farmed a year, and in the spring of 1860 removed to Leavenworth, Kan. Two years later he was driven out by Southern raiders, and going into Colorado settled on a ranch about sixty-eight miles east of Denver. Eighteen months later he sold the land which he had purchased, and bought property in Denver, where he left his family, while he went to Montana, and engaged in mining and carpentering. While there his family, becoming homesick, sold out the property in Denver, and returned to Iowa, where they were joined by our subject in 1870.

             Mr. Coleman, in 1872, came to this county and pre-empted the land which he now occupies, and which consists of 160 acres, lying adjacent to the town of Goddard in Attica Township. Upon this, it is hardly necessary to say, he has operated with most satisfactory results, building up a good home, while at the same time he has established himself in the esteem and confidence of his neighbors. Both he and his excellent wife have long been members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which they identified themselves at an early period in life, Mr. Coleman fifty-three years, and his wife fifty years ago. Our subject has officiated as Class-Leader and Steward nearly all these years, and has also occupied the office of Treasurer. In all the enterprises tending to benefit the people of his community, morally, socially or financially, he has been an earnest and cheerful worker, and while going down the sunset hill of life, he has reason to be comforted that his years and his labors have not been in vain.

             Mr. Coleman received but a limited education in his youth, but has been an extensive reader, and thus kept himself well posted upon matters of general interest. His honored father was a Whig, politically, but Foster voted with the Democrats until Buchanan's time, when he became a Republican, but now supports the Prohibitionists. Of his second marriage there were born five children, four of whom are living, namely: John Henry, Andrew Simpson, William Wallace and Francis Marion. Charles Wesley, the fourth child, died in infancy. 

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